28 THE LIFE OF E. J. PECK 



But this, of course, proves nothing as to their 

 place of origin. Those who hold the view that the 

 American continent was the first home of the Eski- 

 mos believe that they must have been a tribe of 

 fishing Indians who formerly lived on the banks 

 of the rivers which flow into the Arctic Ocean, and 

 that they were gradually driven northwards by the 

 pressure of the Southern tribes. 



It is also said that their language bears some 

 affinity to the Indian languages on the ground that 

 it, like them, is agglutinative in character. But 

 this, as Professor Boyd Dawkins says, is not suffi- 

 cient proof to establish relationship. And the 

 Rev. E. J. Peck writes : " I have had unusual 

 facilities for comparing the language of the Eski- 

 mos with those of various Indian tribes at least, 

 with those of the Indians living on the shores of 

 Hudson's Bay and Ungava Bay and there is no 

 possibility of believing that these were originally 

 an Indian tribe, who might have been driven north 

 by war or other causes." 



Dr. Rink, who is a high authority, believes that 

 many Eskimo weapons and implements are of 

 American origin, and that this fact can form the 

 foundation of a weighty argument. But we are 

 hardly on firm ground here. 



There is one weapon, indeed, which is very re- 

 markable, and if any argument for relationship 

 might be based upon the possession of it, would 



