of the American Indian, because there is evidence warranting the belief that "the Indian was a late comer upon the extreme eastern border of North America—indeed, the oldest distribution of the American races does not antedate the tenth century," and therefore "the appearance of the Skrælling (Esquimau) in the Sagas, instead of the Indian, is precisely what the truth required"[1]—basing the supposition thereupon, it was suggested[2] that in the Esquimaux we should find the descendants of that oldest of all mankind—homo palæolithicus.
Having given the strictly archaeological reasons for dissociating certain of the stone implements found in New Jersey, let us now briefly refer to the historical evidence bearing upon this question. Have we any references to Esquimaux dwelling in regions significantly south of their present habitat? If there are such, then it is at once evident that the weapons and domestic implements of such people must now be buried in the dust of their ancient southern dwelling-places, and, these same spots being subsequently tenanted by the Indian, his handiwork must also be mingled with that of his predecessors.
The literature of this subject can be sufficiently outlined by reference to two authors. Major W. H. Dall, in "Tribes of the Extreme Northwest,"[3] remarks: "There are many facts in American ethnology which tend to show that originally the Innuit of the east coast had much the same distribution as the walrus, namely, as far south as New Jersey." I submit the rude argillite arrow-heads found in certain localities in such abundance, and at a significant depth, as an additional fact, tending in the same direction.
In Rev. B. F. De Costa's admirable résumé, of Icelandic literature[4] there is given abundant evidence—ay, proof—that the people dwelling along the coast of Massachusetts, 900 to 1000 a. d., were not the same race that resisted the English on the same coast six centuries later. The descriptions of the people seen by the Northmen show that, of whatever race, they were well advanced in the art of war, and used not only the bow, but hatchets and the sling. They were "men of short stature, bushy hair, rude, fierce, and devoid of every grace."[5]
It need, therefore, only be remembered that the relationship between the true palæolithic implements and those of more advanced finish and design is evident to every one who carefully examines a complete series. At the same time, the student is confronted with reliable historical evidence of the occupancy of the Atlantic sea-board by the Esquimaux as far south as New Jersey.
Does not the impression derived from strictly archæological
- ↑ "Popular Science Monthly," vol. xviii, No. 1, p. 38, November, 1880, New York,
- ↑ "Peabody Museum Report," vol. ii, p. 252, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- ↑ "Contributions to North American Ethnology," vol. i, p. 98, Washington, 1877.
- ↑ "Pre-Columbian Discovery of America," Albany, 1868.
- ↑ "Popular Science Monthly," November, 1880, p. 38, New York.
