MANCHURIA—SOWERBY. 469 
birds and animals of the country. On both these scores some very 
careful and stringent legislation is urgently needed if the future 
welfare of the people that occupy Manchuria is to be considered. 
Though as yet the mineral resources of Manchuria have not been 
thoroughly explored, there are ample signs that in this line the 
country is as wealthy as in other ways. Gold has been washed in the 
rivers for a considerable period; while coal mines and iron occur in 
the south. Other minerals known to occur in useful quantities are 
lead and copper. Slate also is quarried in some parts. 
The early history of Manchuria is more or less shrouded in mys- 
tery, but from what has been handed down it would appear that this 
land of primeval forests was occupied by tribes of savages, who lived 
entirely by hunting and fishing. These early Manchurians (this 
term is not to be confused with Manchus) must have been closely 
allied to the North American Indians, or perhaps it would be better 
to say that they and the people who populated North America be- 
longed to the same ethnic race.° There is a striking resemblance 
noticeable even to-day between the North American Indians and the 
Gilyaks and Goldis of the Amur, Sungari, and Ussuri regions. The 
last, to whom belong the Fishskin Tartars, up to comparatively 
recent times, clothed themselves in the skins of animals and fish, the 
latter fact being responsible for the name “ Yu-p’i-ta-tzu” given 
them by the Chinese. 
The early savages of Manchuria were continually engaged in inter- 
tribal warfare, which resulted from time to time in one or other of 
the tribes gaining the ascendancy and welding the others into a 
common State, sufficiently powerful to carry on successful warfare 
with neighboring highly civilized kingdoms. Thus China itself on 
more than one occasion was actually attacked and subdued, and Man- 
churian dynasties placed upon the throne. The last of these was the 
Manchu dynasty, or Ta Ch’ing (Great Clear), whose founder was 
the famous Narhurchu. Having established themselves in China, 
the Manchus practically deserted their own country, and except for 
the rich and fertile plains of the west that country must have slipped 
back into a more or less wild State, occupied by but a remnant of the 
old tribes. Then apparently began an immigration of Chinese, 
which has gone on steadily ever: since, being accelerated in recent 
years by the wonderful opportunities the rich forest land and great 
river valleys have to offer the farmer and husbandman. 
* % % * % * * 
Though the civilization of the Chinese dates back to such antiquity, 
it is a great mistake to suppose that China is a decadent country, or 
6Dr. A. Hrdlitka, ‘‘ Remains in Eastern Asia of the Race That Peopled America.” 
Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, yol. 60, No. 16. 
12573°—21 31 
