144 HUNTING AND FISHING EACES 



lives — but in it very few infants are produced. Families on an 

 average contain three children . . . and ten is the greatest number 

 I have seen.' In Alaska ' the females of the coast tribes are not 

 fruitful, and to see four children of one mother is quite a rare 

 occurrence, one or two being the common number of children to 

 a family '.^ The evidence of Sproat for the Ahts and of Bancroft 

 for the Nootkas and the Chinooks has already been quoted. - 

 Among the Omahas ' the usual number of children may be stated 

 at from four to six in a family '.* Of the Sound Indians Bancroft 

 states that ' the women are not prolific, three or four being 

 ordinarily the hmit of their offspring '.^ The woman of the interior 

 of the Pacific Coast ' is not prohfic ',^ and the number in a Chepe- 

 wayan family is on the average four.^ In California ' barrenness 

 was not infrequent, twins very uncommon, and the general 

 average of families did not exceed two children 'J Of the same 

 people Baegert states that ' it is certain that many of their women 

 are barren and that a great number of them bear not more than 

 one child '.^ Of the Comanches we read : ' they are not a prohfic 

 race ; indeed it is but seldom that a woman has more than three or 

 four children.' ^ Among the Puelches of South America ' children 

 are not nearly so numerous as might be imagined ' ; this is due in 

 part, however, according to the author, to infanticide.^^ According 

 to Bridges, in Tierra del Fuego ' few women have more than six 

 children owing to the great length of time between the several 

 births '.^1 Of the same people, Hyades and Deniker record their 

 opinion that four is the average number of children to a married 

 woman.i^ They add that in spite of early marriage very few young 

 couples of eighteen to twenty j^ears of age had any children, 

 although sterility was rare.^^ 



Of the other races which belong to this group the evidence points 

 to a similar conclusion.^* jyjj^Q thinks that three or four is an 

 average number of children in an Andamanese family, and six is 



' Petroff, ' Report of the Population of Alaska ', lOlh Census of the U.S.A., p. 127. 

 - p. 99. ^ S. H. Long, loc. cit., p. 19. See also Dorsey, 3rd A. R. B. E., p. 264. 



* Bancroft, loc. cit., vol. i, p. 218. ^ Ibid., p. 156. * Keating, 



Narrative, p. 156. ' Schoolcraft, loc. cit., vol. iii, p. 211. " Baegert, 



A. R. B. E.. 1863, p. 368. » Bancroft, loc. cit., vol. i, p. 513. i" Guin- 



nard, loc. cit., p. 143. " Bridges, A Voice from South America, vol. xiii, p. 202. 



»- Hyades and Deniker, loc. cit., vol. vii, p. 189. " Ibid., p. 188. 



" It may be observed that according to Keane the Botocudos form an exception. 

 ' Families ', he says, ' are said to be comparatively large, four or five children being 

 common enough ' (./. A. I., vol. xiii). This is, however, contradicted by von 

 Tschudi, Reisen durch SMamerika, vol. ii, p. 284. 



