1678 THE STORY OF THE UNIVERSE 



in widely different measure in the case of the nu- 

 merous native tribes and nations that are found 

 through the whole wide extent of the American con- 

 tinent, though all of them (with the exception of 

 the Eskimos) are classed under the common term 

 Indian. The native races of South America are gen- 

 erally further removed than those of North America 

 from the higher type of the American family, and 

 they become progressively more degraded toward its 

 furthest extremity. Some of the Indian tribes who 

 dwell in the Brazilian forest exhibit a degree of 

 personal ugliness, and a degradation of condition in 

 general, which contrasts strikingly with that of the 

 higher classes of North American Indians, and the 

 native savages of Tierra del Fuego are among the 

 most misshapen and degraded of the human race. 

 In these and some other cases the distortion of fea- 

 ture, and even that observable in the shape of the 

 head, is produced by artificial means, applied in 

 infancy. 



The Indian family of nations makes, perhaps, 

 nearer approach to the Mongol than to either of the 

 other two great divisions of mankind, and must be 

 regarded as a sub-variety of that family, if three 

 great varieties only be allowed. The Eskimos, 

 who inhabit the extreme northern shores of the 

 New World, are uniformly regarded as of Mongol 

 origin. 



