320 QUARTERLY JOURNAL 



ETHIVOIiOOY. 



Dr. G. R. Latham, on the ethnography of the American languages. 

 He opened by explaining liie extent of the Esquinnaux tongues, 

 by pointing out tiie character of their locaHty as being one that we 

 should naturally expect to find transitional to the Fo language of 

 America and Asia : he stated, however, that tiiey had been cut off 

 on both sides by broad lines of separation. Tliese lines he consi- 

 dered exaggerated. Between them and the Athabascan, between 

 the Athabascan and Cooloch, between the (>ooloch and Oregon, be- 

 tween the Oregon and Californian, he could draw no definite lines. 

 The Californian passed into the Mexican, the Mexican into those of 

 South America. On the other hand, the Curile, Corean and Japan- 

 ese tongues were akin to the Esquimaux, and so were the Siberian. 

 He was satisfied that the commonplace view was the true one ; viz, 

 that the Esquimaux languages connected the old and new worlds. 

 He further added that the glossorial affinities of the Polysynthetic 

 tongues were as real as their grammatical analogies. The American 

 Minister (Mr. Everett) remarked that ihe divisions of Dr. Latham 

 did not agree with those recognized by American scholars. He ob- 

 served that the languages of the United States were classed in eight 

 divisions ; that between these there was certainly a general affinity, 

 such as between the more distant languages of the old world ; that 

 the difference between the American tongues was not so great as 

 to make against the general unity of the human race ; but that still 

 it was so great as to render the processes by which the alliances 

 were shown between them, convertible towards showing alliances 

 between any other languages whatever. He did not see in what 

 sense Dr. Latham gave the word affinitij, and desired to see the 

 details by which eight isolated classes were run into each other, and 

 the particular facts by which the current divisions were broken 

 down. The contrast between the grammatical analogy and the 

 glossorial differences of the American tongues was generally re- 

 cognized. 



CiE:OI..OC}T'. 



Remarks of the Dean of Westminster, suggested by a lecture of 

 Mr. MuRCHisoN on the geology of Russia. 

 The Dean said, that it was not for him to eulogise the scientific 

 merits of the address they had just heard. He might, however, be 

 permitted to say, that it appeared to him that Mr. Murchison had, 

 like a soi-disant old soldier, taken a rapid military glance over the 

 wide extent of country, and caught, with singular felicity, its great 

 and leading features ; but in another view, all this was no military 

 achievement. He had not, with purposes it might be hostile, sur- 

 veyed that distant land, to discover its weak places for assault, to 



