272 SYSTEMS OF CONSANGUINITY AND AFFINITY 



complement of the evidence seems to be furnished by the establishments of the 

 commercial nations of the Aryan family in every part of the earth, with the excep- 

 tion of the extreme parts of the arctic area ; and even these have been penetrated 

 and occupied by Americans and Europeans for limited periods of time. Their feet 

 have been planted in the polar regions, even beyond the farthest range of the 

 hyperboreans themselves. To account for the spread of mankind considered as a 

 single species over the entire surface of the earth, there is no occasion to look 

 beyond the voluntary migrations, or compulsory flights of nations from area to area, 

 continued through centuries of time. The first struggle would be for the posses- 

 sion of the temperate climates, which are the most desirable. This would increase 

 in intensity with the multiplication of the numbers of the people. In the course 

 of ages the weaker nations would be forced outward, toward both the tropical and 

 polar climates. From necessary considerations the impulse from the more desirable 

 areas outward must have been continuous and ever increasing until the polar shores, 

 as well as the tropical plains were reached. The final results would neither be 

 fortuitous, nor consequences of man's voluntary acts ; but rather the effect of the 

 silent and unseen operation of physical and moral causes. Subsistence and num- 

 bers go hand in hand, so that the increase of the species beyond the equilibrium 

 established between them would enforce the dispersion of the surplus. Whence the 

 occupation of the arctic climates is not more remarkable in itself, than the occupa- 

 tion of the tropical ; and starting from the intermediate temperate regions the same 

 people might have divided and taken opposite directions, as in the case of the Atha- 

 pascans and Apaches. The arctic regions would probably be reached last in the order 

 of time, but yet it might be early in the period of man's existence upon the earth. 

 Neither was the great increase of numbers which followed upon the attainment of 

 the pastoral, and still greater of the agricultural state, necessary to insure these 

 results ; since it is well known that nations without flocks and herds, and without 

 agriculture, spread much the most rapidly. It is the prerogative of civilization to 

 enable a people to grasp the soil with firmness, and to establish themselves with 

 permanence in fixed areas. Instability upon the soil was characteristic of the nations 

 in primitive conditions of society. The occupation by the Eskimo of their arctic 

 habitat can be explained satisfactorily by the operation of these natural causes. 



The Eskimo have been so frequently and so minutely described that very little 

 can be added to the stock of existing information. Those who have seen the 

 American Indian nations in their several areas, and also the Eskimo, might 

 possibly, by means of a comparison founded upon personal observations, bring out 

 with more distinctness the points of agreement and of difference, so far as they are 

 revealed by external characteristics. Although I have seen and .conversed with 

 native Indians belonging to many different nations, I have met but three Eskimo, 

 a man and woman, and their child. Whilst it is impossible to seize the charac- 

 teristic features of a people from a few isolated representatives, the latter, if good 

 specimens, as in the present case, might suggest the more general points of agree- 

 ment and of divergence. Among the nations of the Ganowanian family there is 

 no difficulty in recognizing, at a glance, a common physical type ; but the Eskimo 

 have some physical characteristics, which, although not excessively divergent, are 



