| OF THE INDIAN MIND. 269
ances. But, after all, when we come to compare
a bark canoe, perfect as it is in its way, with one
of the ocean steam-ships of the Caucasian race, or
the best made stone-tipped arrow ever shot at a
moose or a buffalo, with the double-barreled rifled
carbines carrying an explosive bullet, with which
a French hunter lies in wait for an African lion,
we learn the immense distance which separates the
powers and attainments of the two races from each
other. We must remember, too; that the contriv-
ances which we find Indians now using, and which
we think so ingenious, are not the inventions of
the individuals that we see using them, nor even
of the generation now upon the stage. They are
the results of the combined ingenuity of a hundred
generations ! It is somewhat the same, it is true,
with our inventions ; but with us, not only are the
results infinitely greater, but the work is still
going on with a steadiness and rapidity of progress
almost inconceivable. There is doubtless more
real invention exercised, and a greater number of
new and ingenious contrivances originated and per-
fected every single year, in any one of ten thousand
machine shops and manufactories now in operation
in America, than the Indians can produce as the
result of the accumulated efforts of all the genera-
| |
|
