Page:Essays ethnological and linguistic.djvu/109

Rh If, then, we suppose they had thus to traverse those vast icy regions in hasty flight and fear of pursuit, where no subsistence could be found for their horses and cattle and, scarcely any for themselves, it is all but certain that they must soon have lost, or have had to kill, the animals they had brought with them, and their descendants in a very few generations — and we can give them centuries in the interval — could not fail to lose every knowledge or tradition of their existence.

Our great historian, Dr. Robertson, after the full consideration he gave the subject, came to the conclusion that the American Indians came originally from the north-east of Asia, and he has in this opinion been followed by the great majority of modern writers. He says, "The vicinity of the two continents of Asia and America renders it highly probable that the human race first passed that way from Asia. In latitude 66° N. the two coasts are only thirteen leagues asunder, and about midway between them lie two islands, the distance from which to either shore is short of twenty miles. At this place the natives of Asia could find no difficulty in passing over to the opposite coast, which is in sight of their own. They might have also travelled across on sledges or on foot; for we have reason to believe, from the accounts of Capt. Cook and his officers, that the Strait is entirely frozen over in the winter, so that the continents during that season, with respect to the communication between them, may be considered as one land." — "We may therefore conclude," he adds, "that the Asiatics, having settled in those parts of America where have been discovered those approximations of the two continents, spread gradually over its various regions." He concludes that the progenitors of all the American nations from Cape Horn to the south limits of Labrador, from the similarity of their aspect, colour, &c., migrated from the north-east parts of Asia, and that the nations which inhabit Labrador, Esquimaux, and parts adjacent, from their unlikeness to the American nations, and their resemblance to the northern Europeans, came over from the north-west parts of Europe.

Whatever degree of respect we may think justly due to the opinion of so eminent a writer, I feel compelled to say that this one does not seem to me free from objections. The latitude indicated, 66° North, is that of Behring's Straits, where, and 10° still further south, the cold is so intense as to affect even spirits of wine; and though undoubtedly the Strait is entirely frozen over the greater part of the year, and people can go over in sledges and on foot, the natives who do so now are the Esquimaux, the present inhabitants