Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/108

CHAPTER IV CHRONOLOGY HUMBOLDT and other wise men have recorded their belief that the original settlers of this western coast were Asiatics who may have crossed by the straits now called Behring, or before these straits were formed before the separation of this con- tinent from Asia. The Indians of to-day have a legend that they " came from the north." The finding of the Calaveras skull indicated to scien- tists that so long ago as 150,000 years people from the Orient dwelt in the interior of Califor- nia. Chinese chronicles mention the tradition of the disappearance of Tatar and Mongol explor- ers, whose barks are thought to have been blown by tempests to these dim shores. The head for- mation, even the language of the California In- dian, has been found similar to that of the Tatar. According to Torquemada there occurred four great migrations from this upper territory into what is now Mexico. These tribal emigrants were the Tulticas, the Chichimecas, the Acolhuas and the Aztecs. By the Gila and Missouri Rivers they also invaded the land to the east of the mountains, 82