On the Languages of the Oregon Territory. 165 



portant In the determination of cUjferences, and comparing 

 the sixteen Oregon vocabularies of Mr Tolmie with each other, 

 we may satisfy ourselves as to the radical unity of the group. 

 To these lists, and to the accompanying paper of Dr Scouler, 

 reference is accordingly made. The value of these groups 

 (the Athabascan and the Nootka-Columbian) is a different 

 and a more difficult question. The maxhnuni difference be- 

 tween any two known languages of the Athabascan group is 

 that between English and German. The maxbnum difference 

 between the most unlike languages of the Nootka-Columbian 

 group is that between the modern Greek and Portuguese, i. e. 

 the most distant tongues of the classical stock of the Indo- 

 European tribe. Hence, the terms in question are equivalent 

 to the more familiar terms, Gothic, Celtic, Slavonic, &c. All 

 this, however, is illustration, rather than absolute arrange- 

 ment ; yet it serves to give definitude to the current opinions 

 upon the subject. 



To the current views, however, the writer takes exception. 

 He considers that the groups in question have too high a 

 value ; and that they are only equivalent to the primary sub- 

 divisions of stocks like the Gothic, Celtic, and Classical, rather 

 than to the stocks themselves. Still less can they have a 

 higher and more exaggerated value, and be dealt with as 

 equivalent to groups like the Indo-European. 



Hence, the differences between the Athabascan languages 

 of the Oregon and the Nootka-Columbian languages of the 

 Oregon, are the differences between the Latin and Greek, 

 the Welsh and Gaelic, the German and Icelandic, rather 

 than those between the German and Russian, the Latin and 

 Persian, the Greek and Lithuanic, &c. 



In determining the higher and more comprehensive class, 

 we must take in a third group of languages. These are those 

 of Russian America. They have generally been referred to 

 two groups of uncertain value, viz. the Kolooch and the 

 Eskimo ; the former, for the part about Sitca, or Norfolk 

 Sound, the latter for the parts about the Island of Cadiack, 

 and the Peninsula of Aliaska. 



Now, the Athabascan languages are undoubtedly Eskimo ; 

 a fact stated by the writer, at the meeting of the British As- 



