98 ARCHEOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



A prospective consequence of a similar kind would seem to follow from the same 

 premises, unless it is presumed that the immense and continuous immigration of 

 superior races, which has succeeded to the discovery by Columbus, will keep in 

 check the operations of nature until exhalations from the soil are modified by cul- 

 ture, and other unfavorable conditions are overcome by the arts and habits of 

 civilized life. 1 



Here, then, are three distinct modes of reasoning upon the problems of American 

 archaeology; the first resting mainly upon historical intimations and superficial 

 affinities of person, habits, and arts; the second based upon philological, physiolo- 

 gical, and geological phenomena; the third dependent on a theory of climatic and 

 geographical agencies. By the first, a direct, and not very distant relationship, 

 between Asiatic and American races, is maintained; by the second, either an entire 

 separation from the rest of mankind, or a connection so remote as to be beyond the 

 limits of recorded events, has been supposed to be indicated; by the third, from 

 whatever source or sources, the population of the country has originated, it has 

 been subjected, as alleged, to physical influences here, destructive of all external 

 means of identification. 



Happily our task is to record, not to reconcile opinions. It would be as easy to 

 give unity and consistency to a picture made up of sketches taken from different 

 stand-points, under different lights, and at various degrees of perspective, as to' 

 project a congruous scheme of ethnology out of materials that writers have col- 

 lected from different points of observation, often for contrary purposes, and affected 

 by the coloring of opposite prejudices. 



Dr. Bachman's conviction that the original theory which designated the Mongols 

 and Malays as the principal sources of primitive population in America, silenced, 

 as he supposed, for a time, by the doctrines of Morton, would ultimately prove 

 correct, is fortified by the judgment of many writers of authority. 



Dr. Pickering, and Col. Smith, whose opportunities for comparison have been 

 highly favorable and extensive, both dissent from Dr. Morton's conclusions. The 

 first, while a member of the U. S. Exploring Expedition, examined the natives 

 on the American coasts in nearly every latitude, and included in his general 

 survey, nearly every variety of the human race. 2 The other claims to have per- 

 sonally compared, and drawn from life, many individuals of different tribes, from 

 Canada to the extremity of the southern continent. 3 



1 Dr. Knox does not appear disposed to admit even this possibility, but anticipates the ultimate 

 decadence of the European stock, if not the ultimate restoration of the native race, should the latter 

 escape annihilation in the mean time. He holds that the probable result is exemplified by the condition 

 of the Spanish American provinces, where, since immigration from the parent country has ceased, the 

 Spanish race has progressively decliued, while the descendants of the original inhabitants are gaining 

 in numbers, so that in another century, unless both are destroyed by the Anglo-Saxon, their blood will 

 predominate, and the Castilian be all but extinct. A permanent amalgamation of races, even of those 

 most nearly allied, and the permanent duration of any race in an uncongenial climate, he regards as 

 ecpaally impossible. 



s The Races of Men, and their Geographical Distribution. By Charles Pickering, M. D. 1848. 



3 The Nat. Hist, of the Human Species. By Lieut.-Col. Charles Hamilton Smith, K. H. 1848. 



