THE HUMAN SPECIES. 281 



upper Lena to the sea of Okotsk, and bounded on the south by 

 the mountains of the Jablonoi and Tugurek chains, that is, 

 between 55 and 65 degrees of north latitude ; for it was through 

 the passes, at the head waters of the river Vitim, that it appears 

 the Mongols first pushed their conquests forward among the 

 Yuchi, then in possession of the southern borders of Lake 

 Baikal, and the Mandshures subjugated the Shagallian terri- 

 tory, washed by the great Shika or river Amour, where the 

 ruins of most ancient cities, captured and abandoned by 

 the beardless stock, are still to be seen. Desolate cities, with 

 standing gateways, in a great degree perfect, and monstrous 

 statues, akin to, but far more elaborate than the more early 

 Scandinavian and Gothic works of art in Europe, indicate no 

 very remote period when they were forsaken, and testify that 

 the religion once predominant had more affinity with the 

 northern Caucasian doctrines of the west, than with the 

 Budhism, Shamanism, or any other superstitions known 

 among the beardless nations/* 



Having before shown the opinion, drawn from high authori- 

 ties, and corroborated by Chinese annals, that while the Polar 

 Sea covered, to within recent ages, several degrees of latitude 

 in northern Asia, the climate must have been considerably 

 milder than at present, and consequently have facilitated 

 migration to the eastward, even if Behring's Straits had then 

 already its present dimensions, and the Aleutian islands did not 

 form a more continuous chain than they now exhibit. These 

 circumstances may account both for the Caucaso-Mongolic 

 propulsion to America, and for the comparatively late period 



* Par-liotan, city of the Tiger, a mass of extensive ruins, on the Kirton- 

 Gura of the Kalkas, and to the north of Mongolia. The Kirton-Gura 

 communicates with the Amour by the Kulon-nor lake. The ruins are in 

 latitude 43, and in longitude a little west of Pekin. Though not built by 

 the Mongolic nations, this and other cities were no doubt occupied by 

 them till after their conquest of China, when to permit another hardy 

 population to grow up concentrated in the north was no doubt found tc 

 be unadvisable. 



24* 



