pendently in each of the four principal regions in which it existed—that is, in China, Micronesia, California, and Eastern North America. Few persons, however, will be inclined to doubt that the Micronesians received this invention from Eastern Asia; and, at the other end of the line, the transmission of the usage from one side of the Rocky Mountains to the other will seem equally probable. The only question will be as to its passage across the Pacific. The fact recorded by Dr. Wilson, in his work already quoted, that in 1833 a Japanese junk was wrecked on the coast of Oregon, and that some of her crew were subsequently
rescued from captivity among the Indians of that region, will show how easily this transmission might have been made. Nor is this the only instance known. Mr. Charles Wolcott Brooks, in his report on Japanese vessels wrecked in the North Pacific Ocean, read before the California Academy of Sciences in March, 1876, states that "one of these junks was wrecked on the Queen Charlotte Islands in 1831, and numerous others have been wrecked on other parts of the Northwest coast."
In certain respects the history of money bears a notable resemblance to the history of the alphabet, or rather of written speech. Nations have attained a high degree of civilization without a knowledge of either of these inventions; and each invention, when once known, has spread widely and rapidly through populations in very dif-
