the Aleutian group.

With a view to finding out whether any linguistic affinity existed
between Japanese and the Eskimo dialects in the vicinity of Bering
straits, I caused several Japanese boys, employed as servants on board
the _Corwin_, to talk on numerous occasions to the natives both of the
American and Asiatic coasts; but in every instance they were unable to
understand the Eskimo, and assured me that they could not detect a
single word that bore any resemblance to words in their own language.

The study of the linguistic peculiarities which distinguish the
population around Bering straits offers an untrodden path in a new
field; but it is doubtful whether the results, except to linguists like
Cardinal Mezzofanti, or philologists of the Max Müller type, would be at
all commensurate with the efforts expended in this direction, since it
is asserted that the human voice is incapable of articulating more than
twenty distinct sounds, therefore whatever resemblances there may be in
the particular words of different languages are of no ethnic value.
Although these may be the views of many persons not only in regard to
the Eskimo tongue but in regard to philology in general, the matter has
a wonderful fascination for more speculative minds.

Much has been said about the affinity of language among the Eskimo--some
asserting that it is such as to allow mutual intercourse everywhere--but
instances warrant us in concluding that considerable deviations exist in
their vocabularies, if not in the grammatical construction. For
instance, take two words that one hears oftener than any others: On the
Alaska coast they say "na-koo-ruk," a word meaning "good," "all right,"
etc.; on the Siberian coast "mah-zink-ah," while a vocabulary collected
during Lieutenant Schwatka's expedition gives the word "mah-muk'-poo"