reclaimed daughter of the native chief, had died, abandoned by every virtue, and—drunk—in the river!"
The decline has been attributed by many to the "breeding in and in" practice, as the Tasmanians had been isolated for many generations from contact with any other people. This doctrine has been presented forcibly by Mr. George Combe in his "Constitution of Man," and has been acted upon by the regulations of savage tribes, as well as by the exhortations and enactments of churches and states. The "degrees" have been insisted upon. From not "marrying a grandmother," down to the Chinese regulation of not marrying out of his own clan, the man has been hedged in with his natural proclivities. The decay of nations, the diseases of families, the imbecility and unproductiveness of certain royal houses, have been ascribed to this cousinly practice of close breeding. But of late, the argument for the other side has been taken up. Instances,—like that given by Quatrefages of the fishing village of western France, where a couple of thousand healthy, good-looking, and intelligent people are found having no connexion out of their borders—or like the brawny "Caller Herring" women of the Forth—have been adduced to prove the contrary. Several French and English physiologists have lately been opening up the question, and have brought forward statistical evidence to prove the contrary of what has generally been assumed as the evil consequences of "cousin unions."
Mr. Fenton is of the old belief, and writes: "One other cause of depopulation suggests itself to the mind of the writer—the constant intermixture of blood during the twenty generations that the Maories have occupied this country." But, according to the Maori traditions, the settlement was made those twenty generations ago by a few canoe-loads only. When first known to Captain Cook, the islands were thronged with people. The "intermixture" must have been closer at the formation of the colony by the Maories. Mr. Heaphy, another New Zealand authority, attempts similarly to account for the "run out" of the race. "Has isolation been the cause?" says he. "I am not aware that the fact of New Zealand being the populated island most remote in the world from any other populated country has attracted the attention of naturalists. May an infusion of fresh blood not be necessary to restore prolificacy?
