282 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



But the successes of so many ages at length appear to 

 have blunted the restless characters of the Mongolic 

 stock, and their habits became stationary. Pastoral 

 nations, though often conquerors, ever finish by reced- 

 ing before the steady progress of energetic cultivators. 

 It is exemplified in this case by the gradual reaction, 

 which sends the Caucasian eastward to recover the 

 debateable ground. After 1800 years of conflict, he 

 has already regained a great portion of the original 

 seat of the Hyperborean type. 



Russia has subdued several nations who have little 

 or no history; among others, some of real Mongolic 

 descent, and the Sogha or Yakutsk, of all men the 

 most hardy, together with the lofty Tschutski, of pre- 

 tended American origin, but neither appearing to be 

 true Mongols. An important consideration affects 

 the condition of these arctic nations of Asia ; namely, 

 the fast decrease of the rein deer, both domestic and 

 wild, threatening, at no distant period, to reduce the 

 already miserable existence of the people to starva- 

 tion, where no migration towards the south can offer 

 to improve their lot. The cause of this privation of 

 almost the only source of comfort, in those dreary re- 

 gions, is not yet fully explained, although several 

 tribes are already totally destitute of their domestic 

 flocks. It may be here, as in North America, that some 

 law in nature is operating, in combination with the 

 progress of civilized nations, to change the character 

 of the high north, and leave it a desert, with scarcely 

 a human tribe able to subsist on it ; indeed, the only 



