CONCLUSION. 147 



boldt speaks of "several tribes of a whitish complexion" in the forests of Guiana. 1 

 Legendary references to bearded men, with a white skin, arriving from the sea, 

 are common to both the northern and the southern continents. Diversities of 

 color and of physical conformation, and traces of foreign influence supposed to be 

 detected in arts, customs, language, religion, and astronomical science, too numerous 

 to mention, are often cited in proof of intercourse with inhabitants of the other 

 hemisphere before the arrival of Columbus. 



But all these evidences fall short of sustaining the probability of intentional 

 colonization. They do not even suggest the arrival of men in any considerable 

 numbers, or by other than accidental means. They imply the previous presence 

 in the country of a native population, in whose language, arts, and physical attri- 

 butes, all foreign traits have been merged almost to extinction. However frequent 

 foreign accessions may have been, they have not had power to affect materially the 

 structural uniformity of speech and physical conformation, and the homogeneous 

 mental type, of the aboriginal inhabitants. 



It may be inferred, from observations upon the land, as well as from the pheno- 

 mena of the sea, that the casual voyagers who, in ancient times, have crossed the 

 breadth of either ocean to our shores, were in small and feeble parties, last 

 survivors of tempest and famine, and without women to perpetuate their race. 

 They appear to have brought no agricultural productions from their native regions, 

 and to have taught none of the useful arts of civilized industry. According to the 

 laws that determine the transmission of hereditary qualities in the crossing of 

 breeds, all traces of foreign ancestry might, under these circumstances, disappear 

 in a few generations. 



Tbese remarks are applicable to arrivals that may be supposed to have 

 taken place from the western shores of the eastern hemisphere, and across the 

 middle and southern latitudes of the Pacific; but in the northern regions, where 

 the two continents are brought almost into contact, there are other circumstances 

 to be considered. 



The practicability of voluntary passages to America, at an early period, by way 

 of Iceland and Greenland, has been demonstrated by the Northmen; but we are 

 unable to produce any well-established facts going to show that this practicability 

 has ever been followed by results affecting the population of the country. We are, 

 indeed, justified by the present aspect of the question in assuming that tbe Scandi- 

 navians have left no marks of residence, linguistic, physical, or monumental, to 

 prove that they have, primarily or secondarily, been important contributors to the 

 peopling of the New World. 



The probability of permanent settlements from the Pacific side of the eastern 

 hemisphere, near Behring's Strait, has the support of more positive indications. 



The Aleutian Islands, about fifteen degrees south of the Strait, appearing on the 

 map like stepping-stones from one continent to the other, are admirably adapted 

 to facilitate communication between the two countries. The diminished space to 

 be traversed, the protective proximity of the islands, a climate mild for tbe latitude, 



1 Political Essay, I. 144. 



