[791] Frederick von Hellwald in Smithsonian Report, 1866, p. 345. “Open skin canoes, capable of containing twenty or more persons with their effects, and hoisting several masts and sails, are now frequently observed among the seacoast Tehuktchis, and the inhabitants of northern Alaska.”—Whymper, Alaska, p. 246–7.
[792] He continues his statement that the Gulf Stream of the Pacific is the warming agent, and adds the argument that “the present inhabitants of the countries contiguous to Behring’s Straits on the two sides, in manners, customs, and physical appearance are almost identical.”—Smithsonian Report, 1866, p. 345.
[793] Gallatin, p. 156. Bancroft, in assuming the certainty of a migration by Behring’s Straits, says “it seems absurd to argue the question from any point,” vol. v, p. 54. Venegas, Noticia de la California, Madrid, 1757, vol. i, p. 71, and London ed., 1759, p. 61, says the Californians at that date had clear traditions of having come from the north. Fontaine, How the World was Peopled, (N. Y. 1872), pp. 147–9, thinks that the march of Genghis with 1,400,000 Tartars caused the flight of his enemies in large numbers across the Aleutian archipelago and Behring’s Straits. Warden, Recherches, pp. 118–36, makes an argument for a migration through Behring’s Straits from Tartary and China.
[794] Gallatin, in Amer. Ethnol. Soc. Trans., vol. i, p. 158, says: “That America was first peopled by Asiatic tribes is highly probable; but after the lapse of several thousand years, the memory of that ancient migration was lost.” He inquires as to what we knew of Gaul or Britain before the Roman invasion. Mr. W. H. Dall, in his thoughtful Memoir on the Origin of the Innuit, says: “I see no reason for disputing the hypothesis that America was peopled from Asia originally, and that there were successive waves of emigration. The northern route was clearly by way of Behring Strait; at least, it was not to the south of that, and especially it was not by way of the Aleutian Islands.”—In Contributions to North American Ethnology, vol. i, p. 95. Washington, 1877. 4to.
[795] Aug. R. Grote, The Peopling of America, in American Naturalist, April 1877.
[796] Croll, Climate and Time, New York, 1875, 12mo. Prof. McFarland in Am. Jour. of Sci. and Arts, June 1876, p. 456. Newcomb on Croll’s Theory in same journal for April 1876, p. 263.
[797] Whymper, Alaska, pp. 246, 247, discusses the volcanic nature of the Aleutian Islands, mentioning the fact that “There are records of very severe shocks of earthquake felt by the Russian traders and nations dwelling on them.”
[798] Sir Charles Lyell, Antiquity of Man, pp. 273 et seq., has shown that Great Britain was separated from the continent by subsidence and glacial action, thus producing the English Channel which, we have already seen, corresponds singularly with Behring’s Straits in width and depth, and formerly, no doubt, both corresponded more nearly in climatic conditions. It is not unreasonable to suppose that both passages were produced by the same agencies.
[799] Presidential Address to the Am. Association for Adv. of Sci., 1872, and published in his Darwiniana, pp. 203 et seq.
[800] John H. Becker, The Migration of the Nahuas, Congrès des Américanistes, Luxembourg, ses., tom. i. p. 349. Altogether the most enlightened treatment of the subject yet published.