continental area where they occupy marginal positions. In South America there is some confusion arising from the interspersion of many stocks in the Amazon Basin, but again we seem to have the smaller stocks on the Pacific side, though their marginal positions are not so prominent. One curious fact is that in the regions of higher culture we find great linguistic diversity while the very large, widely extended stocks are met with chiefly in the regions of lower culture, though not exclusively. It does not follow, however, that the populations speaking the stock languages of the latter were much larger, because they were, in the main, hunting peoples and would require a large range for the support of each family. Whatever else these facts may signify, they indicate that the development of higher culture was not a linguistic phenomenon.
Another observable tendency of the large stocks is to spread over a single geographical area. Thus, while the Siouan stock has a few straggling remnants on the coast, the great main body is found in the open plains west of the Mississippi. The Athapascan, Algonquian, Salishan, and Shoshonean stocks show similar tendencies. In South America this is not quite so clear, but still seems to be the prevailing tendency. This suggests that the ancestors of these stocks took up their abodes in these respective areas and that their later distribution is the result of normal expansion, a common cultural bond tending to hold them to the same area. The detached groups appear to have modified their culture in response to their change of habitat. This does not signify that these detached tribes were always the migrants for it may sometimes have been otherwise. Thus, we have some very important problems in these larger stocks, for example the Athapascan. Here we have a right to expect that future linguistic research will reveal the oldest language group and its relations to the others and that from this their relative movements can be deduced. As it now stands, we can form no positive idea as to their original home, whether it was in Arizona, Oregon, or Canada. The most worthy suggestion comes from Sapir who states that the
