September 26, 1834.] 



SCIENCE. 



317 



limit. In Asia some linguistic evidence, in Professor 

 Dawkins's opinion, showed an intercourse or inter- 

 mingling between them and the Mongols, at points 

 far to the south-west of their present abode. He did 

 not consider that the mere fact that they spoke an 

 agglutinative language could be regarded as evi- 

 dence that they were akin to the Indians. In ap- 

 pearance, character, and customs, they were a distinct 

 race ; and there was a strong antipathy between them 

 and the Indians, resulting in frequent hostilities. In 

 fact, a wide belt of debatable land was always left 

 between the two races. In Asia their relations with 

 their southern neighbors were more pacific. 



In dealing with the range of the Eskimos in time, 

 we pass from the historic ground into the domain of 

 geology. We have to go back to the ' cave-men,' as 

 they are styled, whose traces are found not only in 

 caves, but along the course of rivers and in other 

 localities. They dressed in skins, and wore long 

 gloves. They were skilled in the use of the needle, 

 which was made of bone. They wore necklaces; 

 they painted their faces. They manufactured skin- 

 scrapers, harpoons, lance-heads, and other imple- 

 ments, of stone and bone. They were manifestly a 

 race of hunters and fishermen, of a rather superior 

 type. They were also artists of no mean skill, as a 

 sketch of a reindeer and the outline of the head of 

 an elephant (of both of which copies were exhibited) 

 fully testified. Of human remains belonging to this 

 race, there was unfortunately an almost entire lack. 

 Professor Dawkins did not believe that any of the 

 skeletons or crania usually referred to this people 

 really belonged to them. There was every reason to 

 think that they did not bury their dead, but left them 

 to be devoured by the wild beasts, and especially the 

 hyenas which then abounded in southern Europe. 



This and all the other characteristics of the cave- 

 dwellers are precisely those of the Eskimos of the 

 present day. They are hunters and fishermen, wear- 

 ing skin dresses with long gloves, are highly artistic 

 in their tastes, and do not bury their dead. If the 

 question is asked, how they came to emigrate to 

 America, it must be remembered that the same ques- 

 tion applied to the mammoth which they hunted. 

 Remains of this animal are found in great abun- 

 dance from western Europe across northern Asia, and 

 thence throughout North America. They had, of 

 course, passed over at a time when the two continents 

 were united at what is now Bering Strait. When 

 the mammoth, and the animals which were contem- 

 porary with it, migrated in this direction, the cave- 

 men who hunted them would naturally go with them. 

 In all probability there was a period when people of 

 this race were scattered over a wide region of the 

 earth extending from western Europe to northern 

 America. 



In the discussion which followed, Prof. T. Rupert 

 Jones expressed the opinion that the skeletons found 

 in the caves and other localities where the implements 

 of the cave-dwellers have been discovered belonged 

 to this race; and if so, they were a tall people, of 

 a bodily structure very different from that of the 

 Eskimo. Dr. Wilson remarked that the hostility be- 



tween the Eskimos and the Indians adjoining them 

 is no greater than that which often exists elsewhere 

 between two tribes of Indians; as, for example, be- 

 tween the Sioux and the Chippewas, where it is 

 always found necessary to keep a wide space of un- 

 inhabited land between them. As to the similarity 

 of implements and usages, that is common between 

 barbarous races whose condition and surroundings are 

 similar. The fact that the Eskimos do not bury their 

 dead is readily accounted for by the climate, which 

 would usually make burial impossible. Professor 

 Dawkins, in reply, insisted that there was no evi- 

 dence that the skeletons mentioned by Professor 

 Jones belonged to the cave-men. He believed them 

 to be intrusive burials. As to the similarity of im- 

 plements, it must be remembered that in the present 

 case the resemblance extended far beyond a few rude 

 stone or bone tools and weapons, and included the 

 element of artistic faculty and products. The result 

 of the discussion appeared to be, that the paper, while 

 admitted to be highly valuable as a contribution to 

 our knowledge of the subject, left the opinions on 

 the different sides as widely apart as before. 



Mr. F. W. Putnam gave a most interesting account 

 of his examination of a group of mounds in Hamilton 

 county, O., made on behalf of the Peabody museum 

 at Cambridge. Discoveries were made which seem to 

 far exceed in interest and impof tance any thing which 

 has before been learned concerning the builders ( f 

 these mounds. As this search will be the subject 

 of a much more elaborate paper, which will be read 

 before the American association, a summary of it 

 would be out of place here. All that need be said is 

 that the facts detailed by Mr. Putnam seem to show 

 a more complex social life, more abundant and varied 

 artistic products, and a higher status altogether, than 

 can be deemed consistent with the views of those who 

 hold that these mound-builders were merely the an- 

 cestors of our present Indians, and in the same stage 

 of culture. 



An important communication by Major Powell, on 

 the classification of American languages, was illus- 

 trated by an ethnographic map, comprising the greater 

 part of America north of Mexico, with some vacancies 

 where the affinities of the tribes are considered by 

 him to be not fully determined. The number of dis- 

 tinct linguistic stocks in this region is quite large ; 

 and as they have been studied by many investigators, 

 some confusion has arisen from the variety of names 

 given to them. Major Powell proposed to adopt 

 a system of nomenclature based on certain definite 

 rules. One of these rules is to adopt the name given to 

 each stock by the author who had first written about 

 it. He would not, however, go back for this purpose 

 beyond the year 1836, the date of the publication of 

 Gallatin's ' Synopsis of the Indian tribes,' which 

 might be deemed the first scientific work on American 

 ethnology. Another rule would be to discard all 

 double names, that is, all designations formed by the 

 union of two names, such as Huron-Iroquois, or 

 Algonkin-Lenape. Finally, to distinguish the name 

 of a linguistic stock or family from that of a language 

 or dialect included in it, the former or ' stock ? designa- 



