THOMAS. J ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC TYPES. 727 



continent has molded tbem all into a singularly homogeneous race, 

 which varies but slightly anywhere on the continent, and has main- 

 tained its type unimpaired for countless generations. Never at any 

 time before Columbus was it influenced in blood, language, or culture 

 by any other race." Dr. Horatio Hale is inclined to substantially the 

 same view, though somewhat reserved. The theory certainly does not 

 require the molding process referred to, as the settlers, according to 

 his belief, were of one race and received thereafter no intrusive element. 



It is evident that this idea of a migration on the Atlantic side 

 reached by linguists after a study of the large amount of data which 

 has been collected, is to be attributed largely to the unsatisfactory 

 results obtained in attempting to trace out the links in the other direc 

 tion. But the important fact is to be borne in mind that those who 

 reach this conclusion have i)rosecuted their studies on the Atlantic 

 slope, while the more recent authors who have carried on their studies 

 on the Pacific slope have reached an exactly opposite conclusion. It is 

 therefore highly probable that a more thorough and comprehensive 

 study of all the data bearing on the question will show, as appears to 

 be indicated by the archeology, that the truth lies between these oppo- 

 site views; in other words, will lead to the conclusion that the conti- 

 nent was peopled from two sources, one part coming to the Atlantic 

 coast, the other to the Pacific side. Some of the Central American tra- 

 ditions correspond with this view, but traditions purporting to reach 

 back so far in the past are of course worthless. This conclusion is not 

 incompatible with the fact that the aborigines of America form a com- 

 paratively homogeneous race. As remarked somewhere by Prof. Dall, 

 even though derived from different sources, the long continental isola- 

 tion and molding influence would have brought about this condition. 

 But it does not follow that there would have necessarily been a unifi- 

 cation of customs, habits, and religious beliefs. 



The spread of types of custom and art would be governed in part by 

 several influences, as ethnic lines, migrations, contact, and physical 

 conditions. Where we find those of a character which do not depend 

 upon physical conditions, but upon superstitious notions, following a 

 given line without spreading out indefinitely, we may assume, until 

 satisfactory evidence of another cause is given, that they mark a line 

 of migration and are largely ethnic. It is in this light we are inclined 

 to view the coast-line extension of the types peculiar to the Pacific 

 slope. 



It is somewhat significant that Dr. Brinton should, notwithstanding 

 the views he advances in regard to the origin and homogeneity of the 

 American race, arrange his linguistic groups geographically by sub- 

 stantially the same dividing lines as those we have indicated as sepa- 

 rating the archeological divisions. His "North Atlantic Group," 

 omitting the Eskimos, corresponds geographically with our Atlantic 

 divisions, and his " North Pacific" and "Central" groups combined, 



