_Descent of certain portions of the Turk Branch--Epoch of its present extension._--The Turk Branch of the Turanian stock introduces a series of ethnological questions, which have, as yet, presented themselves only in a rudimentary form. Few of the tribes hitherto described, were known to the ancients sufficiently to make the question _of descent_ between the present nations and their real or supposed representatives in classical antiquity, a matter of _much_--although, of course, it is always of _some_--importance. With the Turk nations it is otherwise: a large, perhaps a _very_ large, portion of the ancient Scythia must have been Turk; and, if so, it is amongst the Turks that we must look for some of the widest and fiercest of ancient conquerors. At what time did the present enormous diffusion of Turk tribes take place? The answer to this question is the answer to many others. By knowing this we know also the probable ethnological position of such famous peoples as the Kimmerii, Sakæ, Massagetæ, Alans, Avars, Huns, Nephthalites, Bulgarians, and others--peoples whereof the records are written in the annals not only of Rome and Greece, but of Lydia, Media, and Assyria. At what epoch did the diffusion of the Turk tribes take place? If at a period anterior to history, their frontier must have been the same in the time of Herodotus as at present; and, consequently, their geographical relations to Persia and Europe, the same. At what time, then, did it take place? For two areas the question is answered at once; for European Turkey and for Asia Minor it has certainly taken place within the historical period. With these two exceptions, I believe, that, at the beginning of the historical period, the great Turk area was much the same as at present; less, perhaps, by a degree or two, on this frontier or that; but still essentially the same in _kind_. By _in kind_ I mean _ethnographically_, _i. e._ that (subject to the aforesaid exceptions) the Turk tribes were conterminous with _the same non-Turk tribes as at present_. Let us apply this view in detail. _Siberian Frontier._--From Kasan to the Lake Baikal, the frontier is Finnish, Yeniseian, and Samöeid. I admit that the southern limits of all these families are likely to have been curtailed;--indeed I would argue that such has been the case. This, however, is a mere difference of _degree_. There is no proof of any nations other than those belonging to the Finn, Yeniseian, and Samöeid divisions having ever been in contact with the Northern Turks, and _vice versâ_. _Mongolian and Tibetan frontier._--There is not the shadow of historical evidence, nor even a tradition, which should induce us to believe that these two nations were ever less conterminous with each other, and with the Turk, than they are at present.