96 



that of tlie Indian and from all others as any stock of similar cultnre 

 known to philology. The Innnit stock is eminently characterized by 

 uniformity, and the Indian races, so-called, by diversity in secondary 

 characters. 



The question before us, however, is not of this ultimate character. 

 "We have the well-defined Innuit or Orarian stock, with a known distribution. 

 Whence and why did they come there! What was their original condition? 

 These are the queries awaiting a solution. 



I shall assume, what is also assumed by Mr. Markham, that the 

 original progenitors of the Innviit were in a very primitive, low, and 

 barbarous condition. I think that for one locality at least, the Aleutian 

 Islands, this is sufficiently proved in Part II of this paper. The prehistoric 

 inhabitants of Perigord seem to have been little better off, and it is not 

 improbable that man, when he first began to spread over the earth, was 

 everywhere, as far as culture (and possibly language) is concerned, in much 

 the same condition. It may be sug'gested that the men of the Fishing 

 Period were the real progenitors of the Innuit, and the Echinophagiwere 

 an older and different race. But this does not practically affect the 

 question. Assuming that the Fishermen were the true ancestors, their 

 culture was still so low as to offer no appreciable objection to the assumption. 



Now, to the enthusiastic theorist, on regarding the maps, drawn usually 

 to a most minute scale, the Aleutian Islands form a convenient and natural 

 bridge from Asia to America. But on examination of the facts we find that 

 a gap of one hundred and thirty-eight statute miles separates the 

 Commander's Islands from Kamchatka, and another of two hundred and 

 fifty-three miles exists between the former and Attn. Here is one of the 

 deepest gulfs known in any ocean, over which rolls a rough, foggy, and 

 tempestuous sea. Is it probable that over this sea, without compass or 

 chart, and with what must have been the rudest of canoes, the ancient 

 barbarians could have found their way to, and landed on, a rocky and 

 inhospitable shore in safety in sufficient numbei's to have peopled America 

 or even the Aleutian chain? TJiere can be but one answer. 



AVhen Bering and his party landed on the islands named after him, 

 they found no inhabitants, but the shores abounded with herds of a sea- 



