mation in the fact that the Esquimaux of North America and the natives of the extreme northern and northeastern parts of Asia were similar if not identical people. Later researches, however, go to show that the Yakoutes and Tchuktchi of northern Siberia, are probably colonists from America, and that the migratory tide was in the opposite direction from that usually supposed. This fact, taken in connection with the fact of the African origin of the American aborigines, puts an end to the theory of an Asiatic immigration by the way of Behring strait. We make a great deal of mystery over the presence of men in America when first discovered by Columbus. But is it any more mysterious or unaccountable than the presence of inhabitants upon remote and far isolated islands of the ocean? How came people to be upon the islands of New Zealand, and Otaheite, and a hundred others scattered over the expanse of waters as stars are scattered through the firmament? Good St. Augustine, it is true, could account for it in a way that was no doubt perfectly satisfactory in his day, but which would hardly be accepted in these days of bolder inquiry and speculation. He sug gested that perhaps the angels took up men bodily, carried them through the air, and set them down wherever they were appointed. In the good. old ages of faith, men were at least saved from a great deal of perplexity and useless questioning. There have been those who believed that as animals and plants have been created in and adapted to all parts of the earth, so men have been created everywhere and fitted for their special habitats. There does seem to be a peculiar adaptation of men, as of everything else, to their particular environments; whether such adaptation has come about through long ages of residence, or not, no man can say for certain. Darwin, in his Journal of his Voyage in the Beagle, describes the utterly wretched condition. of the Fuegians, and adds: "Whilst beholding these savages, one asks, whence have they come? What could have tempted, or what change compelled a tribe of men to leave the fine regions of the north, to travel down the Cordillera or backbone of America, to invent and build canoes, which are not used by the tribes of Chili, Peru, and Brazil, and then to enter on one of the most inhospitable countries within the limits. of the globe? Although such reflections must at first seize on the mind, yet we feel sure that they are partly erroneous. There is no reason to believe that the Fuegians decrease in number; therefore we must suppose that they enjoy a sufficient share of happiness, of whatever kind it may be, to render life worth having. Nature by making habit omnipotent, and its effects hereditary, has fitted the Fuegian to the climate and the productions of his miserable country.' But as someone-I think Darwin himself elsewhere-remarks, the difficulty is to understand how they endured the first hardships; how they survived until habit and use had perfected their work in fitting men in such abject circumstances to their conditions. Yet the theory that there have been many, or even more than one creation of man, is burdened with difficulties that will suggest themselves to every mind. time afterwards the ocean in that part was impassible on account of the shoals and slime. Other ancient writers have added to the story of Atlantis. It was reported to have been one of the finest and most productive countries on the globe. It produced wine, fruits, and grain in abundance. It possessed wide pasture-lands, extensive forests, and mines of valuable minerals. Commerce flourished. Its cities were numerous and splendid,. and its prosperous villages were scattered over the land. Its temple of Neptune was a furlong in length, and was decorated with gold, silver and ivory. Such, in short, was the ancient belief of the island of Atlantis. Perhaps it was not altogether fabulous. "The existence of a large island, at a remote period, where the waves of the Atlantic now roll," says Dr. Charles Anthon, "has been regarded by modern science as visionary in the extreme. But even science herself can be made to contribute data towards this captivating theory. Immediately below the chalk and green sand of England, a fluviatile formation, called the wealden, occurs, which has been ascertained to extend from west to east about 200 English miles, and from northwest to southeast about 220 miles, the depth or total thickness of the beds, where greatest, being about 2,000 feet. These phenomena clearly indicate that there was a constant supply in that region for a long period, of a considerable body of fresh water, Then there is the old story of the such as might be supposed to have drained a continent or a large island, containing within it a lofty chain of mountains. If geology can furnish us with such facts as these, it may surely be pardonable in us to linger with something of fond belief around the legend of Atlantis; a legend that could hardly be the mere offspring of a poetic imagination, but must have. had some foundation in truth." If then the island of Atlantis was ever anything more than the figment of a poet's brain, it might easily have furnished a passage from the old world to the continent of America. Nine thousand years before the time of Plato, and Plato lived more than two thousand years ago! This makes havoc of the Ussherian system of chronology—that which is generally accepted, and by which the creation. of man is determined to have been a little less than six thousand years ago. Plato was not troubled about the Ussherian chronology; a thousand or ten thousand years anteriorly, were all the same to him. But as our modern geologists have removed the date of the creation of the world back into the past some number of millions of years, so a new race of scientists have fixed the creation of man in an indefinite past, ranging anywhere from six thousand to a million years ago. The great trouble with these chronological plans, however, is that from the same data, men equally learned and reputable arrive at results so greatly discrepant. "It staggers our faith in the whole chronological scheme," says Dr. Cunningham Geikie, "to find at the outset, that while one high authority reckons the boulder clay, in which old stone implements are found as marking 200,000 years, another, no less eminent, sets it down as 980,000 years old." * Of course the time of the arrival of the American aboriginies upon this continent is involved in the same obscurity as are the other facts of their early history. The natives of Mexico. claim that their ancestors emigrated from the north at least twelve hundred years ago. The mounds and earth-works that abound in the Mississippi valley attest their own antiquity. To the eyes of the first European that beheld them, they looked as ancient as they do now. The Welsh have well-founded traditions that towards the close of the twelfth century, Madoc ap Owen Gwynedd, visited the continent of North America, and led hither a colony of men and women. They found the country then peopled by native tribes, with whom they intermarried, and soon “became assimilated with them in their customs, manners, and religion." Not all of them, however, as it would appear. A Welsh historian gravely informs us, that as lately as the year 1660, the Rev. Mr. Jones, of Tredegar, in Monmouthshire, while *"Hours with the Bible." By Cunningham Geikie, D. D. New York, Hurst & Co. Page 110. |