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Monnd-l)iiildors, and of certain tribes once iiilial)iting tlio coast and islands 

 of Santa Barl)ara Connt}', California, to those of tlie Innuit, lias any real 

 bearing on the snbject or not, must remain in doubt. The facts, however, 

 are worthy of note in this connection. 



Dr. Kmk, in his admirable paper, the abstract of which I should like to 

 quote entire, arrives at this conclusion: That the "Eskimo appear to have 

 been the last wave of an aboriginal American race, which has spread over 

 the continent from more genial regions, following principally the rivers and 

 water-courses, and continually yielding to the pressure of the tribes behind 

 them, until at last they have peopled the sea-coast. In the higher latitudes, 

 the contrast between sea and land, as affording the means of subsistence, 

 would be sufficient to produce a correspondingly abrupt change in the 

 habits of the people, while farther to the south the change would be more 

 gradual." This last suggestion chimes in with what we know of the more 

 gradual differentiation in characteristics between the ancient Innuit of 

 Aliaska and Kadiak and the Indians of T'linket stock to the east of them ; 

 and a similar state of things which exists between the Indians and Innuit 

 of the Lower Yukon as compared witli those of the middle part of the 

 Arctic American coasts. Dr. Rink suggests that the Yukon basin might 

 have been the path by which the orginal inland Eskimo traveled toward 

 the sea. Yet it is not improbable that they went by several roads. It is 

 noticeable that those tribes now wearing labrets are those most adjacent to 

 Indian tribes having a similar practice, and vice versa. The doctor further 

 suggests that the uniformity of habits and development among the Innuit 

 must have been promoted by the necessity of co-operating against hostile 

 Indian tribes and the imiformity of the new region entered by them; "but 

 as soon as a certain stage of development was attained, and the tribes spread 

 over the Arctic coast toward Asia on the one hand and Greenland on the 

 other, tlie further improvement of the race appears to have ceased, or to 

 have been considerably checked." One reason of this may be found in the 

 fact that, as soon as the treeless and barren Arctic coast was occupied, the 

 struggle for existence against cold and famine would have occupied all 

 their powers, and the opportunity of further development afforded by an 

 abimdance of food and partial leisure, at times, such as was enjoyed by the 



