120 Distinctive characteristics of the 



the position that all the American nations, excepting the Eskimaux, 

 are of one race, and that this race is peculiar, and distinct from 

 all others. 



1. Physical Characteristics. It is an adage among travellers, 

 that he who has seen one tribe of Indians, has seen all, so much do 

 the individuals of this race resemble each other, notwithstanding 

 their immense geographical distribution, and those differences of 

 climate which embrace the extremes of heat and cold. The half- 

 clad Fuegian, shrinking from his dreary winter, has the same charac- 

 teristic lineaments, though in an exaggerated degree, as the Indians 

 of the tropical plains ; and these again resemble the tribes which 

 inhabit the region west of the Rocky Mountains, those of the great 

 valley of the Mississippi, and those again which skirt the Eskimaux 

 on the North. All possess alike the long, lank, black hair, the 

 brown or cinnamon colored skin, the heavy brow, the dull and sleepy 

 eye, the full and compressed lips, and the salient but dilated nose. 

 These, traits, moreover are equally common to the savage and 

 civilized nations ; whether they inhabit the margins of rivers and 

 feed on fish, or rove the forest and subsist on the spoils of the 

 chase. 



It cannot be questioned that physical diversities do occur, equally 

 singular and inexplicable, as seen in different shades of color, vary- 

 ing from a fair tint to a complexion almost black ; and this too un- 

 der circumstances in which climate can have little or no influence. 

 So also in reference to stature, the differences are remarkable in en- 

 tire tribes which, moreover, are geographically proximate to each 

 other. These facts, however, are mere exceptions to a general rule, 

 and do not alter the peculiar physiognomy of the Indian, which is 

 as undeviatingly characteristic as that of the Negro ; for whether we 

 see him in the athletic Charib or the stunted Chayma, in the dark 

 Californian or the fair Borroa, he is an Indian still, and cannot be 

 mistaken for a being of any other race. 



The same conformity of organization is not less obvious in the 

 osteological structure of these people, as seen in the squared or 

 rounded, head, the flattened or vertical occiput, the high cheek 

 bones, the ponderous maxillae, the large quadrangular orbits, and 

 the low, receding forehead. I have had opportunity to compare 



