Till". \I)\KNT Ol' TklAN 1\ AMKK'irA. .MO 



stret'.'lies from one contiiKMif to the otiM'i-; iuid we know that tlu- jx)]) 

 Illation of the two opixtsiuy- slioics tal^c a(l>aiit{i.uc ol" it to maintain 

 communications with each otlicr. 



Whenever one of tliose lii'eut social a,uitatioiisof Asianiach; its M.ives 

 felt in distant countries: whenever revolutions, political or social, over- 

 wliclmed tliem. is it not evid(nit that tlu^ fuijitives or the var)([uishecl 

 Avould often liave taken this route, of the existence of which they were 

 aAvare f To reject the idea of such mi j^rat ions over the frozen seas, it 

 would be necesr.ary to su])i>ose tluit since the commencement of the 

 Quarternai y ])('rrod all neighboring reii'ions liaNc enjoyed a i)erpetual 

 peace; but we all know that such apeace is n(»t of this Avorld. This sea 

 may not have been the only route foUowM'd by American immigrations. 



The chain formed by the .Vleutian islan<ls, and Alaska iurther to the 

 soutii, opened a secoiul route to tribes which possessed a little skill in 

 iiaviiiation. The Aleuts occupy in I'rof. DalTs ethnologica] chart the 

 whole extremity of the peninsula. 



By these ways, what we might call the normal j>eopliug' of America 

 may have taken place. But bathed on .either side by a great ocean, 

 this continent could not fail to protit by the hazards of navig'ation, and 

 we can recognize more and more how it may have been done. It may 

 now be said, that with Europe and Africa on one side, and Asia and 

 Oceania on the other, these have sent t<» America a number of in^'ol- 

 untary colonics more considerable perhai)s than might be supposed. 



Immigrations in America as well as in Europe have been intermittent, 

 and separated sometimes by centuries. America has been peopled as if 

 by a great human river, which, rising in Asia, lias traversed the conti- 

 nent from north to south, receiving along its course a few small tribu- 

 taries. This river resembles the torrent streams of which there exist 

 exain])les in France. Usually, and sometimes tor years at a time, their 

 bed is nearly dry. Then a. great storm comes and a licpiid avalanche 

 descends from the mountains where their souiccs rise, covers and rav^ 

 ages the i)lain, turning over the ancient alluviums, disturbing and ming- 

 ling the old and new material, carrying' farther each time the debris 

 eroded on its passage. Such has been the career of our ethnological river. 

 Its Hoods moreover have often been diverted to the right or left, and 

 it has ojiened new channels. It has also had its eddies ; but its general 

 direction has not (dianged, and we can trace it down to the present. 



One of the most agreeable tasks for the students of American pre- 

 historic anthropology will be to retrace this river up to its source; to 

 determine the succession of its floods; to distinguish the origin and 

 nature of the elements which it has swept down; to follow those ele- 

 ments from stage to stage, and to thus recover the route each one of 

 them has taken to the point of its arrival; in other words, to write the 

 history of these migrations of the different people of America. The 

 accomplishmcMit of this task, as has already been said, is indeed much 

 more diflicult in America than in Polynesia. Those who undertake it 



