The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America

Abstract

IT is curious that the comparatively little known Pacific side of North America should have had its ethnology collected and digested, while this task has not been performed for the more familiar Atlantic side. Schoolcraft's great work, principally devoted to the Indians east of the Rocky Mountains, is quite of different character, containing a great amount of original information, but no systematic survey of all that is known. Bancroft's plan, to judge from the present volume, is to compile only, but to compile the substance of the whole existing literature. His success has been remarkable, and his work will be of the greatest service to ethnologists, under one condition. Travellers' accounts of savages are meagre enough already, but abstracts of them shrink almost to the bones. Therefore Mr. Bancroft's book should be used as a skeleton chart to guide inquirers to the original authorities, but should not be treated as making such reference unnecessary.

The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America.

By H. H. Bancroft. Vol. I. Wild Tribes. (London: Longmans and Co.)