hkdliCka] ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ESKIMO 337 



emigration was vastly more ancient than Mr. Markham supposes, and 

 thai it took place before the present characteristics of races and 

 tribes of North American savages were developed. :;: * * 



"My own impression agrees with that of Doctor Rink that the 

 Innuit were once inhabitants of the interior of America; that they 

 Merc forced to the west and north by the pressure of tribes of In- 

 dians from the south: that they spread into the Aleutian region and 

 northwest coast generally, and possibly simultaneously to the north; 

 that their journeying was originally tentative, and that they finally 

 settled in those regions which afforded them subsistence, perhaps 

 after .passing through the greater portion of Arctic America, leaving 

 their traces a> they went in many places unfit for permanent settle- 

 ment; that after the more inviting regions were occupied, the pres- 

 sure from Indians and still unsatisfied tribes of their own stock, in- 

 duced still further emigration, and finally peopled Greenland and the 

 shores of northeastern Siberia; but that these latter movements were, 

 on the whole, much more modern, and more local than the original 

 exodus, and took place alter the race characteristics and language 

 were tolerably well matured. * * * 



"I conclude that at present the Asiatic Innuit range from Koliu- 

 chin Bay to the eastward and south to Anadyr Gulf. * * * 



"To the reflux of the great wave of emigration, which no doubt 

 took place at a very early period, we may owe the numerous deserted 

 huts reported by all explorers on the north coasts of Asia, as far east 

 as the mouth of the Indigirka. At one time. I thought the migration 

 to Asia had taken place within a few centuries, but subsequent study 

 and reflection has convinced me that this could not have been the 

 case. No doubt successive parties crossed at different times, and some 

 of these may have been comparatively modern." 



Rae. 1878 : " "All the Eskimos with whom I have communicated 

 on the subject, state that they originally came very long ago from the 

 west, or setting sun. and that in doing so they crossed a sea separating 

 the two great lands. 



"That these people (the Eskimos) have been driven from their 

 own country in the northern parts of Asia by some unknown pressure 

 of circumstances, and obliged to extend themselves along the whole 

 northern coast line of America and Greenland, appears to be likely, 

 and that the route followed after crossing Bering Strait was of neces- 

 sity along the coast eastward, being hemmed in by hostile Indians on 

 the south, and driven forward by pressure from the west * * *. 



" Such were my opinions 12 years ago. and their correctness has 

 been rather confirmed than otherwise, by all that we have since 

 learned. * * *" 



61 Rae, John, Eskimo Migrations Jour. Anthrop. Inst. Great Britain and Ireland, vn, 

 pp. 130-131. London, 1878. 



