22 XE\V YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Groups pressed upon one another from all sides. Group conscious- 

 ness developed the feeling of group superiority. Groups not allied 

 in any way believed that they had a right to kill off all other groups. 

 Thus came the triple struggle for food, for an endurable climate 

 and for safety from other predatory groups. As the colder regions 

 to the north were approached there must have been an increasing 

 resistance to the intrusions of other north and east pressing groups. 



At each long stage of the northward journey great changes would 

 take place in the life of the group. There would be new foods to 

 find and to eat, new animals to deal with, new climatic conditions 

 to overcome. These things would modify customs and even language 

 itself . But the possession of flints and the mastery of fire remained. 

 Eventually the region about the northeast coast would be reached, 

 the coast would be explored. The food would be fish, seals, sea 

 bird eggs, and arctic mammals. Vegetable food would be practically 

 unknown. Clothing would be of the skins of bears, seals, reindeer 

 and other arctic animals. There were canoes of skin in which for 

 short distances the venturesome went out to sea or journeyed along 

 the coast. 



At some period in the history of these boreal groups would come 

 a knowledge of more land beyond, to the farther east. This 

 knowledge was the beginning of the migrations of small bands. 

 There may have been a long period of passing and repassing, before 

 attempts were made to push farther south in the new land across 

 the strait. It may be that the hunting grounds there were immeas- 

 urably better, that there was some better food supply, or that once 

 the mysterious region became generally known there was an impulse 

 to go to it. Then, again there would be a pressure of tribe and 

 group pressing the vanguards. The smaller number would always 

 be in advance; the greater number behind, to drive the venturous 

 before them. 



In presenting a hypothesis of this kind, it is well to remember 

 that the first groups of men moving from a common center toward 

 an inhospitable climate resisted as best they could every attempt to 

 force them into what they considered an undesirable region. If they 

 were unable to crush their foes they might attempt to escape to the 

 west or again back to the south. Without doubt the great avenue 

 of migration was to the west. Not until the population halted and 

 pressed both eastward and westward would there be a progression 

 northward, into the subarctic north. We must also believe that 

 very many groups perished long before they were driven into north- 



