66 FOSSIL MEN. 



remains of unknown date, and the Eries, Hurons, and 

 Hochelagans would have been in the same position but 

 for the arrival of the French in time to witness their 

 decadence. Let us observe also that such a history 

 implies primitive civilization fading into barbarism 

 until it shall be replaced by some new culture. The 

 Alleghans of the Ohio and Mississippi had their council 

 fires quenched by barbarians long before Cortez at- 

 tacked the new Mexican empire of the Aztecs. Our 

 poor Hochelagans, within less than a century of 

 Carrier's time, had been destroyed or reduced to the 

 condition of wandering hunters. The pre-Columbian 

 America seemed hastening to return to barbarism. 



Let us observe also that the aboriginal Americans, 

 though probably reaching the continent from the old 

 world by three distinct lines of migration, one from 

 Southern Asia by the Pacific, one from Northern 

 Asia by Behring's straits, and one from Western 

 Europe by the Atlantic and its islands,* had brought 

 with them essentially the same beliefs and customs, 

 and not very dissimilar physical characteristics; so 

 that they naturally and readily blended into a more or 

 less homogeneous American type, with local modifi- 

 cations of physical aspect, customs, and arts. At the 

 time therefore when America was first colonised, there 

 must have been a remarkable uniformity in the popu- 

 lations inhabiting Asia and Europe, similar to that 

 which obtained in prehistoric America. In other 



* See the discussion of this subject by Wilson, " Pre-historic 

 Man." 



