214 Distinctive Characteristics of the 



the evidence already adduced in respect to the ethnographic 

 difference between these people, we have a right to infer that 

 the resemblance in their respective languages has not been 

 derived by the greater from the lesser source, — not by the 

 Americans from the Eskimaux, but the reverse : for the Asiat- 

 ics having arrived at various and distant periods^ and in small 

 parties, would naturally, if not unavoidably, adopt more or less 

 of the language of the people among whom they settled, until 

 their own dialects finally merged in those of the Chepewyan 

 and other Indians who bound them on the south. 



The Eskimaux, it may be remarked, at the present time 

 extend much further south, and are much more numerous on 

 the western than on the eastern coast of America, being found 

 as low down as Mount St. Elias : south of which, contrary to 

 what is observed on the opposite side of the continent, they 

 become more or less blended with the Indian tribes, and have 

 imparted to the latter some portion of their mechanical inge- 

 nuity. This difference in the extent and influence of the 

 western and eastern Eskimaux, is explained by the proximity 

 of the former to Asia ; and a redundant population has even 

 forced some of them back to the parent hive, whither they 

 have carried a dialect derived, from the cognate tribes of Amer- 

 ica. Such are the Tsutchchi, who thus form a link between 

 the Polar nations of the two continents. 



It is a common opinion, also, that America has been peo- 

 pled by the proper Mongols of central and eastern Asia ; and 

 volumes have been written on supposed affinities, physical, 

 moral and intellectual, to sustain this hypothesis. We have 

 already glanced at the Mongolian features, as seen, though 

 rudely and extravagantly developed, in the Polar nations ; but 

 there are some characters so prevalent as to pervade all the 

 ramifications of the great Mongolian stock, from the repulsive 

 Calmuck to the polished and more delicately featured Chi- 

 nese. These are the small, depressed, and seemingly broken 

 nose ; the oblique position of the eye, which is drawn up at 

 the external angle ; the great width between the cheek bones, 

 which are not only high but expanded laterally ; the arched 

 and linear eyebrow ; and lastly, the complexion, which is 



