DISTRIBUTION OF STOCKS
We may summarize the previous discussion by the statement that the chief general result of linguistic investigation in the New World has been the identification and location of the several stocks. Yet, the perfecting of this classification is no mean achievement and is destined to play an increasingly larger rôle in the development of our subject. The important point is that such a classification is based upon the idea of genetic relationship, and so stands in much the same relation to our subject as does evolution to zoology. Thus, there can not be the least doubt that all the Algonquian languages had a common ancestor and the further study of the several divisions of that stock promises to reveal the general outline of this initial type. Further, we have a right to expect that when the comparative studies we have noted are more advanced, definite genetic relations will appear between many of the now recognized independent stocks. For it is apparent that the cultural and somatic unity of the New World necessitates some kind of genetic relationship between the surprisingly large numbers of stocks now enumerated in its linguistic classifications. The pursuit of these important problems will be, in the main, empirical, and as such offers one of the most enticing fields for the scientifically inclined. Yet, this is for the future, our chief consideration here being the distribution of linguistic stocks.
This is shown upon the maps. We see that the most widely distributed stocks in the northern continent are the Athapascan, Algonquian, Iroquoian, Muskhogean, Caddoan, Siouan, Salishan, and Shoshonean-Nahuatlan. The Arawakan, Tupian, Tapuyan, Cariban, Puelchean, and Tsonekan are the largest of the southern continent. In North America, the eight large stocks enumerated occupy practically all of the United States and Canada save the Arctic and Pacific Coast belt and a small part of the Gulf Coast. The lower part of Mexico and southward to the Isthmus is also the home of many small stocks. Thus of the entire eighty-five stocks in North America, all but eight are crowded into less than one-eighth of the
