smaller ranges of territory. Most groups were very small; but, at certain times of year, they would meet others in order to work together on harvests or hunts and for the sake of sociability and ceremony. These people, again, lived by various customs. Their way of life flourished in southern Patagonia and parts of the Arctic (Inuit -- 'Eskimos') almost up to living memory, and, in parts of Amazonia, to today (although some of the latter groups may only have adopted this life in response to European colonisation). Thanks to diffusion of horses from the European colonies, buffalo hunting thrived on the Plains of North America as never before until, in turn, these lands were cleared by the advancing colonists. In order to understand why so little of all these traditions survives, we must consider first how America was colonised by its natives, and, only second, the arrival of the Europeans. Most Native Americans display their origins in their faces: they share dark eyes, and dark, straight hair with East Asians; many groups have a degree of that epicanthic folding which makes the eyes look narrow; and, also like East Asians, many have bold cheek bones. In contrast, however, many Native Americans sport large noses. Other native biological characteristics are less obvious. Most striking is the pattern of blood groups, which sets them apart from Old World populations; and this is the principal evidence for arguing that the American genotype is a 'founder effect', that the great majority of Native