245 
the mythology of the Koryak and other tribes in northeastern Asia 
so closely resembles that of onr Pacific coast Indians (Tlinkit, Haida, 
etc.) that the two groups of aborigines must once have been close 
neiglibours.^ It does not affect the main issue, the peopling of 
America by way of Bering strait, whether our Pacific Coast Indian 
tribes developed part of their cidture in Asia and subsequently 
crossed over into America, or whether the group of tribes now living 
in northeastern Asia se])aratcd off on this continent and returned 
from America to Siberia. In either case their separation provides 
the same evidence that man was migrating across this strait thou- 
sands of years ago. and renders still more probable our theory that 
most, if not all, the migrations into America followed the same route. 
In the absence of any more jffausible hy])()thesis, then, let us 
imagine the ancestors of our Indians drifting in small l>ands, genera- 
tion aftei’ generation, into the northeast corner of Siberia, whence the 
distant view of new hunting grounds lured them across Bering strait. 
Ascending the valley of the Yukon river they crossed the divide to 
the upper waters of the Mackenzie, and so passed down through 
Alberta and Saskatchewan into the United States. Perhaps some of 
the earliest immigrants worked through the Rocky mountains into 
British Columbia; for the glaciers were in full retreat fifteen thou- 
sand years ago, and the Pacific coast with its abundance of fish and 
game would have seemed an earthly paradise to hunting tribes that 
had wandered down from the far north. As the movement from 
Asia continued and the pojnilation on this continent increased, cer- 
tain tribes were pushed farther aiul farther south until the vanguard 
finally entered South America and proceeded to spread over that 
continent from Colombia to Patagonia. Families of close kindred 
became divided in the course of centuries, bands that had once been 
neighbours moved to widely separate homes, and new environments, 
new contacts, developed differences of speech and customs in peoples 
who had formerly spoken and livefl alike. Thus was evolved the 
extraordinary multiplicity of tribes and languages, although part of 
this multiplicity doubtless existed in the migrating bands before 
they reached America. What caused the original drift from Asia, 
and the exact date of its commencement, we may never discover. 
1 C7- Joflielsfin, W. : " 'I’lie Koryak’’; Mctii., Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 10; .jesup North Pacific 
Exi'fflition, vol, vi, pp. 351 pt steq. ( I.i'uicti. 190S). Boas, F. : “ MiEfutious of Asiatic Races and Cul- 
tures to Xortli .America”; .Scientific Alontlily, Feb., 1929, pp, 112-117. 
