Footnotes 1. See chapter X. 2. See chapter X. 3. II Nephi 5:1-13. 4. The Nephite land of Bountiful. 5. Mormon 8:1-10. 6. II Nephi 5:15. 7. Jarom 1:8. 8. Helaman 3:6-11. 9. On this point Mr. Baldwin says: "To understand the situation of most of the old ruins in Central America, one must know something of the wild condition of the country. Mr. Squier says: 'By far the greater proportion of the country is in its primeval state, and covered with dense, tangled, and almost impenetrable tropical forests, rendering fruitless all attempts at systematic investigation. There are vast tracts untrodden by human feet, or traversed only by Indians who have a superstitious reverence for the moss-covered, and crumbling monuments hidden in the depths of the wilderness. * * * For these and other reasons, it will be long before the treasures of the past, in Central America, can become fully known.' A great forest of this character covers the southern half of Yucatan, and extends far into Guatemala, which is half covered by it. It extends also into Chiapa and Tabasco, and reaches into Honduras. The ruins known as Copan and Palenque are in this forest, not far from its southern edge. Its vast depths have never been much explored. There are ruins in it which none but wandering natives have ever seen, and some, perhaps, which no human foot has approached for ages. It is believed that ruins exist in nearly every part of this vast wilderness." _Ancient America_, pp. 94, 95. CHAPTER XXV. INDIRECT EXTERNAL EVIDENCES--AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES. PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS.--Continued. III. _Of the Probability of Intercourse Between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres During Jaredite and Nephite Times._ Another remark should be made in these preliminary observations, viz.: It cannot possibly be in conflict with the Book of Mormon to concede that the northeastern coast of America may have been visited by Norsemen in the tenth century; or that Celtic adventurers came to America even at an earlier date, but subsequent to the close of the Nephite period. It might even be possible that migrations came by way of the Pacific Islands to the western shores of America. I think it indisputable that there have been migrations from northeastern Asia into the extreme north parts of North America, by way of Behring straits, where the continents of Asia and North America are separated by a distance of but thirty-six miles of ocean. The reasons for this belief are first, a positive identity of race between the Esquimaux of North America and the Esquimaux of northern Asia; and, second, a very clear distinction of race between the Esquimaux and the American Indians of all other parts of North America. [1]