CANADA, A TYPICAL RACE OF AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 57 



form is not only characteristic of the Huron-Iroqiiois stock ; but it is prevalent in others 

 of the northern tribes. Eecognizing a correspondence, in this and other respects, between 

 the Alg-onkins and Irocpiois, who long divided between them the area of Upper and Lower 

 Canada and the adjacent western territory, Dr. Latham remarks : " The Iroquois and 

 Algonkins exhibit in the most typical form the characteristics of the North American 

 Indians as exhibited in the earliest descriptions, and are the two families upon which 

 the current notions respecting the physiognomy, habits, and moral and intellectual jDowcrs 

 of the so-called Red Race are chiefly founded." Of the former, Mr. Parkman, who has 

 studied their later history with the minutest care, says : " In this remarkable family of 

 tribes occur the fullest developments of Indian character, and the most conspicuoiis 

 examples of Indian intelligence. If the higher traits popularly ascribed to the race are 

 not to be found here, they are to be found nowhere." ' 



The Iroquois were an important branch of the great stock which included also the 

 Hurons, or Wyandots, the native historical race of Canada. But divided as the two were 

 throiighout the whole period of French Canadian history by the bitterest antagonism, it is 

 convenient to speak of them under the compound term of Huron-Iroquois ; and to the 

 special history of this indigenous stock, with the more general suggestions prompted by 

 their peculiar characteristics as a typical race of American aborigines, attention is here 

 chiefly directed. In doing so it is desirable not only to note the physical geography of the 

 country which they occupied, as a region of forest and lakes ; but, still more, to keep in 

 view this fact as a predominant characteristic of the continent, and as one important factor 

 in the evolution of whatever may seem to be peculiar in the aborigines of North America. 



The eifects resulting from the physical features of a country, on the development and 

 aggregation, or interblending, of its races can nowhere be wisely overlooked. Even with- 

 in the narrow limits of the British Islands the influences of mountain and lowlands, of 

 the fertile stretches of Kent and the valley of the Thames, the fens of Lincolnshire, the 

 moorlands of Northumbria, and the Welsh and Scottish Highlands, have largely contributed 

 to the endurance, if not in some degree to the development, of ethnical distinctions ; as 

 they have undoubtedly been the chief source, not only of the iierpetuation, but of the 

 multiplication of diversities in language. 



In this respect Britain is an epitome of Europe, with its great mountain ranges, and 

 detached peninsulas, by means of which races have been isolated within well-defined 

 areas, and their languages and other distinctive pecu.liarities preserved. Russia alone, of 

 all European countries, j^rcsents analogies to Central Asia as a region favourable to 

 nomadic life; and in so far as its history differs from that of the continent at large, it 

 accords with such physical conditions. Throughout the whole historic jjeriod, as doubt- 

 less in prehistoric times, the great chain of mountains reaching from the western, spur 

 of the Pyrenees to the Balkans has influenced European progresg ; while the chief navi- 

 gable river, the Danube, traversing the continent through one uniform temperate zone, 

 has tended still further lo the perpetuation of certain distinctive ethnical characteristics in 

 central and southern Europe. In all its most iniportant geographical features, the 



' The Jesuits in North America, p. 43. 



Sec. II., 1884. 8. 



