Z CHEPEWYANS. 



Mackenzie, the ' Tinne lands are conterminous with 

 the Eskimo coast, and, to the westward of the Rocky 

 Mountains, with the Kutchin grounds, though the 

 precise geographical limits of the two nations in 

 that direction have not yet been correctly ascer- 

 tained. The 'Tinne, however, extend across the 

 continent, since the Td-hdi and almost the entire 

 population of New Caledonia have been referred 

 by ethnologists to their nation. 



The name by which the 'Tinne designate them- 

 selves has, as is usual with the native Americans, 

 the signification of " people," or " the people," and 

 its proper application, when ascertained with care, 

 would seem, at first sight, to be a good test for 

 fixing the nationality of some tribes whose position 

 in the ethnological scale is still uncertain. But as 

 our acquaintance with the various American lan- 

 guages extends, and the way in which the pronun- 

 ciation of the same word in the mouths of different 

 tribes is gradually modified becomes known, doubts 

 arise as to the value of such a test, or, rather, the 

 opinion of the intimate connection between the 

 various tongues is strengthened, though it may be 

 difficult to trace their links in vocabularies com- 

 piled by Europeans. Thus, though no two lan- 

 guages can be apparently more dissimilar than the 

 harsh, guttural, unpronounceable, and unwritable 

 'Tinne speech, and the flowing, harmonious, and 



