uall] SUMMARY. 151 



or other reasons) the labret, the pipe, the foot-gear, tonsure, and dress 

 of their alien superiors with slight modifications ; practices and customs 

 utterly unknown to the Tiuneh of the upper river, bold, warlike, aud 

 enterprising, who would behold their unworthy relatives with utter 

 scorn. 



It is well known to those who have studied the region that the west- 

 ern slope, especially of Middle and North America, is a region of boun- 

 teous food supply, especially derived from the sea which washes it and 

 tbe rivers which drain it. 



The progress of conquest or armed migratiou, especially with people 

 who subsist upon the country they are in, must be largely guided by 

 the ability to find food. Any landfall of invaders on the western coast 

 would be influenced in their movements by the preseuce of the Andes 

 aud the desert plains which border on the east the region of plenty near 

 the shores. Migration in a northerly or southerly direction, either of 

 the invaders or by those retreating before them, would be almost im- 

 perative except where the granaries of Middle America open the width 

 of the contineut to those who come, from whence to the nearer Antil- 

 les is but a step. 



With its vast agricultural resources Squier has recognized in Central 

 America an important center of aboriginal distribution. George Gibbs 

 was confident that the region of Puget Sound — its creeks in season lit- 

 erally choked with salmon — was another. Indeed, the area from Puget 

 Sound to Cape Spencer, though hardly to be termed a center ou account 

 of its extent, might be regarded as a sort of hive in which human 

 swarms might continually be fed to maturity and issue forth. 



The people of this region from the earliest times were known as the 

 most vigorous, most warlike, most implacable, most subtile, most treacher- 

 ous, most cultured, and fondest of blood for its own sake of any Ameri- 

 can tribes known to history. The decimated crew of Ckirikoff s vessel, 

 the first to touch on those shores, was a type of what many successive 

 explorers suffered without having wronged the savages, and an exam- 

 ple of a temper in the latter which even yet has hardly cooled. 



It is, however, undesirable to carry these speculations beyond that 

 point where they may excite investigation and inquiry, if not antago- 

 nism of a healthy kiud, in the minds of others. I therefore bring them 

 to a close. 



In terminating the discussion of this material I desire to express my 

 obligations to Prof. S. F. Baird, Director of the National Museum, for 

 facilities for study and inspection of material, and to Messrs. J. K. Good- 

 rich, of the Museum, and J. C. Pilling, of the Bureau of Ethnology, for 

 kiud assistance in details bearing upon the preparation of this paper. 



