b PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



FOURTH MEETING. 



Fourth Meeting, 26th November, 1887, W. H. Ellis, M.A., 

 M.B., in the chair. 



Donations and exchanges since last meeting, 40. 



On a communication from the Biological Section in reference 

 to the appointment of an Ornithologist on the Geological and 

 Natural History Survey of Canada, it was moved by Mr. J. B. 

 Williams, seconded by Mr. G. G. Pursey, and carried, That the 

 matter of petitioning Government as to the appointment of an 

 Ornithologist be referred to the Council. 



A. B. Macallum, M. A., and John Linden, were elected 

 members. 



Mr. A. F. Chamberlain read a paper on " The Eskimo Race 

 and Language." 



After describing the habitat of the Eskimo, a territory which, 

 although seldom exceeding 150 miles in width, extends from 

 north-west to south-east, about 3,000 miles, or along the coast (by 

 which road the Eskimo, who are essentially a littoral people, migrate) 

 a distance of fully 5,000 miles, he said the Eskimo is the only aborigi- 

 nal race which inhabits both the Old and the New Worlds, branches 

 of this .stock being found in North-east Siberia as well as throughout 

 Ai'ctic America. He discussed the various theories with regard to 

 the origin of the Eskimo and their migrations in the prehistoric past. 

 The generally accepted view up to within a few years since was that 

 the Eskimo wei'e a comparatively recent modification or offshoot of 

 the Mongol tribes of North-east Asia. This was the opinion of Cranz, 

 the historian of Greenland, and at the present day is advocated l>y 

 Rae, Peschel, Flower, and many others. Dr. Rink and Dr. Robert 

 Brown, however, some yeai-s ago set forth the theory that the Eskimo 

 are the remnants of an original i-ace, forced by stress of circumstances 

 and the pressure of raoi-e powerful enemies into the position they now 

 occupy. This view is shared by W. H. Dall, Dr. C. C. Abbott, Dr. 

 Aurel Krause, Dr. F. Boas and others. Dr. Rink thinks that the 

 home of the primitive Eskimo was in Alaska ; Dr. Boas would place 

 it in the " west of the Hudson's Bay region." The author inclined 



