JuLV 2, 1900.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



151 



If we except tlie Eskimo of Aixtic America and 

 Greenland, and in a less degree the natives of Tiorra 

 del Fuego. the most remarkable fact connected with 

 American Indians, when considered from a zoological 

 standpoint, is that they all belong to the same general 

 type of structure, still iu niiuor details many of the 

 tribes from widely separated areas will be found to 

 diflfer from one another to a considerable extent. No 

 more sti'ikiiig instance of this fact is to be found than 

 the extraordinary similarity existing between skulls 

 obtained from regions so fai- apart from one another as 

 Vancouver Island, Peru, and Pat;igonia — a similarity 

 so great that it is often practically impossible to dis- 

 tinguish between them. 



In spite of this adherence to one general physical 

 type, the racial unitv of the American Indians has been 

 called in question by several writers ; and it hag even 

 been suggested that many of the tribes, and especially 

 those of South America, owe their peculiarities to immi- 

 gration from Japan, China, Polynesia, or elsewhere. 

 But it may be taken for granted that no immigration 

 on a large scale could ever have taken place by sea 

 from either of these areas to America ; and if one, or 

 even two or three junks or canoes were from time to 

 time drifted to the shores of the New World it is quite 

 certain that any modifications in the coast population 

 of the latter due to marriage with the shipwrecked 

 crews would be obliterated within a vei-y short period. 



We may take it, then, as a fact that the pure-bred 

 American Indians (and it is these alone that concern 

 us), from Canada iu the north to Patagonia and Tierra 

 del Fuego iu the south, form but a single race. And 

 the question then ai'ises whether the ancestors of that 

 race obtained an entrance into America from the Old 

 World, or whether they were American from the be- 

 ginning. To that question — provided we are believers 

 in evolution — the answer is veiy short and simple. On 

 the evolutionary hypothesis man must be descended from 

 the ancestors of the manlike Apes — whether his origin be 

 single or multiple need not concern us here ; and since 

 the manlike Apes, both now and in the past, arc quite 

 unknown in the New World, it is manifest that the 

 original American Indian must have been an immigrant 

 from the Old World. That such an immigration must 

 have taken place at a vei-y remote epoch is proved by 

 abundant evidence; but the available data are at present 

 quite insufficient for forming even an approximate 

 estimate of the length of time that has elapsed since 

 that distant epoch. With regard to the route by which 

 man reached the New World, the probability that an 

 isthmus formerly occupied the present area of Bering 

 Strait suggests that line of migration. And this view 

 receives a considerable amount of support from the 

 fact that the nearest relatives of the American Indians 

 are the Mongols of north-eastern Asia. Still it has to 

 be admitted that climatic conditions present a certain 

 amount of difficulty in our definite acceptation of that 

 line of route as the one by which the progenitors of the 

 American aborigines rea<;hed their western home. More- 

 over, from the fact that skulls of both an elongated and 

 a short typo have been discovered in certain superficial 

 deposits of Argentina and Brazil, some writers have 

 been led to conclude that a double emigration took 

 place into America — namely, a migration of round- 

 headed Mongols from Asia by way of Bering Strait, 

 and another, and perhaps earlier, incursion of long- 

 headed people from Europe by way of Greenland. But 

 if we are right regarding the native Americans a-s a 

 branch of the Mongol stock, it is difficult to see how 



they can at the same time be considered to include a 

 large admixture of primitive Caucasian blood; and it 

 must be borne in mind that the Eskimo, who can 

 scarcely be regai'ded otherwise than modified Mongols, 

 are essentially a long-headed people. 



By whatever route, or routes, he reached the Western 

 hemisphere, man having arrived there became at once 

 (or, in the case of two migrations, eventually) entirely 

 separated from his relatives in the Old VV'orld. Having 

 been thus isolated during the long ages which elapsecl 

 between the period of the original migration (or 

 migrations) and the white colonization of the New 

 World after its reputed discovery by Columbus, the 

 wonder is not that the aboriginal American differs so 

 decidedly from the Mongol, but rather that there are 

 so many points of resemblance still remaining between 

 the two. And hero it is important to mention that, iu 

 all i^robability, it is not the American Indian alono 

 whose type has become modified in the course of ages, 

 but that the Mongol has also undergone a certain 

 amount of change since the date when the western and 

 eastern branches of the common ancestral stock p;uted 

 company for ever. 



There ai-e four chief features in which the American 

 Indians conform to the Mongol type — namely, in colour, 

 in the characters of the hair of the scalp, in the very 

 slight development of hair on the face, and in the more 

 or less marked prominence of the cheek-bones. As 

 regards colour, it is well known that all Mongols have a 



Fig. 1. — A Typical XurtU Auicricau Indian. 



yellow skin, and this yellow tinge is frequently retained 

 In their American cousins, although iu many instances 

 it is replaced by coppery red. It is true that this red 

 tint is stated by some writers* to be solely due to paint- 



See Dcniker, " Ilie Races of Man," page 517. (liJOO.) 



