378 ETHNOLOGY. 



cliapter ii to be strictly palaeolithic iu their character and age, in order 

 to prove that the aborigines came from another continent, it must be 

 shown that snch a paleolithic people were possessed of canoes which 

 would stand the hap-hazard rudderless journeys that Sir Charles Lyell 

 has described as one great means whereby distant islands and continents 

 have been populated.* 



Sir Charles Lyell remarks :t " Were the whole of mankind now cut off, 

 with the exception of one family, inhabiting the old or new continent, 

 or Australia, or even some coral isle of the Pacific, we might expect 

 their descendants, though they should never become more enlightened 

 than the Australians, the South Sea islanders, or the Esquimaux, to spread 

 in the course of ages over the whole earth, diffused partly by the ten- 

 dency of j)opulation to increase, in a limited district, beyond the means 

 of subsistence, and partly by the accidental drifting of canoes by tides 

 and currents to distant shores ; " but it is impossible to determine the 

 range of capabilities of paleolithic people, even iu the matter of migra- 

 tions; and estimating a people's capabilities by a study of their -'rude 

 implements," we are of the opinion that an overland journey from the 

 southern continent or Central America was more probable than a 

 canoe voyage from any of the islands of the Atlantic or Pacific. If we 

 heed the traditions of the aborigines, that they came from another coun- 

 try, then they sailed over some i)ortion of the Pacific and not the Atlan- 

 tic, all the various tribes having traditions of coming from the west; but 

 it would be well to remember that these traditions refer also to some 

 preceding or pre-occupying people whom the incoming race conquered. 

 If the Delaware Indians, who two centuries ago were in peaceful pos- 

 session of New Jersey, really came from the west, and on arriving en- 

 countered another people and drove them off, all of which their tradi- 

 tions claim, the question arises, who were their predecessors? Were 

 they a more primitive people than the red Indian, and the fasliioners 

 of the old, rude implements ? Were they the paleolithic folk of the Dela- 

 ware Valley, and the red Indians the neolithic people? 



While we cannot but accept the suggestions of Professor Huxley, as 

 expressed in our introductory chapter, in preference to the exotic origin 

 of our red Indians asserted by Sir Charles Lyell, we are nevertheless 

 compelled to return to the point from which we started, and admit that 

 the origin of the aborigines is still enveloped in what has iiroved an 

 impenetrable mist; but now that so much attention is being paid 

 throughout the world to anthropological science, it is almost safe to 

 predict that the origin of the red Indian and his i^rehistoric history will 

 yet be correctly outlined. 



Sir John Lubbock has given excellent reasons for his belief in the 

 indigenous origin of the Mexican civilization. He remarks : " Take the 

 case of the Mexicans. Even if we suppose that they were descended 



* See February and June numbers of American Naturalist for additional remarks oh 

 tbis subject, based upon further discoveries of aboriginal relics. 

 tPrincii)les of Geology, 11th ed., vol. ii, p. 474, Amer. ed. 



