THE BAY OF BISCAY. 205 



bore some resemblance to those of the ancient Italian 

 nations. 



Modern science has been less successful in its en- 

 deavours to connect the primitive Spaniards with one 

 of those great families into which the different varieties 

 of the human races are classed. Here everything is 

 mere conjecture. Bory Saint- Vincent makes the 

 first inhabitants of Spain come from the fabulous 

 Atlantis of Plato.* M. Petit-Eadel regards them as 

 having issued from Latium and Etruria.f MM. Mi- 

 chelet J and de Brotonne see in them a Celtic race, 

 while M. Graslin considers them to be a Celto- 

 Scythian off-shoot. || Some of these authors, more- 

 over, distinguish the early Iberians from the nations 

 who speak Euskarian, and deny to the latter the im- 

 portance which we have assigned to them in accord- 

 ance with the views of some of our most distinguished 

 ethnologists. IF Two learned inquirers have endea- 

 voured to connect the Euskarians with the Finnish 

 nation **, whilst M. Dartey refers them to a Semitic 



* Essai geologique snr le genre humain. Paris. 



f Memoir e sur les anciennes villes cFEspagne. Paris, 1837. 



J Histoire de France. 



Histoire de la filiation et de la migration des peuples. Paris, 

 1837. 



|| DeTIbfrie. 



f Abel de Remusat, W. von Humboldt, A. Von Humboldt, 

 Prichard, &c. 



** Arndt, Ueler die Verwandschaft der Europ&ischen Sprachen 

 1810, and Rask Ueber das Alter und die Echtheit der zend 

 Sprache, 1826. The Finnish race, having come from Asia, appears, 

 according to the investigations of these inquirers, which have been 

 confirmed by the osteographical researches of Retzius, to have 

 occupied a great part of Europe before the Celtic invasion. It is 



