OCCIDENTAL STOCK. 313 



and that of the posterior nares, are very ample ; the coronal suture ter- 

 minates as in the skull of the Fejee Islander ; the lower jaw is more 

 acute at its angle than in the skull just alluded to, but it is arched 

 upward at the chin ; the upper jaw, of which the alveolar margin pro- 

 jects most remarkably, wants one of the middle incisors, which has 

 evidently been extracted, the alveolus being obliterated. A female skull, 

 with the incisors perfect, presents the same characters. 



OCCIDENTAL STOCK. 



BESIDES the Esquimaux race, which has been already noticed as 

 appertaining to the Mongole type of the human family, America pre- 

 sents us with an indigenous population, divided into nations and tribes, 

 extending from the nothern latitudes, adjacent to the arctic circle, to Terra 

 del Fuego in the south, a range including every variety of soil, climate, 

 elevation, and production. The remote history of the original population 

 of this vast portion of the earth's surface is unknown. It was but a few 

 centuries ago, that their existence, or that of their wide-spread realms, 

 broke in as a light upon the nations of the Old World, who rushed forward 

 to secure each a share of the New Hesperia. Busied in the work of spolia- 

 tion, and eager only for gold and territory, the adventurers were utterly 

 indifferent to the character and history of the indigenes, whom they seemed 

 to regard as intruders upon their rights, and consigned to torture and death. 

 The extirpation of tribes and nations was carried on without remorse, 

 avarice and fanaticism urging the good work ; and, for years, the musket, 

 the spear, the bloodhound, the rack, and the fire, were unceasingly in 

 operation. Possessed by European colonists, America now contains 

 only the scattered remnants of her pristine tribes, and these are 

 gradually melting away before the march of colonial enterprise. Dimi- 

 nished, however, as they are, the aborigines of this vast portion of the 

 globe afford ample materials for the study of the naturalist and the phi- 

 losopher : their origin, their affinities, their differences, their physical 

 characters, and their languages, open a wide field for investigation. 

 Here, then, in connexion with the present subject, the question arises, 

 as to what stock, to what branch or branches, of the human family, the 

 natives of America and its islands are to be referred ; and, further, 

 whether the people, whose remains occur in tumuli, in caves, and arti- 

 ficial burial-places, were the progenitors of the tribes now occupying the 

 same localities.* 



* We may, by way of note, glance at a people whose remains, mingled with works of skill, 

 occur in tumuli of great extent along the Mississippi, and in various districts of the United States, 



Voi,. I. 2 S 



