OF THE HUMAN FAMILY 499 



the first islands of the Aleutian chain ; and another inspection shows the relation 

 of the valley of the Columbia to the peninsula of Alaska, and the easternmost islands 

 of the same chain. There is no evidence whatever that the feet of the American 

 Indians were ever planted on these islands ; or, if they came in fact from Asia, of 

 the route by which they carne. But the fact is not immaterial that a possible route 

 exists without forcing the ancestors of the Ganowanian family first to become an 

 arctic people, as a preparatory step to a migration across the straits of Bearing, and 

 afterwards to become reacclimated to a lower latitude. It is important to know 

 of a possible line of communication unembarrassed by this consideration. Whilst 

 adventurers, originally from Asia, may have reached this continent in some other 

 way by the accidents of the sea, or by an ancient actual continental connection, it 

 is yet not impossible that they may have come by way of the Aleutian chain. This 

 hypothesis, and it is nothing more, will occupy the strongest position until it is 

 superseded by one having superior claims to adoption. 



Before entering upon the question of the Asiatic origin of the Ganowanian 

 family there is a preliminary fact to be determined, upon which the discussion must 

 be founded ; namely, whether the systems of consanguinity and affinity of the 

 Ganowanian and Turanian families are identical in their radical elements, and in 

 their fundamental characteristics. This fact must be ascertained, beyond the possi- 

 bility of a doubt, before any ground whatever from this source is obtained, from 

 which such an inference may be drawn. A general impression of the close 

 approximation of the two forms must have been obtained from the previous chapters. 

 It now remains to place the two side by side for comparison throughout their entire 

 range, that it may be seen not only how far their indicative relationships are coin- 

 cident, but also the extent of their agreement in subordinate details. It will thus 

 be found that the application of the same principles of classification, inherent in 

 the two forms, have produced precisely the same results. The typical forms of the 

 two families will be selected for comparison; since in these the principles of discrimi- 

 nation have been most rigorously applied, and because organic structures are more 

 successfully studied in elaborate, than in the restricted development. A com- 

 parative Table of the Seneca and Tamil systems will be found at the end of the 

 present chapter, in which the relationships of persons are presented on a scale 

 sufficiently ample to exhibit all the features and principles of each system. 



An attentive examination of the two forms, as they stand side by side, will 

 satisfy the reader of their complete identity. It is not only revealed in a manner 

 sufficiently comprehensive and absolute, but it includes minute as well as general 

 characteristics. No argument is necessary to render more apparent this fact of 

 identity in whatever is material in the common system, since a bare inspection of 

 the table determines the question. 1 The question now arises how shall this identity 

 be explained I 



The same proof exists with respect to the great antiquity of this system in Asia, 



1 There is another manner of showing this identity, namely, by comparing the analysis of the 

 Seneca Iroquois system (supra, page 145) with that of the Tamil (supra, page 387, note). The 

 several points in which they are identical and in which they are divergent are thus made to appear. 



