136 
ing grounds, up to the very face of the Humboldt Glacier, 
are now barren wastes, where a living thing rarely comes.” 
At various places along the coast Dr. Kane found the 
remains of ancient huts, and lower down the coast, towards 
the mouth of the sound, there are many of more recent date. 
Near Cairn Point, there is a hut which had been abandoned 
but a year before Dr. Kane’s visit in 1853, and has not been 
occupied since. 
“In Van Rensselaer harbour there are several huts which 
had~ been inhabited by the last generation. . . . . I 
talked to the oldest hunter of the tribe . . . . about 
the future of the tribe. The prospect was the same as to 
Kalutunah—‘ our people have but a few more suns to live.’ ”’ 
Mr. Merivale observes : “‘ Habitual complaints of diminution 
of numbers, legendary records of a past golden age, heard 
amongst all savages, even when never previously visited by 
whites (such as by Major Pike, in his journey to the Rocky 
Mountains more than forty years ago; by Dr. Kane, from the 
Hsquimaux ; and by the first settlers in New Zealand), prove 
that they (i.e., savages) are but the dwindling remnants of 
great nations. 
“ Breeding in and in will never suffice to occasion this decay, 
or the lonely parts of the earth would have been long since 
depopulated. 
‘There are portions of the Scottish Highlands, the Swiss 
and Italian Alps, and doubtless other mountain tracts, in which 
the constant intermarriage of kindred has prevai led for ages 
from the necessities of the case, and yet finer races are not to 
be found. The gradual loss of comforts and refinements ; the 
obscuration of religious and moral truths; constant wars 
between tribes ; their sanguinary customs, particularly infan- 
ticide ; the fr equency of deaths at an early age ; and the 
inferior productiveness of marriages, caused appar rently by the 
hardships peculiar to their mode of life, are the true causes of 
the decay of all savage tribes.” 
Yet, according to Sir John Lubbock, they ought to be 
increasing and advancing rapidly ! 
But this is never found to be the case, not even amongst 
the fine Maories ; but only in the exceptional instances of the 
Chippeways, Creeks, and races of Spanish America, who are 
either carefully pr otected from encroachment by legislation or 
confronted with weak and inferior white races.’ 
* Most of these have much white blood in them alse. 
