154 REPORT — 1860. 



On the Caravan Route from Yarkand to Mai-matchin, with a short account 

 of this Town, through which the Trade is carried on between Russia and 

 China. By T. W. Atkinson. 



On the Manufacture of Stone Hatchets and other Imj)le?jients by the Esqui- 

 maux, illustrated by Native Tools, Arrow-heads, fye. By Captain Sir 

 E. Belcher, R.N. 



Sir Edward commenced by setting forth his belief in the connexion of the north- 

 ern littoral tribes of Asia, America, and Greenland in habits, customs, and language, 

 differing less in this latter point than in our counties in England, Wales, or Scotland. 

 Comparing the American with the Asiatics, the Tchutchi, he found the latter more 

 experienced or accomplished in music, manufacturing their own violins, and per- 

 forming wonderfully, imitating a la Paginini on one string the sounds of various 

 animals ; they were also good buffoons and actors as imitating the anctics of bears, 

 &c. But as regards the useful arts, or those calling for invention or energy in over- 

 coming difficulties, improving tools, weapons, &c, they were much inferior to the 

 Esquimaux of America, and certainly far below them in mental acquisitions. Sir 

 Edward then gave an interesting description of the habits and manners of the tribes 

 with which he lived in contact near Icy Cape. He obtained great influence over 

 them, and so long as he continued to teach them any new mode of working they 

 submitted to his direction. He had no doubt, if necessity had compelled him to re- 

 main there (as he was wrecked there), he might have existed and possibly become one 

 of their chiefs. This disposition on their part to associate with and be instructed 

 by white men, confirmed him in the notion he had entertained, that possibly one or 

 two of the crews of the 'Erebus' and 'Terror' might have escaped and be now 

 willingly living among them. 



The principal object of the paper was to explain the stone implements found 

 among them, and similar to those of Celtic origin, as well as their mode of manu- 

 facturing them from a vein of chert at hand. Sir Edward saw them obtain the 

 chert from the stratum, work them into spear and arrow-heads, and there purchased 

 the articles as well as the tools employed which were explained in detail to the Meet- 

 ing. No hammer or blow is used in splintering off the couchoidal splinters to form 

 the serrated edges, but a tool of deer antler effects this by pressure on the faces alter- 

 nately. Sir Edward also observed that the same process is adopted by the Indians 

 of Mexican origin in California, by the natives of the Sandwich Islands, as well as 

 Tahiti, 2300 miles asunder. Other curiously wrought and interesting instruments, as 

 planes, drill bows, &c, were exhibited, all manifesting great skill and a higher degree 

 of mechanical ability than we could expect from an untutored race — indeed a race 

 taking the lead pre-eminently in meeting scientifically those wants occurring in savage 

 life. With reference to their ornamentation of their drill bows, &c, Sir Edward 

 maintained that they exhibited proofs of record, which Dr. Rae considered to be 

 wanting in the tribes encountered by him some degrees to the eastward. Steam, 

 and the mode of using it, to bend or straighten bows or arrows, was constantly em- 

 ployed by them ; and Sir Edward concluded by expressing his conviction that these 

 people were in a condition to be rendered useful by civilizatiou, and thus open more 

 lucrative trade with the western and southern nations in the Pacific. 



On the Aryan or Indo-Germanic Theory of Races. 

 By John Crawfurd, F.R.S. 



The object of the writer of this paper is a refutation of the Aryan or Indo-Germauic 

 theory, or that which supposes all the peoples from the eastern confines of Bengal 

 to the western shores of Spain and Britain to be of one and the same race of man, on 

 the evidence of a fancied identity of language. A few of the main objections advanced 

 by the author may be stated. The theory supposes a people, whose language was the 

 Sanskrit, to have migrated at some unknown time, spreading east in one direction 

 and west in another, and to have performed these prodigious migrations, although an 

 agricultural people, or in other words, one of fixed habits. The theory makes men 



