396 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1940 



from which it can be derived. Tliis Yuma-like spearhead at Fair- 

 banks should encourage us to search for the complex farther north and 

 west, right into Asia itself. 



The Fairbanks discoveries are intriguing from another standpoint. 

 They appear to disclose one of the stations on man's journey from the 

 Old to the New World, thereby enabling us to map out his route. 

 Many Eskimo have journeyed from Bering Strait round the Arctic 

 coast of Alaska to the Mackenzie River Delta, following a route that 

 was probably open in early postglacial times also. It may, indeed, 

 have been easier at that period than today, for the climate was per- 

 haps milder and the Mackenzie Delta not quite so far north. The dis- 

 coveries at Fairbanks seem to indicate, however, that some at least 

 of the early migrants passed up the Yukon Valley, crossed to the 

 eastern side of the Rockies (probably over the low divide at the head- 

 waters of the Liard River) , and traveled down the eastern foothills 

 of the mountains into the United States. Some of the later migrants 

 may have traveled down the western side of the Rockies also, but in 

 early postglacial times this route was probably blocked by ice. 



