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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1355 



encounter first a fairly large group of people 

 who present physical and other features that 

 in many respects ally them closely with the 

 American Eskimo. They are the Chukchee 

 and related tribes. Those who have seen 

 living representatives of these people, or only 

 their portraits, and who at the same time know 

 our Eskimo, could not but have been struck 

 forcibly with not merely the close resem- 

 blance, but the physiognomic and general 

 physical identity of the two groups. But 

 what is the real connection between them we 

 do not know. It would of course be easy to 

 jump over the bridge and say that both people 

 sprang from the same stock, but that would 

 be an opinion, not a demonstration. We 

 know that in early historic times the Asiatic 

 " Eskimo " traveled over the Behring Straits 

 on to the St. Lawrence Island and probably to 

 the American side of the straits; and we also 

 know that some Eskimo from this side 

 traveled in the opposite direction, but that 

 does not yet establish their identity. A good 

 deal of creditable work has been done on the 

 Chukchee by Russian scientists, but the 

 actual determination of the main facts is still 

 in abeyance and the whole constitutes one 

 of the attractive problems of anthropology for 

 the future. 



Another interesting ethnic group in the 

 Far East about which we know but little, 

 even less than about the Siberian " Eskimo," 

 are the natives of Kamchatka. They are not 

 so much like the Eskimo, although we find 

 amongst them individuals who approach 

 Eskimo physiognomy more or less; but one 

 may perceive among them again and again 

 the physiognomy or an approach to the 

 physiognomy of the American Indian. Re- 

 cently a Swedish expedition with, as reported, 

 ample means and intending to stay in the 

 field for at least two years, has proceeded to 

 the peninsula with the object of studying the 

 people as thoroughly as possible; but the 

 group should be and will probably have to be 

 studied as well by Americans who are well 

 acquainted with the Indian. 



As we proceed farther south we come to 

 another interesting group of people now 



almost estinct, which however to this day 

 presents its problem to anthropology, and 

 these are the Aino. It is often supjwsed that 

 the Aino are native to little more than the 

 island of Tezo in Japan, but that is an in- 

 correct localization. They occupy to this day 

 parts of the Kuriles Islands and Saghalien, 

 and they occupied in early historic and pre- 

 historic times the entire Japanese archipelago, 

 excepting perhaps the southernmost portions. 

 Here are people who differ considerably in 

 their physique from both the Chukchee and 

 the more Indian-like people of the Kamchatka 

 peninsula. They evidently have in them a 

 considerable mixture of white blood; in addi- 

 tion to which they unquestionably have also a 

 proportion of yellow-brown, the stock which 

 now prevails over all these regions. It is 

 known that they occupied the Japanese archi- 

 pelago before the Japanese reached that coun- 

 try, though they may not have been there very 

 long: and there are some indications that 

 their inflow into Japan may have been from 

 the north. But all tliis is still problematical, 

 together with their influence on the actual 

 Japanese, and calls for further investigation. 

 Another interesting group or rather con- 

 glomerate of people in the north of the Ear 

 East, are the Tunghuz. These can no more 

 be regarded as a single tribe. They embrace, 

 from the physical standpoint at least, people 

 of decided differences. The Tunghuz of the 

 south are unlike the Tunghuz of the north. 

 The southern Tunghuz, or at least certain 

 groups of them, resemble the American Indian 

 so much that the student can not but be 

 struck most forcibly by the fact. It is such a 

 resemblance, in color, physiognomy and all 

 features of the body, that we can not but feel 

 there must be here an identity of stock, and a 

 unity in perhaps not a very far distant past. 

 These tribes are now in their decline, and 

 they are crying for a thorough investigation 

 from every anthropological standpoint. True, 

 there are some Russian accounts of them, but 

 they are only partial, insufficient. It would 

 seem self-evident that in a case of such im- 

 portant disappearing people we should have 

 casts as well as plenty of photographs and 



