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APPENDIX.

[Part I.

the high northern latitudes, where the continentsof Asia and America approach within fifty miles ofeach other, it would be easy for the inhabitant ofEastern Tartary or Japan to steer his canoe fromislet to islet, quite across to the American shore,without ever being on the ocean more than two daysat a time . 7 The communication is somewhat moredifficult on the Atlantic side. But even there, Ice­ land was occupied by colonies of Europeans manyhundred years before the discovery by Columbus ;and the transit from Iceland to America is com-paratively easy . 8 Independently of these channels,others were opened in the southern hemisphere , bymeans of the numerous islands in the Pacific. Thepopulation of America is not nearly so difficult aproblem, as that of these little spots. But experienceshows how practicable the communication may havebeen, even with such sequestered places . 9 The sav-

7 Beechey, Voyage to the Pacif-ic and Beering’s Strait, (London,1831,) Part 2, Appendix . — Hum­ boldt , Examen Critique de l’His-toire de la Geographie du Nou-veau Continent, (Paris, 1837,)tom. II. p. 58.

8 Whatever skepticism may havebeen entertained as to the visit of

the Northmen, in the eleventhcentury, to the coasts of the greatcontinent, it is probably set at restin the minds of most scholars,since the publication of the orig-inal documents, by the Royal So­ ciety at Copenhagen . (See, inparticular, Antiquitates America-

ns, (Hafuiae, 1837,) pp. 79 - 200.)How far south they penetrated isnot so easily settled.

9 The most remarkable exam-ple, probably, of a direct inter-course between remote points, isfurnished us by Captain Cook ,who found the inhabitants of New Zealand not only with the same re-ligion, but speaking the same lan-guage, as the people of Otaheite ,distant more than 2,000 miles.The comparison of the two vocab-ularies establishes the fact. Cook’sVoyages, (Dublin, 1784,) vol. I.book 1, chap. 8.