generations, by a succession of intermixtures, and what clue would there be to guide the inquirer through this labyrinth of mutations back to the first fountain? When it is considered, moreover, that all these tongues are unwritten, and without any recognised principles, the perplexity is increased a hundred fold. According to recent discoveries, the Tschukchi, the natives inhabiting the American side of Bering's Strait, the Eskimaux, and the Greenlanders, speak languages which have. many marks of affinity. Their common origin is a very natural inference. Owing to a more recent separation, or fewer intermixtures, their language has been preserved with something of its primitive form. Had the same favourable circumstances attended the migrations of other tribes, we might perhaps now trace them to the same source, with as much appearance of probability. We might possibly detect similar resemblances between the Iroquois and the Yakuti, the Mohegans and the Kamtschadales, and even the Polynesians and the Kalmuks. In short, the state of the question is simply this. Where obvious analogies exist, we may affirm a connection between the tribes in which they prevail, at some remote or proximate period; but where they do not exist, we can say nothing on the subject. In the latter case we have no warrant for deciding one way or the other. Taken in this view, no well founded objection can be advanced against Ledyard's opinion, although it would not be easy to establish it by a consecutive series of proofs. It was the result of a long observation of general appearances, rather than of a minute and methodical research. It was not with him an idle speculation, indulged for the moment, and then dismissed. After his return from Siberia, he reiterated the same sentiments. In connection with a short account of his travels, he writes to a friend in these emphatic words: "You will please to accept these two observations, as the result of extensive and assiduous inquiry. They are with me well ascertained facts. The first is, that the difference of colour in the human species (as the observation applies to all but the Negroes, whom I have not visited) originates from natural causes. The second is, that all the Asiatic Indians, called Tartars, and all the Tartars, who formed the later armies of Genghis Khan, together with the Chinese, are the same people, and that the American Tartar is also of the same family; the most ancient and numerous people on earth, and the most uniformly alike.' In this place may be inserted, also, his remarks to Mr. Jefferson, in a letter written nearly at the same time with the above. After reiterating his opinion, in regard to the causes of the difference of colour in the human race, he continues! "I am certain, that all the people you call red people on the continent of America, and on the continents of Europe and Asia, as far south as the southern parts of China, are all one people, by whatever names distinguished, and that the best general name would be Tartar. I suspect that all red people are of the same family. I am satisfied, that America was peopled from Asia, and had some, if not all, its animals from thence. "I am satisfied, that the great general analogy in the customs of men can only be accounted for, by supposing them all to compose one family; and, by extending the idea, and uniting customs, traditions, and history, I am satisfied, that this common origin was such, or nearly, as related by Moses, and commonly believed among the nations of the earth. There is, also, a transposition of things on the globe, that must have been produced by some cause equal to the effect, which is vast and curious. Whether I repose on arguments drawn from facts observed by myself, or send imagination forth to find a cause, they both declare to me a general deluge." It will be perceived, that he uses the word Tartar in a broader sense than is commonly given to it, embracing not only all the Northern Asiatic races and the Chinese, but likewise the aborigines of North America. Pallas says, that even the Monguls and Kalmuks are not rightly called Tartars, and that these latter people are different from the former in their origin, customs, political establishments, and the lineaments of their features. They inhabit the northern regions of Thibet, and western Siberia, never mingling with the Kalmuks. These facts in no degree affect Ledyard's use of the word. He employs it as a general term, and in a definite manner, without regard to its original meaning. CHAPTER XI. Climate in Siberia.- Extreme cold.-Congelation of quicksilver.-Images in Russian houses.-Attention paid to dogs.-Ice windows.-Jealousy of the Russians.-Moral condition of the Russians in Siberia.-Ledyard's celebrated eulogy on women.-Captain Billings meets him at Yakutsk, on his return from the Frozen Ocean.-Bering's discovery of the strait called after his name.-Russian voyages of discovery.-Bering's death. Russia fur trade.—Billings's expedition.-His incompe tency to the undertaking. His instructions nearly the same as those drawn up by Peter the Great for Bering.-Some of their principal features enumerated. - - A FEW other selections on miscellaneous topics will now be made from that part of the journal, which was written at Yakutsk. "At Kazan there is abundance of snow; at Irkutsk, which is in about the same latitude, very little. Here, at Yakutsk, the atmosphere is constantly charged with snow; it sometimes falls, but very sparingly, and that in the day time; rarely, if ever, at night. The air is much like that which we experienced with Captain Cook in mare glaciali, between the latitudes of seventy and seventy-two; seldom a serene sky, or detached clouds; the upper region is a dark, still, expanded vapour, with few openings in it. |