164 Dr Morton on the Distinctive Characteristics of the 
Without attempting to enter the fathomless depths of 
philology, I am bound to advert to the opinion of Mr Gal- 
latin, that all the nations from Cape Horn to the Arctic 
Ocean, have languages which possess “a distinct character 
common to all, and apparently differing from those of the 
other continent with which we are acquainted ;” an analogy, 
moreover, which is not of an indefinite kind, but consists, 
for the most part, in peculiar conjugational modes of modi- 
fying the verbs by the insertion of syllables. It has been 
insisted by some writers that this analogy proves the cog- 
nate relation of the Esquimaux and Indians. This, however, 
is a mere postulate ; for, from the evidence already adduced 
in respect to the ethnographic difference between these 
people, we have a right to infer that the resemblance in 
their respective languages has not been derived by the 
greater from the lesser source,—not by the Americans 
from the Esquimaux, but the reverse: for the Asiatics hay- 
ing arrived at various and distant periods, and in small par- 
ties, would naturally, if not unavoidably, adopt more or 
less of the language of the people among whom they set- 
tled, until their own dialects finally merged in those of the 
Chepewyan and other Indians who bound them on the 
south. 
The Esquimaux, it may be remarked, at the present time 
extend much further south, and are much more numerous on 
the western than on the eastern coast of America, being 
found as low down as Mount St Elias ; south of which, con- 
trary to what is observed on the opposite side of the conti- 
nent, they become more or less blended with the Indian tribes, 
and have imparted to the latter some portion of their me- 
chanical ingenuity. This difference in the extent and in- 
fluence of the western and eastern Esquimaux, is explained by 
the proximity of the former to Asia; and a redundant popu- 
lation has even forced some of them back to the parent hive, 
whither they have carried a dialect derived from the cog- 
nate tribes of America. Such are the Tsutchchi, who thus 
form a link between the Polar nations of the two conti- 
nents. 
It is a common opinion, also, that America has been peopled 
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