HOLMES] ARORTGTNAL AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES PART I 31 



hundred years ago, six successors having filled this office; each one 

 living to a good old age." ^ The Indians were entirely ignorant of 

 the origin and significance of the coins forming the eyes of the speci- 

 men. This and many other like occurrences are regarded as sugges- 

 tive of indefinitely early intercourse between the New World and the 

 Old "World across the Pacific, but are not decisive. Passing over 

 other instances Avhich might be cited and many seemingly significant 

 analogies in arts, customs, and beliefs, we find that we have com- 

 pleted the circle of the continent and are approaching, as has often 

 been done before in the study of these problems, the main inter- 

 continental thoroughfare, the proximate shores of Siberia and 

 Alaska, at Bering Strait. 



It has been sought in presenting these few of the many available 

 examples of analogies between the material culture of the two 

 worlds to avoid giving too much weight to simple resemblances 

 such as are bound to develop between widely separated areas or dis- 

 tinct environments, and to suggest those which exhibit unusually 

 striking analogies or which combine close analogies with suggestive 

 geographical relationships. Although none of the examples given 

 are found to be fully satisfactory, or free from danger of challenge 

 for one cause or another, as proofs of culture transfer, it is quite 

 clear that the study of these analogies with a view of determining 

 their exact bearing upon questions of origin is not to be ignored or 

 cast aside lightly. It is only requisite that wise discrimination be 

 exercised and definite conclusions be avoided until the evidence has 

 been exhaustively collected and critically scrutinized. 



It appears that although derived from transoceanic sources, the 

 race must be regarded as essentially an American race, the result of 

 coalescence of diversified Old World strains combined and modified 

 in various "ways producing numberless new strains under the Ameri- 

 can environment, forming, however, at the period of Columbian 

 discovery a measurably homogeneous whole. Aboriginal American 

 culture, based on elements transferred with migrating groups, or by 

 other agencies from the Old World, has in like manner been modi- 

 fied, developed, and specialized into various well Americanized 

 phases or forms, the result of the particular conditions under which 

 the people lived. 



1 Bollos, Chinese Relics in Alaska, p. 221. 

 3SG57°— 19— lUill. GO, pt i i 



