2G6 PRESENT STATE OF ETHNOLOGY 



given by Blumenbach and Sandifort, and even by those of Morton 

 himself. It is evident that this latter accomplished naturalist has 

 allowed himself to be more guided by opinions already formed than 

 by a scrupulous examination of facts. He saw that the form of the 

 Esquimaux visage has something of the Mongol, and paid no attention 

 to the salient occipital protuberance and other characters so little like 

 the Mongol. I have already adverted to the great resemblance in 

 form which exists between the Esquimaux skull and that of the 

 Tongousian which we have at the Carolinska Institute, and to the 

 description which Blumenbach has given of a Tougousian skull, which 

 coincides entirely with the characters of the Esquimaux. In the 

 large collection of Chinese skulls in our Institute I trace a striking 

 resemblance in form with those of both the Tongousians and the Green- 

 landers. The inference would be that the Esquimaux is a polar race 

 only in America; that it is thinly scattered over the islands of the 

 polar sea., the most northern regions of America, and thence, passing 

 from east to west, through Asia towards China, where we might 

 identify it with the pure Chinese part of the population, but little 

 distinguishable in appearance from the Tartaro- Chinese portion. 



With regard to the other primitive dolichocephahe of America, I 

 entertain an hypothesis still more bold perhaps, namely, that they 

 are nearly related to the Guanches in the Canary islands, and to the 

 Atlantic populations of Africa, the Moors, Tuaricks, Copts, &c, 

 which Latham comprises under the name of Egyptian-Atlantidse. 



This is not the first time that, in speaking of our collection of skulls, 

 I have called attention to the resemblance of those of Guanches and 

 Copts on the one side, and the Guaranis of Brazil on the other. 

 Above I have shown that the latter are related to the race of the 

 ancient Caribs of the Antilles. We find, then, one and the same form 

 of skull in the Canary islands, in front of the African coast, and in 

 the Carib islands on the opposite coast which faces Africa. The 

 color of the skin on both sides of the Atlantic is represented in all 

 these populations as being of a reddish brown, resembling somewhat 

 leather tanned brown; the hair the same; the features of the face 

 and build of the frame, as I am led to believe, presenting the same 

 analogy. 



These facts involuntarily recall the tradition which Plato tells us in 

 his Timeus was communicated to Solon by an Egyptian priest, re- 

 specting the ancient Atlantis, situated in the ocean in front of North 

 Africa, and afterwards engulfed through some great change in the 

 distribution of land and water. Though embracing many particulars 

 of pure invention, Avould it be unreasonable to claim that, coming as 

 it does from a quarter to which common consent refers the origin of 

 our sciences and arts, this tradition deserves attention in connexion 

 with facts which seem to point in the same direction?* A Swedish 



* We leave to philologists the task of showing how little probahle it is that tin; Indians, 

 ■whose languages are poiysynthetic, should be related to the Semites, whose linguistic sys- 

 tem is based on dissyllabic roots. But with regard to the tradition of the Atlantis, we 

 must remark tbat the submersion of a large continent situated so near the tropics, would 

 have had the effect of a considerable refrigeration of the northern hemisphere, pro- 



