In prosecuting the enquiry which we have underta ken, it is necessary to determine at what points the con tinent of America approaches nearest to Europe or to Asia, or to both of these divisions of the globe. For tunately the discoveries of modern times enable us to ascertain this matter with considerable precision. It is now very generally admitted, that Greenland is a part of the American continent, or at least that it is separated from it by a very narrow strait. Here then is one way in which the inhabitants of the Old World may have reached the New, and have settled there. But in stating it as likely, that the northern regions of America were peopled by emigration from the coast of Greenland, or from Iceland, we are not left to supposition alone. There are facts which render it not only probable, but as nearly certain as any matter which depends for its truth on the evidence of history, and the reasoning from analogies which are obvious and close. The Esquimaux, of whom we have spoken so frequently, inhabiting a part of North America which stretches from Labrador towards the pole, resemble the Greenlanders, in their form, their manners, and in almost every other respect. And what puts the question beyond all doubt is, that the language of both countries is the same. A missionary, who had passed from Greenland to the American shore, found, that the language of the Greenlanders was perfectly understood by the Esquimaux, who received him as a brother and a friend. In addition to all this, the lower animate, in the north of Europe, are the same with those which belong to the northern provinces of America. The wolf, the bear, the fox, the elk, the deer, and the roebuck, are to be found in the contiguous regions both of the Old World and of the New ; and this circumstance gives additional firmness to the belief, that the one con tinent was peopled by emigration from the other.
The tribes which inhabited the north of Europe in early times, were remarkable for their adventurous and roving spirit. Having increased their numbers, so as to press hard on the limits of the sustenance ‘rhich their country was able to afford them, and having multiplied so rapidly as to be in danger of perishing through fa mine, they were constrained to send oil' their redundant population in quest of new regions, and in order to form new settlements. It is probable, that, at a period to which history does not reach, sonic of these tribes emigrated from the higher latitudes of Norway ; and that, passing to Iceland and to Greenland in soccessiye adventures, they' established themselves in the continent of America. We are sure, at least, that so early as the year 952, Greenland was visited by the Norwegians, and that in the year 1003, they planted a colony either in Labrador or Newfoundland. This colony was soon destroyed by intestine quarrels. (Pinkerton's Gcog. vol. iii. p. 3. Nem. par Ulloa, tom. ii. p. 478.) But the emigration, or suc cessive emigrations, which gave inhabitants to the north ern part of America, took place, in all probability, at a time earlier than either of the dates which have been mentioned ; though the limited progress which the In dians have made in the arts, and their total ignorance of science, have induced sonic to believe, that they had not existed very' long in the country which they possess.
But the continent of America approaches that of Asia, as well as that of Europe. This has not been known with certainty till of late years. It is true, that when the extent of North America from east to West came to be ascertained with any reasonable precision, men of learning, who thought of this subject, inferred at once, that that division of the New World could be at no great distance from the north-eastern of Asia. From the discoveries of the Russians, under the auspices of the czar Peter and the empress Catharine II., it appears, that the two continents are not separated by any great interval from one another. And it is rendered com pletely certain, by the voyages of Cooke, the English navigator, and his successor Clarke, that the strait which divides the Old World from the New is not touch w ider than the narrow sea between Dover and Calais. Nor is this all; there are islands in the strait of lkhring it self, which would render easy the communication be tween Asia and America. From the islands both the continents may be seen at the same time. It cannot he doubted, therefore, that the inhabitants of the north-eas tern parts of Asia, little attached to the soil, and sub sisting chiefly by- hunting and fishing, might pass, ei ther in their canoes in summer, or upon the ice in win ter, from their own country to the American shore. Or a passage of this kind might not be necessary. It is by no means unlikely, that the strait of Behring was for merly occupied by the land ; and that the isthmus, which joined the Old World to the New, was subverted and overwhelmed by one of those great revolutions of nature which shake whole continents, and extend the dominion of the sea to places where its waters are unknown. This is not a mere conjecture ; there are islands mentioned by Julius C.iesar, as existing in the English channel, which arc to be seen no more. Naples was at one time united to Sicily, and Eubcca to Bceotia. It is certain, (says Buffon,) that in Ceylon, the land has lost about thirty or forty leagues, which the sea has taken from it. The islands to be found in the strait, which separates Ante from A ia, are pcobably the mountains and the elevated country liclonging to the isthmus, which we suppose to have been shattered by an earthquake, and sunk under the level of time ocean. If this was the case, if an isthmus uniting the two continents did exist, there annot he the shadow of a difficulty in admitting, that the New World may have been peopled by emigration from the Old.