The Lost Tribes of Israel.

Major Noah, editor of the N. Y. Times and Messenger, and who, it is well known, is a Jew, has come out with a declaration of belief that California is the Ophir of the Scriptures, and that the Indians of this country are the remains of the Ten Tribes of Israel. As to the identity of Ophir with California, it is probably the silliest fiction that ever entered into the noddle of Major Noah—albeit it is not the first fiction that has nestled there. . . .

As to the identity of the American Indian with the lost Ten Tribes of Israel, a number of ingenious writers have from time lo time endeavored to prove it;—and we must say they have made up some very agreeable fictions, but have given very few facts to sustain such an idea. Dr. Boudinot wrote a book on the subject which was the best we have seen, if we except, perhaps, the "View of the Hebrews," by Rev. Ethan Smith. . . .

The only race of men now existing, who bear marks of being descended from these tribes of Israel, are the Nestorians of Persia. All attempts to identify them with the American Indians, except as common descendants from Adam and Noah, are the "wildest vagaries that ever entered the head of folly."