264 The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal. 



belongs alike to the smallest inorganic molecules, and the 

 great masses which have offered themselves to the view 

 of countless generations revolving in the heavens. But 

 the tribes of which the organized world consists, have but 

 a definite existence, and when changed, new organized tribes 

 replace the old ones. It would be interesting to inquire 

 whether such changes have any influence on the destiny 

 of ancient races of men. A prize was offered by the Geo- 

 graphical Society of Paris for an essay on the ancient 

 Negro races, stated in Chinese books to have occupied 

 a part of Central Asia ; but it turned out that Kuen-lun, the 

 supposed region of these aboriginal tribes, was but the 

 designation of an island in the China Sea. In the remotest 

 part of northern and eastern Asia, tombs of magnificent 

 construction, containing various implements, and ornaments 

 of silver, gold, and copper, are found, which have satisfied 

 the learned academicians of St. Petersburg that they be- 

 longed to races which became extinct before the dawn of 

 history. 



In the New World, tombs containing skeletons of a differ- 

 ent conformation from that of existing tribes have been 

 found on the borders of the Mississippi and Ohio. Even 

 in the islands of Polynesia vestiges are discovered, which 

 have been referred to a former race of inhabitants ; and 

 numerous facts tend to prove that extensive tracts of Europe 

 were once peopled by races of different physical charac- 

 ter from the present natives, in times which preceded the 

 Celts and Goths. Whatever were the causes, says Dr. 

 Pritchard, which destroyed those ancient tribes, we know 

 to what agency we are to attribute the similar fate of many ; 

 whole races have become extinct during the few centuries 

 which have passed since the modern system of colonization 

 commenced. The Guanches of the Canary islands, only exist 

 in their mummies. It would be endless to recount the names 

 of whole nations that have been extirpated in America. 

 Dr. Pritchard saw three individuals exhibited at Paris, 



