16 AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY. 



considerable degree of maritime skill on the part of those nations, and the proba- 

 bility of more extended voyages by chance or design. 



It is difficult to say anything on a subject like this without saying either too 

 much or too little. It seemed desirable to present a view of the influences under 

 which the investigation of ancient remains in the United States began, and which 

 have continued to affect its progress; but, unless restrained within the limits 

 of a special and well-defined purpose, the theme would expand beyond the com- 

 pass of a preliminary chapter, and demand a volume for its proper consideration. 

 Too little is, on the whole, better than too much for the object intended. Few 

 persons have undertaken to treat of American antiquities without being seduced 

 into speculations upon their origin founded upon analogies which appeared to them 

 evidences of connection with some nation or race of the eastern continent ; yet 

 nothing is more deceptive than are such superficial resemblances. Proof of this 

 may be seen in the fact that all the learned discussions that have taken place, and 

 all the ingenious theories of this nature that have been suggested, have left the 

 questions in their original perplexity; at least have made no advances towards 

 their solution that are satisfactory to the public mind. In most cases, analogies of 

 customs, of arts, and of terms in language, if they prove anything, prove more than 

 can possibly be admitted, as* researches into that field of inquiry abundantly show. 

 If trusted implicitly, there is hardly a people on the globe that may not be sup- 

 posed to have left traces of occupancy or communication in some section of our 

 continent. Whether an examination of the physical characteristics of the native 

 tribes, and the grammatical structure of their dialects, to which scientific men have 

 turned with the hope of detecting reliable tokens of national lineage, has been 

 productive of more certain conclusions, succeeding inquiries may disclose. 1 



1 Morton, in "Crania Americana;" Morton's " Inquiry into the Distinctive Characteristics of the 

 Aboriginal Race of America;" "The Physical Type of the American Indians," in Schoolcraft's 

 large work ; the " Mithridates" of Adelung, Vater, &c. ; Vater's " Untersuchungen iiber America's 

 Bevolkerung ;" Duponceau and Heckewelder, in "Trans, of the Historical and Literary Committee of 

 the Am. Phil. Society ;" Duponceau, in " Memoire sur les Langues de L'Am£rique du Nord ;" Gal- 

 latin, in "Trans, of the Am. Antiquarian Society," and "Trans, of the Am. Ethnological Society;" 

 "Types of Mankind," by Messrs. Nott and Gliddon ; &c. &c. 



