532 MIGRATION AND THE FOOD QUEST. 



circles of tlie earth as the shortest distance between two points. The 

 Canadian Pacific steamers sliirt the Aleutian chain on the way to Vic- 

 toria from Yokohama. A great circle of the earth between the Straits 

 of Malacca and the Columbia's mouth i^asses through every one of the 

 shallow food-stocked areas named, and, continuing onward, is in touch 

 with the buffalo feeding grounds at the sources of the great rivers, with 

 the pueblo region, Mexico and Central America, and the highlands of 

 Peru and Ecuador. The Aztecs, Mayas, Chibchas, and Kechuas were 

 the antipodes of the ancient inhabitants of the Malay Archipelago. 



2. 3Io(h'S of conrei/ance. — As for the ships, it will be admitted that 

 the aborigines of this continent Avere jjossessed of every form of boat 

 known in the Eastern Continent except the outrigger canoe — kaiak, 

 umiak, pirogue, bark canoe, coracle, skin float, raft, and reed float. They 

 Avere singuhirly poor in appliances for land travel south of the dog and 

 snow line; indeed, they kept to the waters closely. By a system of 

 portages they had connected the Arctic Ocean and the Columbia's 

 mouth with the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. On our great circle, 

 in areas 14 and 15 on the map, the American camel assumes the role of 

 burden bearer. 



Upon the Asiatic side the aborigines have been greatly disturbed by 

 Kussians, Japanese, and Chinese; but in the Malay Peninsula are 

 craft as varied and as effectual, and the lines of the vessels are strik- 

 ingly like to those of our western coast; and the natives now journey 

 from Jjering Straits southward to Japan by dogs and on snowshoes. 



3. Mariners and native travelers. — When Europeans visited the Indian 

 Ocean and the Pacific these waters were covered with hardy navigators. 

 I am even tempted to suggest that the turning aside of a stream of pre- 

 Malays, who were the Phcenicians of the Orient, by the Mongoloid intru- 

 sion from inland may have led to the peopling of the archij)elagoes of the 

 Pacific after America was fairly settled and a northward migration was 

 interrupted. 



4. Water and land routes. — All the way from the Straits Settlements 

 to Vancouver, as will be seen by the Chalh-nger map and the British 

 Admiralty charts, we have shallow water. There is a broad bench con- 

 stituting the marine feeding ground, where the series of outlying islands 

 and archipelagoes fence in the neritic areas. The conditions are perfect. 

 Aiul inland, where navigation is the least x>erilous, food becomes the 

 more abundant. 



5. Nature of environment. — Each one of these environments is within 

 the capabilities of savages. The landmarks were their light-houses; 

 the inlets were their harbors innumerable; the grass and the color of 

 the water were their barometers j the mammals, fishes, and birds were 

 their pilots. They were scarcely subjected to the terrors and dangers 

 of the fathomless sea.^ 



'For the laud journey from Japau to Bering Strait consult Reindeer, Dogs, and 

 Snowshoes, by Richard J. Bush, N. Y., 1871. 



