270 NATURAL HISTORY 01 



recorded migrations in America correspond sufficiently well 

 with the same kind of migratory and invading wars in Asia, 

 which precipitated the Yuchi from Chinese Tahtary west- 

 ward, and brought the Ilyatili or White Huns first to compi'i 

 Cabul and Bactria ; being followed by true Mongolic nations 

 till their hordes established themselves beyond the Danube 

 and the Vistula. These are uncontrovertible signs of the great 

 expansion which the beardless stock then made in north and 

 eastern Asia ; and may well account for clans of Caucasians, 

 such as still have possession of sundry mountain chains in 

 China, taking refuge towards America, by a route sufficiently 

 near the Arctic Circle to give the north and west for a true 

 point of their first abode on that continent. Followed, as all 

 fugitive nations are, by their enemies, no doubt real Mongo- 

 lians came after them ; and both, in departing from eastern 

 Asia, lost their horses and their nautical habits. Thus, these 

 migrations of distinct types may be a cause of the intermediate 

 character of the present Aleutian Islanders.* 



With these facts before us, it is vain to assert that all Ameri- 

 can races, excepting the Esquimaux, have originally sprung from 

 one stock ; for many more coincidences could be enumerated ; 

 and while one like the last mentioned is admitted to be of the 

 beardless type, of Ouralian or of Finnic origin, surely others 

 could migrate in a similar direction, at earlier periods, when, 

 in all probability, this passage was much more practicable; 

 and, according to observations made by Biot, the climate less 



* See Warden's Antiquites Americaines. Pennant's Arctic Zoology, 

 Introduction ; where«many other customs, common to the Scythians, and 

 to the North American nations, are enumerated. There is a Japanese 

 map now in the British Museum, which marks islands in the straits of 

 Behring, and notices the region by the name of Ya-zue (the kingdom of 

 the dwarfs), that is, the diminutive Esquimaux. This map, presented by 

 Kcempfer to Sir Hans Sloane, is, therefore, of comparative antiquity, and 

 shows Behring's Straits to have been known to the Mongolic stock long 

 before Behring made the discovery, or Cook fixed the real position of the 

 two coasts. 



