60 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



explanation of the fact noted by Dr. Latham, " that the Peninsular 

 languages agree in the general fact of being more closely akin to 

 those of America than any other." Before passing on to consider 

 another family of speech, I will cite the opinions of two eminent 

 writers, Dr. Robt. Brown (Races of Mankind, Vol. I.) and Dr. 

 Rink, who have held that the Eskimo are not recent immigrants 

 from Asia, but are an " Hyperborean American race" forced by cir- 

 cumstances and the inroads of other peoples into the position they 

 now occupy. Dr. Rink says, " The Eskimo people evidently repre- 

 senting the north-polar coast peoj)le of America, the first question 

 which arises seems to be, whether their development can be con- 

 jectured with any probability to have taken place in that part of the 

 world. Other geographical conditions appear greatly to favour such 

 a proposition" (Eskimo Tales and Traditions, 1874, p. 70), and 

 again : " There is very little probability that a people can have 

 moved from' interior Asia to settle on the polar sea-shore, at the 

 same time turning Eskimo, and afterwards almost wholly migrating 

 to America" [lb., p. 73). Dr. Rink also concludes that in the 

 religion and mythology of the Eskimo there is nothing that can 

 prove the recent Asiatic origin of that people. The great Athapascan 

 stock of languages shows some traces of afiinity with the Eskimo 

 family ; but the great diversity and corruption of the vocabulary 

 show that a considerable period has elapsed since they separated 

 from the parent stock. Members of this family are found as far 

 south as New Mexico ; and Prof Buschmann (Ueber die Spuren der 

 aztekischen Sprache im nordlichen Mexico und hohereu amerikni- 

 schen Norden, Berlin, 1854, p. 648) has shown that the languages 

 of the Comanche, Wihinast, Utah, ifec, have numerous marked 

 affinities with the Aztec. 



We now come to the gi^eat Algonkin group, which in particular 

 has been claimed as of recent Asiatic origin. Whatever linguistic 

 affinities can be shown to exist between this or any other group and 

 the Peninsular languages of northern Asia, do not, as I have shown, 

 prove satisfactorily an Asiatic origin. A great deal of argument has 

 been based U[jon the idea that the legends, traditions, and mythology 

 of the Indians prove for them an origin from north-eastern Asia ; 

 aiad those of the Algonkin ti-ibes have been most frequently cited to 

 that effect. 



