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diff --git a/3066.txt b/3066.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..37ecd99 --- /dev/null +++ b/3066.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3869 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Red Man's Continent, by Ellsworth Huntington + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Red Man's Continent + A Chronicle of Aboriginal America, Volume 1 In The + Chronicles Of America Series + +Author: Ellsworth Huntington + +Editor: Allen Johnson + +Posting Date: February 22, 2009 [EBook #3066] +Release Date: February, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RED MAN'S CONTINENT *** + + + + +Produced by The James J. Kelly Library of St. Gregory's +University, and Alev Akman + + + + + + +THE RED MAN'S CONTINENT + +A CHRONICLE OF ABORIGINAL AMERICA + + +By Ellsworth Huntington + + +NEW HAVEN: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS + +TORONTO: GLASGOW, BROOK & CO. + +LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD + +OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS + +1919 + + + + +PREFACE + +In writing this book the author has aimed first to present in readable +form the main facts about the geographical environment of American +history. Many important facts have been omitted or have been touched +upon only lightly because they are generally familiar. On the other +hand, special stress has been laid on certain broad phases of geography +which are comparatively unfamiliar. One of these is the similarity of +form between the Old World and the New, and between North and South +America; another is the distribution of indigenous types of vegetation +in North America; and a third is the relation of climate to health and +energy. In addition to these subjects, the influence of geographical +conditions upon the life of the primitive Indians has been emphasized. +This factor is especially important because people without iron tools +and beasts of burden, and without any cereal crops except corn, must +respond to their environment very differently from civilized people of +today. Limits of space and the desire to make this book readable have +led to the omission of the detailed proof of some of the conclusions +here set forth. The special student will recognize such cases and +will not judge them until he has read the author's fuller statements +elsewhere. The general reader, for whom this book is designed, will be +thankful for the omission of such purely technical details. + +CONTENTS + +I. THE APPROACHES TO AMERICA II. THE FORM OF THE CONTINENT III. THE +GEOGRAPHIC PROVINCES OF NORTH AMERICA IV. THE GARMENT OF VEGETATION V. +THE RED MAN IN AMERICA BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + + +THE RED MAN'S CONTINENT + + +CHAPTER I. THE APPROACHES TO AMERICA + +Across the twilight lawn at Hampton Institute straggles a group of +sturdy young men with copper-hued complexions. Their day has been +devoted to farming, carpentry, blacksmithing, or some other trade. Their +evening will be given to study. Those silent dignified Indians with +straight black hair and broad, strong features are training their hands +and minds in the hope that some day they may stand beside the white man +as equals. Behind them, laughing gayly and chattering as if without a +care in the world, comes a larger group of kinky-haired, thick-lipped +youths with black skins and African features. They, too, have been +working with the hands to train the mind. Those two diverse races, red +and black, sit down together in a classroom, and to them comes another +race. The faces that were expressionless or merely mirthful a minute ago +light up with serious interest as the teacher comes into the room. She +stands there a slender, golden-haired, blue-eyed Anglo-Saxon girl +just out of college--a mere child compared with the score of swarthy, +stalwart men as old as herself who sit before her. Her mobile features +seem to mirror a hundred thoughts while their impassive faces are moved +by only one. Her quick speech almost trips in its eagerness not to waste +the short, precious hour. Only a strong effort holds her back while she +waits for the slow answers of the young men whom she drills over and +over again in simple problems of arithmetic. The class and the teacher +are an epitome of American history. They are more than that. They are an +epitome of all history. + +History in its broadest aspect is a record of man's migrations from +one environment to another. America is the last great goal of these +migrations. He who would understand its history must know its mountains +and plains, its climate, its products, and its relation to the sea and +to other parts of the world. He must know more than this, however, +for he must appreciate how various environments alter man's energy and +capacity and give his character a slant in one direction or another. +He must also know the paths by which the inhabitants have reached their +present homes, for the influence of former environments upon them may be +more important than their immediate surroundings. In fact, the history +of North America has been perhaps more profoundly influenced by man's +inheritance from his past homes than by the physical features of his +present home. It is indeed of vast importance that trade can move freely +through such natural channels as New York Harbor, the Mohawk Valley, and +the Great Lakes. It is equally important that the eastern highlands of +the United States are full of the world's finest coal, while the central +plains raise some of the world's most lavish crops. Yet it is probably +even more important that because of his inheritance from a remote +ancestral environment man is energetic, inventive, and long-lived in +certain parts of the American continent, while elsewhere he has not the +strength and mental vigor to maintain even the degree of civilization to +which he seems to have risen. + +Three streams of migration have mainly determined the history of +America. One was an ancient and comparatively insignificant stream from +Asia. It brought the Indian to the two great continents which the white +man has now practically wrested from him. A second and later stream was +the great tide which rolled in from Europe. It is as different from the +other as West is from East. Thus far it has not wholly obliterated the +native people, for between the southern border of the United States on +the one hand, and the northern borders of Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay +on the other, the vast proportion of the blood is still Indian. The +European tide may in time dominate even this region, but for centuries +to come the poor, disinherited Indians will continue to form the bulk of +the population. The third stream flowed from Africa and was as different +from either of the others as South is from North. + +The differences between one and another of these three streams of +population and the antagonisms which they have involved have greatly +colored American history. The Indian, the European, and the Negro +apparently differ not only in outward appearance but in the much more +important matter of mentality. According to Brinton * the average brain +capacity of Parisians, including adults of both sexes, is 1448 cubic +centimeters. That of the American Indian is 1376, and that of the Negro +1344 cubic centimeters. With this difference in size there appears to +be a corresponding difference in function. Thus far not enough accurate +tests have been made upon Indians to enable us to draw reliable +conclusions. The Negro, however, has been tested on an extensive +scale. The results seem to leave little doubt that there are real and +measurable differences in the mental powers of races, just as we know +to be the case among individuals. The matter is so important that we may +well dwell on it a moment before turning to the cause of the differences +in the three streams of American immigrants. If there is a measurable +difference between the inherent brain power of the white race and +the black, it is practically certain that there are also measurable +differences between the white and the red. + + + * D. G. Brinton. "The American Race." + + +Numerous tests indicate that in the lower mental powers there is no +great difference between the black and the white. In physical reactions +one is as quick as the other. In the capacity of the senses and in the +power to perceive and to discriminate between different kinds of objects +there is also practical equality. When it comes to the higher faculties, +however, such as judgment, inventiveness, and the power of organization, +a difference begins to be apparent. These, as Ferguson * says, are +the traits that "divide mankind into the able and the mediocre, the +brilliant and the dull, and they determine the progress of civilization +more directly than do the simple fundamental powers which man has in +common with the lower animals." On the basis of the most exhaustive +study yet made, Ferguson believes that, apart from all differences due +to home training and environment, the average intellectual power of the +colored people of this country is only about three-fourths as great as +that of white persons of the same amount of training. He believes it +probable, indeed, that this estimate is too high rather than too low. As +to the Indian, his past achievements and present condition indicate that +intellectually he stands between the white man and the Negro in about +the position that would be expected from the capacity of his brain. If +this is so, the mental differences in the three streams of migration +to America are fully as great as the outward and manifest physical +differences and far more important. + + + * G. O. Ferguson. "The Psychology of the Negro," New York, 1916. + + +Why does the American Indian differ from the Negro, and the European +from both? This is a question on which we can only speculate. But we +shall find it profitable to study the paths by which these diverse races +found their way to America from man's primeval home. According to the +now almost universally accepted theory, all the races of mankind had +a common origin. But where did man make the change from a four-handed, +tree-dwelling little ape to a much larger, upright creature with two +hands and two feet? It is a mistake to suppose that because he is +hairless he must have originated in a warm climate. In fact quite the +opposite seems to be the case, for apparently he lost his hair because +he took to wearing the skins of slain beasts in order that he might have +not only his own hair but that of other animals as a protection from the +cold. + +In our search for the starting-place of man's slow migration to America +our first step should be to ascertain what responses to physical +environment are common to all men. If we find that all men live and +thrive best under certain climatic conditions, it is fair to assume that +those conditions prevailed in man's original home, and this conclusion +will enable us to cast out of the reckoning the regions where they do +not prevail. A study of the relations of millions of deaths to weather +conditions indicates that the white race is physically at its best when +the average temperature for night and day ranges from about 50 to 73 +degrees F. and when the air is neither extremely moist nor extremely +dry. In addition to these conditions there must be not only seasonal +changes but frequent changes from day to day. Such changes are possible +only where there is a distinct winter and where storms are of frequent +occurrence. The best climate is, therefore, one where the temperature +ranges from not much below the freezing-point at night in winter to +about 80 degrees F. by day in summer, and where the storms which bring +daily changes are frequent at all seasons. + +Surprising as it may seem, this study indicates that similar conditions +are best for all sorts of races. Finns from the Arctic Circle and +Italians of sunny Sicily have the best health and greatest energy under +practically the same conditions; so too with Frenchmen, Japanese, and +Americans. Most surprising of all, the African black man in the United +States is likewise at his best in essentially the same kind of weather +that is most favorable for his white fellow-citizens, and for Finns, +Italians, and other races. For the red race, no exact figures are +available, but general observation of the Indian's health and activity +suggests that in this respect he is at one with the rest of mankind. + +For the source of any characteristic so widespread and uniform as this +adaptation to environment we must go back to the very beginning of the +human race. Such a characteristic must have become firmly fixed in the +human constitution before primitive man became divided into races, or at +least before any of the races had left their original home and started +on their long journey to America. On the way to this continent one race +took on a dark reddish or brownish hue and its hair grew straight and +black; another became black skinned and crinkly-haired, while a +third developed a white skin and wavy blonde hair. Yet throughout the +thousands of years which brought about these changes, all the races +apparently retained the indelible constitutional impress of the climate +of their common birthplace. Man's physical adaptation to climate seems +to be a deep-seated physiological fact like the uniformity of the +temperature of the blood in all races. Just as a change in the +temperature of the blood brings distress to the individual, so a change +of climate apparently brings distress to a race. Again and again, to be +sure, on the way to America, and under many other circumstances, man has +passed through the most adverse climates and has survived, but he has +flourished and waxed strong only in certain zones. + +Curiously enough man's body and his mind appear to differ in their +climatic adaptations. Moreover, in this respect the black race, and +perhaps the red, appears to be diverse from the white. In America an +investigation of the marks of students at West Point and Annapolis +indicates that the best mental work is done when the temperature +averages not much above 40 degrees F. for night and day together. Tests +of school children in Denmark point to a similar conclusion. On the +other hand, daily tests of twenty-two Negroes at Hampton Institute for +sixteen months suggest that their mental ability may be greatest at a +temperature only a little lower than that which is best for the most +efficient physical activity. No tests of this sort have ever been made +upon Indians, but such facts as the inventiveness of the Eskimo, the +artistic development of the people of northern British Columbia and +southern Alaska, and the relatively high civilization of the cold +regions of the Peruvian plateau suggest that the Indian in this respect +is more like the white race than the black. Perhaps man's mental powers +underwent their chief evolution after the various races had left the +aboriginal home in which the physical characteristics became fixed. +Thus the races, though alike in their physical response to climate, +may possibly be different in their mental response because they have +approached America by different paths. + +Before we can understand how man may have been modified on his way from +his original home to America, we must inquire as to the geographical +situation of that home. Judging by the climate which mankind now finds +most favorable, the human race must have originated in the temperate +regions of Europe, Asia, or North America. We are not entirely without +evidence to guide to a choice of one of the three continents. There is +a scarcity of indications of preglacial man in the New World and an +abundance of such indications in the Old. To be sure, several skulls +found in America have been supposed to belong to a time before the last +glacial epoch. In every case, however, there has been something to throw +doubt on the conclusion. For instance, some human bones found at Vero +in Florida in 1915 seem to be very old. Certain circumstances, however, +suggest that possibly they may not really belong to the layers of gravel +in which they were discovered but may have been inserted at some later +time. In the Old World, on the contrary, no one doubts that many human +skulls and other parts of skeletons belong to the interglacial epoch +preceding the last glacial epoch, while some appear to date from still +more remote periods. Therefore no matter at what date man may have +come to America, it seems clear that he existed in the Old World much +earlier. This leaves us to choose between Europe and Asia. The evidence +points to central Asia as man's original home, for the general movement +of human migrations has been outward from that region and not inward. +So, too, with the great families of mammals, as we know from fossil +remains. From the earliest geological times the vast interior of Asia +has been the great mother of the world, the source from which the most +important families of living things have come. + +Suppose, then, that we place in central Asia the primitive home of +the thin-skinned, hairless human race with its adaptation to a highly +variable climate with temperatures ranging from freezing to eighty +degrees. Man could not stay there forever. He was bound to spread to +new regions, partly because of his innate migratory tendency and partly +because of Nature's stern urgency. Geologists are rapidly becoming +convinced that the mammals spread from their central Asian point of +origin largely because of great variations in climate. * Such variations +have taken place on an enormous scale during geological times. They +seem, indeed, to be one of the most important factors in evolution. +Since early man lived through the successive epochs of the glacial +period, he must have been subject to the urgency of vast climatic +changes. During the half million years more or less of his existence, +cold, stormy, glacial epochs lasting tens of thousands of years have +again and again been succeeded by warm, dry, interglacial epochs of +equal duration. + + + * W. D. Matthew. "Climate and Evolution," N. Y. Acad. Sci., 1915. + + +During the glacial epochs the interior of Asia was well watered and full +of game which supplied the primitive human hunters. With the advent +of each interglacial epoch the rains diminished, grass and trees +disappeared, and the desert spread over enormous tracts. Both men +and animals must have been driven to sore straits for lack of food. +Migration to better regions was the only recourse. Thus for hundreds +of thousands of years there appears to have been a constantly recurring +outward push from the center of the world's greatest land mass. That +push, with the consequent overcrowding of other regions, seems to have +been one of the chief forces impelling people to migrate and cover the +earth. + +Among the primitive men who were pushed outward from the Asian deserts +during a period of aridity, one group migrated northeastward toward +the Kamchatkan corner of Asia. Whether they reached Bering Sea and the +Kamchatkan shore before the next epoch of glaciation we do not know. +Doubtless they moved slowly, perhaps averaging only a few score or +a hundred miles per generation, for that is generally the way with +migrations of primitive people advancing into unoccupied territory. Yet +sometimes they may have moved with comparative rapidity. I have seen a +tribe of herdsmen in central Asia abandon its ancestral home and start +on a zigzag march of a thousand miles because of a great drought. The +grass was so scanty that there was not enough to support the animals. +The tribe left a trail of blood, for wherever it moved it infringed upon +the rights of others and so with conflict was driven onward. In some +such way the primitive wanderers were kept in movement until at +last they reached the bleak shores of the North Pacific. Even there +something--perhaps sheer curiosity--still urged them on. The green +island across the bay may have been so enticing that at last a raft of +logs was knotted together with stout withes. Perhaps at first the men +paddled themselves across alone, but the hunting and fishing proved so +good that at length they took the women and children with them, and so +advanced another step along the route toward America. At other times +distress, strife, or the search for game may have led the primitive +nomads on and on along the coast until a day came when the Asian home +was left and the New World was entered. The route by which primitive +man entered America is important because it determined the surroundings +among which the first Americans lived for many generations. It has +sometimes been thought that the red men came to America by way of the +Kurile Islands, Kamchatka, and the Aleutian Islands. If this was their +route, they avoided a migration of two or three thousand miles through +one of the coldest and most inhospitable of regions. This, however, +is far from probable. The distance from Kamchatka to the first of the +Aleutian Islands is over one hundred miles. As the island is not in +sight from the mainland, there is little chance that a band of savages, +including women, would deliberately sail thither. There is equally +little probability that they walked to the island on the ice, for the +sea is never frozen across the whole width. Nevertheless the climate may +at that time have been colder than now. There is also a chance that a +party of savages may have been blown across to the island in a storm. +Suppose that they succeeded in reaching Bering Island, as the most +Asiatic of the Aleutians is called, the next step to Copper Island would +be easy. Then, however, there comes a stretch of more than two hundred +miles. The chances that a family would ever cross this waste of ocean +are much smaller than in the first case. Still another possibility +remains. Was there once a bridge of land from Asia to America in this +region? There is no evidence of such a link between the two continents, +for a few raised beaches indicate that during recent geological times +the Aleutian Islands have been uplifted rather than depressed. + +The passage from Asia to America at Bering Strait, on the other hand, +is comparatively easy. The Strait itself is fifty-six miles wide, but +in the middle there are two small islands so that the longest stretch +of water is only about thirty-five miles. Moreover the Strait is usually +full of ice, which frequently becomes a solid mass from shore to shore. +Therefore it would be no strange thing if some primitive savages, in +hunting for seals or polar bears, crossed the Strait, even though they +had no boats. Today the people on both sides of the Strait belong to +the American race. They still retain traditions of a time when their +ancestors crossed this narrow strip of water. The Thilanottines have +a legend that two giants once fought fiercely on the Arctic Ocean. One +would have been defeated had not a man whom he had befriended cut the +tendon of his adversary's leg. The wounded giant fell into Bering Strait +and formed a bridge across which the reindeer entered America. Later +came a strange woman bringing iron and copper. She repeated her visits +until the natives insulted her, whereupon she went underground with her +fire-made treasures and came back no more. Whatever may have been the +circumstances that led the earliest families to cross from Asia to +America, they little recked that they had found a new continent and that +they were the first of the red race. + +Unless the first Americans came to the new continent by way of the +Kurile and Aleutian Islands, it was probably their misfortune to +spend many generations in the cold regions of northeastern Asia and +northwestern America. Even if they reached Alaska by the Aleutian route +but came to the islands by way of the northern end of the Kamchatkan +Peninsula, they must have dwelt in a place where the January temperature +averages -10 degrees F. and where there are frosts every month in the +year. If they came across Bering Strait, they encountered a still more +severe climate. The winters there are scarcely worse than in northern +Kamchatka, but the summers are as cold as the month of March in New York +or Chicago. + +Perhaps a prolonged sojourn in such a climate is one reason for +the stolid character of the Indians. Of course we cannot speak with +certainty, but we must, in our search for an explanation, consider the +conditions of life in the far north. Food is scanty at all times, and +starvation is a frequent visitor, especially in winter when game is hard +to get. The long periods of cold and darkness are terribly enervating. +The nervous white man goes crazy if he stays too long in Alaska. Every +spring the first boats returning to civilization carry an unduly large +proportion of men who have lost their minds because they have endured +too many dark, cold winters. His companions say of such a man, "The +North has got him." Almost every Alaskan recognizes the danger. As one +man said to a friend, "It is time I got out of here." + +"Why?" said the friend, "you seem all right. What's the matter?" + +"Well," said the other, "you see I begin to like the smell of skunk +cabbage, and, when a man gets that way, it's time he went somewhere +else." + +The skunk cabbage, by the way, grows in Alaska in great thickets ten +feet high. The man was perfectly serious, for he meant that his mind was +beginning to act in ways that were not normal. Nowhere is the strain of +life in the far north better described than in the poems of Robert W. +Service. + +Oh, the awful hush that seemed to crush me down on every hand, As I +blundered blind with a trail to find through that blank and bitter land; +Half dazed, half crazed in the winter wild, with its grim heartbreaking +woes, And the ruthless strife for a grip on life that only the sourdough +knows! North by the compass, North I pressed; river and peak and plain +Passed like a dream I slept to lose and waked to dream again. River +and plain and mighty peak--and who could stand unawed? As their summits +blazed, he could stand undazed at the foot of the throne of God. North, +aye, North, through a land accurst, shunned by the scouring brutes, And +all I heard was my own harsh word and the whine of the malamutes, Till +at last I came to a cabin squat, built in the side of a hill, And I +burst in the door, and there on the floor, frozen to death, lay Bill. * + + + * From "Ballads of a Cheechako." + + +The human organism inherits so delicate an adjustment to climate that, +in spite of man's boasted ability to live anywhere, the strain of the +frozen North eliminates the more nervous and active types of mind. Only +those can endure whose nerves lack sensitiveness and who are able to +bear long privation and the strain of hunger and cold and darkness. +Though the Indian may differ from the white man in many respects, such +conditions are probably as bad for him as for any race. For this reason +it is not improbable that long sojourns at way stations on the cold, +Alaskan route from central Asia may have weeded out certain types of +minds. Perhaps that is why the Indian, though brave, stoical, and hardy, +does not possess the alert, nervous temperament which leads to invention +and progress. + +The ancestors of the red man unwittingly chose the easiest path +to America and so entered the continent first, but this was their +misfortune. They could not inherit the land because they chose a path +whose unfavorable influence, exerted throughout centuries, left them +unable to cope with later arrivals from other directions. The parts of +America most favorable for the Indian are also best for the white man +and Negro. There the alerter minds of the Europeans who migrated in the +other direction have quickly eliminated the Indian. His long northern +sojourn may be the reason why farther south in tropical lands he is even +now at a disadvantage compared with the Negro or with the coolie from +the East Indies. In Central America, for instance, it is generally +recognized that Negroes stand the heat and moisture of the lowlands +better than Indians. According to a competent authority: "The American +Indians cannot bear the heat of the tropics even as well as the +European, not to speak of the African race. They perspire little, their +skin becomes hot, and they are easily prostrated by exertion in an +elevated temperature. They are peculiarly subject to diseases of hot +climates, as hepatic disorders, showing none of the immunity of the +African. Furthermore, the finest physical specimens of the race are +found in the colder regions of the temperate zones, the Pampas and +Patagonian Indians in the south, the Iroquois and Algonkins in +the north; whereas, in the tropics they are generally undersized, +short-lived, of inferior muscular force and with slight tolerance of +disease." * "No one," adds another observer, "could live among +the Indians of the Upper Amazon without being struck with their +constitutional dislike to heat. The impression forced itself upon my +mind that the Indian lives as a stranger or immigrant in these hot +regions." * * Thus when compared with the other inhabitants of America, +from every point of view the Indian seems to be at a disadvantage, much +of which may be due to the path which he took from the Old World to the +New. + + + * D. G. Brinton, "The American Race," pp. 34, 35. + + + * * H. W. Bates, "The Naturalist on the River Amazons." vol.II, +pp. 200, 201. + + +Before the red man lost his American heritage, he must have enjoyed it +for thousands upon thousands of years. Otherwise he never could have +become so different from his nearest relative, the Mongol. The two are +as truly distinct races as are the white man and the Malay. Nor could +the Indians themselves have become so extraordinarily diverse except +during the lapse of thousands of years. The Quichua of the cold +highlands of Peru is as different from the Maya of Yucatan or the Huron +of southern Canada as the Swede is from the Armenian or the Jew. +The separation of one stock from another has gone so far that almost +countless languages have been developed. In the United States alone +the Indians have fifty-five "families" of languages and in the whole of +America there are nearly two hundred such groups. These comprise over +one thousand distinct languages which are mutually unintelligible and at +least as different as Spanish and Italian. Such differences might arise +in a day at the Tower of Babel, but in the processes of evolution they +take thousands of years. + +During those thousands of years the red man, in spite of his Arctic +handicap, by no means showed himself wholly lacking in originality and +inventive ability. In Yucatan two or three thousand years ago the Mayas +were such good scientists and recorded their observations of the stars +so accurately that they framed a calendar more exact than any except +the one that we have used for the last two centuries. They showed still +greater powers of mind in inventing the art of writing and in their +architecture. Later we shall depict the environment under which these +things occurred; it is enough to suggest in passing that perhaps at this +period the ancestors of the Indians had capacities as great as those of +any people. Today they might possibly hold their own against the white +man, were it not for the great handicap which they once suffered because +Asia approaches America only in the cold, depressing north. + +The Indians were not the only primitive people who were driven from +central Asia by aridity. Another group pushed westward toward Europe. +They fared far better than their Indian cousins who went to the +northeast. These prospective Europeans never encountered benumbing +physical conditions like those of northeastern Asia and northwestern +America. Even when ice shrouded the northern part of Europe, the rest of +the continent was apparently favored with a stimulating climate. Then +as now, Europe was probably one of the regions where storms are most +frequent. Hence it was free from the monotony which is so deadly in +other regions. When the ice retreated our European ancestors doubtless +followed slowly in its wake. Thus their racial character was evolved in +one of the world's most stimulating regions. Privation they must have +suffered, and hardihood and boldness were absolutely essential in the +combat with storms, cold, wild beasts, fierce winds, and raging waves. +But under the spur of constant variety and change, these difficulties +were merely incentives to progress. When the time came for the people of +the west of Europe to cross to America, they were of a different caliber +from the previous immigrants. + +Two facts of physical geography brought Europe into contact with +America. One of these was the islands of the North, the other the +trade-winds of the South. Each seems to have caused a preliminary +contact which failed to produce important results. As in the northern +Pacific, so in the northern Atlantic, islands are stepping-stones from +the Old World to the New. Yet because in the latter case the islands are +far apart, it is harder to cross the water from Norway and the Lofoten +Islands to Iceland and Greenland than it is to cross from Asia by way of +the Aleutian Islands or Bering Strait. Nevertheless in the tenth century +of the Christian era bold Norse vikings made the passage in the face of +storm and wind. In their slender open ships they braved the elements +on voyage after voyage. We think of the vikings as pirates, and so +they were. But they were also diligent colonists who tilled the ground +wherever it would yield even the scantiest living. In Iceland and +Greenland they must have labored mightily to carry on the farms of which +the Sagas tell us. When they made their voyages, honest commerce was +generally in their minds quite as much as was plunder. Leif, the son of +that rough Red Eric who first settled Greenland, made a famous voyage +to Vinland, the mainland of America. Like so many other voyagers he was +bent on finding a region where men could live happily and on filling his +boats with grapes, wood, or other commodities worth carrying home. + +In view of the energy of the Norsemen, the traces of their presence +in the Western Hemisphere are amazingly slight. In Greenland a few +insignificant heaps of stones are supposed to show where some of them +built small villages. Far in the north Stefansson found fair-haired, +blue-eyed Eskimos. These may be descendants of the Norsemen, although +they have migrated thousands of miles from Greenland. In Maine the +Micmac Indians are said to have had a curious custom which they may +have learned from the vikings. When a chief died, they chose his largest +canoe. On it they piled dry wood, and on the wood they placed the body. +Then they set fire to the pile and sent the blazing boat out to sea. +Perhaps in earlier times the Micmacs once watched the flaming funeral +pyre of a fair-haired viking. As the ruddy flames leaped skyward and +were reflected in the shimmering waves of the great waters the tribesmen +must have felt that the Great Spirit would gladly welcome a chief who +came in such a blaze of glory. * + + + * For this information I am indebted to Mr. Stansbury Hagar. + + +It seems strange that almost no other traces of the strong vikings +are found in America. The explanation lies partly in the length and +difficulty of the ocean voyage, and partly in the inhospitable character +of the two great islands that served as stepping-stones from the Old +World to the New. Iceland with its glaciers, storms, and long dreary +winters is bad enough. Greenland is worse. Merely the tip of that +island was known to the Norse--and small wonder, for then as now most +of Greenland was shrouded in ice. Various Scandinavian authors, however, +have thought that during the most prosperous days of the vikings the +conditions in Greenland were not quite so bad as at the present day. One +settlement, Osterbyden, numbered 190 farms, 12 churches, 2 monasteries, +and 1 bishopric. It is even stated that apple-trees bore fruit and that +some wheat was raised. "Cattle-raising and fishing," says Pettersson, +"appear to have procured a good living.... At present the whole stock of +cattle in Greenland does not amount to 100 animals." * In those days the +ice which borders all the east coast and much of the west seems to have +been less troublesome than now. In the earliest accounts nothing is said +of this ice as a danger to navigation. We are told that the best sailing +route was through the strait north of Cape Farewell Island, where today +no ships can pass because of the ice. Since the days of the Norsemen the +glaciers have increased in size, for the natives say that certain ruins +are now buried beneath the ice, while elsewhere ruins can be seen which +have been cut off from the rest of the country by advancing glacial +tongues. + + + * O. Pettersson, "Climatic Variations in Historic and Prehistoric +Times." Svenska Hydrogrifisk--Biologiska Kommissioneur Skrifter, Haft V. +Stockholm. + + +Why the Norsemen disappeared from the Western Hemisphere we do not +exactly know, but there are interesting hints of an explanation. It +appears that the fourteenth century was a time of great distress. In +Norway the crops failed year after year because of cold and storms. +Provinces which were formerly able to support themselves by agriculture +were obliged to import food. The people at home were no longer able to +keep in touch with the struggling colony in Greenland. No supplies came +from the home land, no reenforcements to strengthen the colonists and +make them feel that they were a part of the great world. Moreover in the +late Norse sagas much is said about the ice along the Greenland coast, +which seems to have been more abundant than formerly. Even the Eskimos +seem to have been causing trouble, though formerly they had been a +friendly, peaceable people who lived far to the north and did not +disturb the settlers. In the fourteenth century, however, they began to +make raids such as are common when primitive people fall into distress. +Perhaps the storms and the advancing ice drove away the seals and +other animals, so that the Eskimos were left hungry. They consequently +migrated south and, in the fifteenth century, finally wiped out the +last of the old Norse settlers. If the Norse had established permanent +settlements on the mainland of North America, they might have persisted +to this day. As it was, the cold, bleak climate of the northern route +across the Atlantic checked their progress. Like the Indians, they had +the misfortune of finding a route to America through regions that are +not good for man. + +Though islands may be stepping-stones between the Old World and the New, +they have not been the bringers of civilization. That function in the +history of man has been left to the winds. The westerlies, however, +which are the prevailing winds in the latitude of the United States and +Europe, have not been of much importance. On the Atlantic side they were +for many centuries a barrier to contact between the Old World and the +New. On the Pacific side they have been known to blow Japanese vessels +to the shores of America contrary to the will of the mariners. Perhaps +the same thing may have happened in earlier times. Asia may thus have +made some slight contribution to primitive America, but no important +elements of civilization can be traced to this source. + +From latitude 30 degrees N. to 30 degrees S. the tradewinds prevail. As +they blow from the east, they make it easy for boats to come from Africa +to America. In comparatively recent times they brought the slave ships +from the Guinea coast to our Southern States. The African, like the +Indian, has passed through a most unfavorable environment on his way +from central Asia to America. For ages he was doomed to live in a +climate where high temperature and humidity weed out the active type +of human being. Since activity like that of Europe means death in a +tropical climate, the route by way of Africa has been if anything worse +than by Bering Strait. + +By far the most important occurrence which can be laid at the door of +the trade-winds is the bringing of the civilization of Europe and the +Mediterranean to the New World. Twice this may have happened, but +the first occurrence is doubtful and left only a slight impress. For +thousands of years the people around the Mediterranean Sea have been +bold sailors. Before 600 B.C. Pharaoh Necho, so Herodotus says, had +sent Phenician ships on a three-year cruise entirely around Africa. The +Phenicians also sailed by way of Gibraltar to England to bring tin from +Cornwall, and by 500 B.C. the Carthaginians were well acquainted with +the Atlantic coast of northern Africa. + +At some time or other, long before the Christian era, a ship belonging +to one of the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean was probably blown to +the shores of America by the steady trade-winds. Of course, no one +can say positively that such a voyage occurred. Yet certain curious +similarities between the Old World and the New enable us to infer with a +great deal of probability that it actually happened. The mere fact, for +example, that the adobe houses of the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico are +strikingly like the houses of northern Africa and Persia is no proof +that the civilization of the Old World and the New are related. A +similar physical environment might readily cause the same type of house +to be evolved in both places. When we find striking similarities +of other kinds, however, the case becomes quite different. The +constellations of the zodiac, for instance, are typified by twelve +living creatures, such as the twins, the bull, the lion, the virgin, +the crab, and the goat. Only one of the constellations, the scorpion, +presents any real resemblance to the animal for which it is named. Yet +the signs of the zodiac in Mediterranean lands and in pre-Columbian +America from Peru to southern Mexico are almost identical. Here is a +list showing the Latin and English names of the constellations and their +equivalents in the calendars of the Peruvians, Mexicans, and Mayas. * + + + * See S. Hagar, "The Bearing of Astronomy on the Problems of the +Unity or Plurality and the Probable Place of Origin of the American +Aborigines, in American Anthropologist," vol. XIV (1912), pp. 43-48. + + + Sign English Peruvian Mexican Maya + -------------------------------------------------------- + Aries Ram Llama Flayer -- + + Taurus Bull (originally Stag) + Stag Stag or Deer Stag + + Gemini Twins Man and Woman Twins Two Generals + + Cancer Crab Cuttlefish Cuttlefish Cuttlefish + + Leo Lion Puma Ocelot Ocelot + + Virgo Virgin (Mother Goddess of Cereals) + Maize Mother Maize Mother Maize Mother + + Libra Scales (originally part of Scorpio) + Forks Scorpion Scorpion + + Scorpio Scorpion Mummy Scorpion Scorpion + + Sagittarius Bowman Arrows or Spears + Hunter and War God Hunter and War God + + Capricornus Sea Goat Beard Bearded God -- + + Aquarius Water Pourer Water Water Water + + Pisces Fishes(and Knot) Knot Twisted Reeds -- + + +Notice how closely these lists are alike. The ram does not appear in +America because no such animal was known there. The nearest substitute +was the llama. In the Old World the second constellation is now called +the bull, but curiously enough in earlier days it was called the stag in +Mesopotamia. The twins, instead of being Castor and Pollux, may equally +well be a man and a woman or two generals. To landsmen not familiar +with creatures of the deep, the crab and the cuttlefish would not seem +greatly different. The lion is unknown in America, but the creature +which most nearly takes his place is the puma or ocelot. So it goes with +all the signs of the zodiac. There are little differences between +the Old World and the New, but they only emphasize the resemblance. +Mathematically there is not one chance in thousands or even millions +that such a resemblance could grow up by accident. Other similarities +between ceremonies or religious words in the Old World and the New might +be pointed out, but the zodiac is illustration enough. + +Such resemblances, however, do not indicate a permanent connection +between Mediterranean civilization and that of Central America. They do +not even indicate that any one ever returned from the Western Hemisphere +to the Eastern previous to Columbus. Nor do they indicate that the +civilization of the New World arose from that of the Old. They simply +suggest that after the people of the Mediterranean regions had become +well civilized and after those of America were also sufficiently +civilized to assimilate new ideas, a stray ship or two was blown by +the trade-winds across the Atlantic. That hypothetical voyage was the +precursor of the great journey of Columbus. Without the tradewinds this +historic discoverer never could have found the West Indies. Suppose that +a strong west wind had blown him backward on his course when his men +were mutinous. Suppose that he had been forced to beat against head +winds week after week. Is there one chance in a thousand that even his +indomitable spirit could have kept his craft headed steadily into the +west? But because there were the trade-winds to bring him, the way was +opened for the energetic people of Europe to possess the new continent. +Thus the greatest stream of immigration commenced to flow, and the New +World began to take on a European aspect. + + + +CHAPTER II. THE FORM OF THE CONTINENT + +America forms the longest and straightest bone in the earth's skeleton. +The skeleton consists of six great bones, which may be said to form a +spheroidal tetrahedron, or pyramid with a triangular base, for when a +globe with a fairly rigid surface collapses because of shrinkage, it +tends to assume this form. That is what has happened to the earth. +Geologists tell us that during the thousand million years, more or less, +since geological history began, the earth has grown cooler and hence has +contracted. Moreover some of the chemical compounds of the interior have +been transformed into other compounds which occupy less space. For +these reasons the earth appears to have diminished in size until now its +diameter is from two hundred to four hundred miles less than formerly. +During the process of contraction the crust has collapsed in four main +areas, roughly triangular in shape. Between these stand the six ridges +which we have called the bones. Each of the four depressed areas forms a +side of our tetrahedron and is occupied by an ocean. The ridges and +the areas immediately flanking the oceans form the continents. The side +which we may think of as the base contains the Arctic Ocean. The ridges +surrounding it are broad and flat. Large parts of them stand above +sea-level and form the northern portions of North America, Europe, and +Asia. A second side is the Pacific Ocean with the great ridge of the two +Americas on one hand and Asia and Australia on the other. Next comes the +side containing the Indian Ocean in the hollow and the ridges of Africa +and Australia on either hand. The last of the four sides contains the +Atlantic Ocean and is bounded by Africa and Europe on one hand and North +and South America on the other. Finally the tip of the pyramid projects +above the surrounding waters, and forms the continent of Antarctica. + +It may seem a mere accident that this tip lies near the South Pole, +while the center of the opposite face lies near the North Pole. Yet +this has been of almost infinite importance in the evolution not only of +plants and animals but of men. The reason is that this arrangement gives +rise to a vast and almost continuous land mass in comparatively high +latitudes. Only in such places does evolution appear to make rapid +progress. * + + + * W. D. Matthew, "Climate and Evolution," N. Y. Acad. Sci., 1915. + + +Evolution is especially stimulated by two conditions. The first is that +there shall be marked changes in the environment so that the process +of natural selection has full opportunity to do its work. The second is +that numerous new forms or mutants, as the biologists call them, shall +be produced. Both of these conditions are most fully met in large +continents in the temperate zone, for in such places climatic variations +are most extreme. Such variations may take the form of extreme changes +either from day to night, from season to season, or from one century to +another. In any case, as Darwin long ago pointed out, they cause some +forms of life to perish while others survive. Thus climatic variations +are among the most powerful factors in causing natural selection and +hence in stimulating evolution. Moreover it has lately been shown +that variations in temperature are one of the chief causes of organic +variation. Morgan and Plough, * for example, have discovered that when a +certain fly, called the drosophila, is subjected to extremes of heat or +cold, the offspring show an unusually strong tendency to differ from +the parents. Hence the climatic variability of the interior of large +continents in temperate latitudes provides new forms of life and then +selects some of them for preservation. The fossils found in the rocks +of the earth's crust support this view. They indicate that most of the +great families of higher animals originated in the central part of the +great land mass of Europe and Asia. A second but much smaller area of +evolution was situated in the similar part of North America. From these +two centers new forms of life spread outward to other continents. Their +movements were helped by the fact that the tetrahedral form of the earth +causes almost all the continents to be united by bridges of land. + + + * Unpublished manuscript. + + +If any one doubts the importance of the tetrahedral form, let him +consider how evolution would have been hampered if the land of the globe +were arranged as isolated masses in low latitudes, while oceans took +the place of the present northern continents. The backwardness of the +indigenous life of Africa shows how an equatorial position retards +evolution. The still more marked backwardness of Australia with its +kangaroos and duck-billed platypuses shows how much greater is the +retardation when a continent is also small and isolated. Today, no less +than in the past, the tetrahedral form of the earth and the relation of +the tetrahedron to the poles and to the equator preserve the conditions +that favor rapid evolution. They are the dominant factors in determining +that America shall be one of the two great centers of civilization. + +If North and South America be counted as one major land mass, and +Europe, Asia, and Africa as another, the two present the same general +features. Yet their mountains, plains, and coastal indentations are so +arranged that what is on the east in one is on the west in the other. +Their similarity is somewhat like that of a man's two hands placed palms +down on a table. + +On a map of the world place a finger of one hand on the western end of +Alaska and a finger of the other on the northeastern tip of Asia and +follow the main bones of the two continents. See how the chief mountain +systems, the Pacific "cordilleras," trend away from one another, +southeastward and southwestward. In the centers of the continents they +expand into vast plateaus. That of America in the Rocky Mountain region +of the United States reaches a width of over a thousand miles, +while that of Asia in Tibet and western China expands to far greater +proportions. + +From the plateaus the two cordilleras swing abruptly Atlantic-ward. The +Eurasian cordillera extends through the Hindu Kush, Caucasus, and Asia +Minor ranges to southern Europe and the Alps. Then it passes on into +Spain and ends in the volcanoes of the Canary Islands. The American +cordillera swings eastward in Mexico and continues as the isolated +ranges of the West Indies until it ends in the volcanoes of Martinique. +Central America appears at first sight to be a continuation of the +great cordillera, but really it is something quite different--a mass +of volcanic material poured out in the gap where the main chain of +mountains breaks down for a space. In neither hemisphere, however, is +the main southward sweep of the mountains really lost. In the Old World +the cordillera revives in the mountains of Syria and southern Arabia and +then runs southward along the whole length of eastern Africa. In America +it likewise revives in the mighty Andes, which take their rise fifteen +hundred miles east of the broken end of the northern cordillera in +Mexico. In the Andes even more distinctly than in Africa the cordillera +forms a mighty wall running north and south. It expands into the plateau +of Peru and Bolivia, just as its African compeer expands into that of +Abyssinia, but this is a mere incident. The main bone, so to speak, +keeps on in each case till it disappears in the great southern ocean. +Even there, however, it is not wholly lost, for it revives in the cold, +lofty continent of Antarctica, where it coalesces once more with the +other great tetrahedral ridges of Africa and Australia. + +It is easy to see that these great cordilleras have turned most of the +earth's chief rivers toward the Atlantic and the Arctic Oceans. That +is why these two oceans with an area of only forty-three million square +miles receive the drainage from twenty million square miles of +land, while the far larger Indian and Pacific Oceans with an area of +ninety-one million square miles receive the rivers of only ten million +square miles. The world's streams of civilization, like the rivers of +water, have flowed from the great cordilleras toward the Atlantic. Half +of the world's people, to be sure, are lodged in the relatively small +areas known as China and India on the Pacific side of the Old World +cordillera. Nevertheless the active streams of civilization have flowed +mainly on the other side--the side where man apparently originated. From +the earliest times the mountains have served to determine man's chief +migrations. Their rugged fastnesses hinder human movements and thereby +give rise to a strong tendency to move parallel to their bases. During +the days of primitive man the trend of the mountains apparently directed +his migrations northeastward to Bering Strait and then southeastward +and southward from one end of America to the other. In the same way the +migrations to Europe and Africa which ultimately reached America moved +mainly parallel to the mountains. + +From end to end of America the great mountains form a sharp dividing +line. The aboriginal tribes on the Pacific slope are markedly different +from those farther east across the mountains. Brinton sums the case up +admirably: + +"As a rule the tribes of the western coast are not connected with any +east of the mountains. What is more singular, although they +differ surprisingly among themselves in language, they have marked +anthropologic similarities, physical and psychical. Virchow has +emphasized the fact that the skulls from the northern point of +Vancouver's Island reveal an unmistakable analogy to those from the +southern coast of California; and this is to a degree true of many +intermediate points. Not that the crania have the same indices. On the +contrary, they present great and constant differences within the same +tribe; but these differences are analogous one to the other, and on +fixed lines. + +"There are many other physical similarities which mark the Pacific +Indians and contrast them with those east of the mountains. The eyes are +less oblique, the nose flatter, the lips fuller, the chin more pointed, +the face wider. There is more hair on the face and in the axilla, and +the difference between the sexes is much more obvious. + +"The mental character is also in contrast. The Pacific tribes are more +quiet, submissive, and docile; they have less courage, and less of that +untamable independence which is so constant a feature in the history of +the Algonquins and Iroquois." * + + + * D. G. Brinton, "The American Race," pp. 103-4. + + +Although mountains may guide migrations, the plains are the regions +where people dwell in greatest numbers. The plains in the two great land +masses of the Old World and the New have the same inverse or right- and +left-handed symmetry as the mountains. In the north the vast stretches +from the Mackenzie River to the Gulf of Mexico correspond to the plains +of Siberia and Russia from the Lena to the Black Sea. Both regions have +a vast sweep of monotonous tundras at the north and both become fertile +granaries in the center. Before the white man introduced the horse, the +ox, and iron ploughs, there prevailed an extraordinary similarity in the +habits of the plains Indians from Texas to Alberta. All alike depended +on the buffalo; all hunted him in much the same way; all used his skins +for tents and robes, his bones for tools, and his horns for utensils. +All alike made him the center of their elaborate rituals and dances. +Because the plains of North America were easy to traverse, the +relatively high culture of the ancient people of the South spread into +the Mississippi Valley. Hence the Natchez tribe of Mississippi had a +highly developed form of sun-worship and a well-defined caste system +with three grades of nobility in addition to the common people. Even +farther north, almost to the Ohio River, traces of the sun-worship of +Mexico had penetrated along the easy pathway of the plains. + +South of the great granaries of North America and Eurasia the plains are +broken, but occur again in the Orinoco region of South America and +the Sahara of Africa. Thence they stretch almost unbroken toward the +southern end of the continents. In view of the fertility of the plains +it is strange that the centers of civilization have so rarely been +formed in these vast level expanses. + +The most striking of the inverse resemblances between America and the +Old World are found along the Atlantic border. In the north of Europe +the White Sea corresponds to Hudson Bay in America. Farther toward the +Atlantic Ocean Scandinavia with its mountains, glaciers, and fiords +is similar to Labrador, although more favored because warmer. Next +the islands of Great Britain occupy a position similar to that of +Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island. But here again the eastern +climate is much more favorable than the western. Although practically +all of Newfoundland is south of England, the American island has only +six inhabitants per square mile, while the European country has six +hundred. To the east of the British Isles the North Sea, the Baltic, and +Lakes Ladoga and Onega correspond in striking fashion to the Gulf of St. +Lawrence, the river of the same name, and the Great Lakes from Ontario +to Superior. Next the indented shores of western France and the +peninsula of Spain resemble our own indented coast and the peninsula +of Florida. Here at last the American regions are as favored as the +European. Farther south the Mediterranean and Black seas penetrate far +into the interior just as does the Gulf of Mexico, and each continent is +nearly cut in two where the canals of Suez and Panama respectively have +been trenched. Finally in the southern continents a long swing eastward +in America balances a similar swing westward in Africa. Thus Cape Saint +Roque and Cape Verde are separated by scarcely 16 degrees of longitude, +although the extreme points of the Gulf of Mexico and the Black Sea are +140 degrees apart. Finally to the south of the equator the continents +swing away from one another once more, preserving everywhere the same +curious inverse relationship. + +Even more striking than the inverse resemblance of the New World to the +Old is the direct similarity of North and South America. In physical +form the two continents are astonishingly alike. Not only does each have +the typical triangular form which would naturally arise from tetrahedral +shrinking of the globe, but there are four other cardinal points of +resemblance. First, in the northeast each possesses an area of extremely +ancient rocks, the Laurentian highlands of Quebec and Labrador in North +America and the highlands of Guiana in South America. Second, in the +southeast lie highlands of old but not the most ancient rocks stretching +from northeast to southwest in the Appalachian region of North America, +and in the Brazilian mountains of the southern continent. Third, along +the western side of each continent recent crustal movements supplemented +by volcanic action on a magnificent scale have given rise to a complex +series of younger mountains, the two great cordilleras. Finally, the +spaces between the three mountain masses are occupied by a series of +vast confluent plains which in each case extend from the northern ocean +to the southern and bend around the southeastern highlands. These plains +are the newest part of America, for many of them have emerged from the +sea only in recent geological times. Taken as a whole the resemblance +between the two continents is striking. + +If these four physiographic provinces of North and South America lay in +similar latitudes in the respective continents we might expect each pair +to have a closely similar effect on life. In fauna, flora, and even in +human history they would present broad and important resemblances. As a +matter of fact, however, they are as different as can well be imagined. +Where North America, is bathed by icy waters full of seals and floating +ice South America is bathed by warm seas full of flying-fish and coral +reefs. The northern continent is broadest in the cool latitudes that are +most favorable for human activity. The southern expands most widely in +latitudes whose debilitating monotony of heat and moisture is the +worst of handicaps to human progress. The great rivers of the northern +continent correspond very closely to those of the southern. The +Mackenzie, however, is bound in the rigid bands of winter for eight +months each year, while the Orinoco, the corresponding South American +river, lies sweltering under a tropical sun which burns its grassy +plains to bitter dust even as the sharp cold reduced the Mackenzie +region to barren tundra. The St. Lawrence flows through fertile grain +fields and the homes of an active people of the temperate zone, but the +Amazon winds its slow way amid the malarious languor of vast tropical +forests in which the trees shut out the sky and the few natives are +apathetic with the eternal inertia of the hot, damp tropics. + +Only when we come to the Mississippi in the northern continent and +the Rio de la Plata in the southern do we find a pair of rivers which +correspond to any degree in the character of the life surrounding them, +as well as in their physiographic character. Yet even here there is a +vast difference, especially in the upper courses of the river. Each at +its mouth flows through a rich, fertile plain occupied by a progressive, +prosperous people. But the Rio de la Plata takes its rise in one of the +world's most backward plains, the home of uncivilized Indians, +heartless rubber adventurers, and the most rapacious of officials. Not +infrequently, the degenerate white men of these regions, yielding to +the subtle and insidious influence of the tropics, inflict the most +outrageous abuses upon the natives, and even kill them on slight +provocation. The natives in turn hate their oppressors, and when the +chance comes betray them or leave them to perish in sickness and misery. +The upper Mississippi, on the other hand, comes from a plain where +agriculture is carried on with more labor-saving devices than are found +anywhere else in the world. There States like Wisconsin and Minnesota +stand in the forefront of educational and social progress. The contrasts +between the corresponding rivers of the two Americas are typical of the +contrasts in the history of the two continents. + + + +CHAPTER III. THE GEOGRAPHIC PROVINCES OF NORTH AMERICA + +The four great physical divisions of North America--the Laurentian +highland, the Appalachian highland, the plains, and the western +cordillera--are strikingly different in form and structure. The +Laurentian highland presents a monotonous waste of rough hills, +irregular valleys, picturesque lakes, and crooked rivers. Most of it +is thinly clothed with pine trees and bushes such as the blueberry +and huckleberry. Yet everywhere the ancient rock crops out. No one can +travel there without becoming tiresomely familiar with fine-grained, +shattered schists, coarse granites, and their curiously banded +relatives, the gneisses. This rocky highland stretches from a little +north of the St. Lawrence River to Hudson Bay, around which it laps in +the form of a V, and so is known as the Archaean V or shield. + +Everywhere this oldest part of the Western Hemisphere presents +unmistakable signs of great age. The schists by their fine crumpling and +scaly flakes of mineral show that they were formed deep in the bowels +of the earth, for only there could they be subjected to the enormous +pressure needed to transform their minerals into sheets as thin as +paper. The coarse granites and gneisses proclaim still more clearly that +they must have originated far down in the depths of the earth; their +huge crystals of mica, quartz, hornblende, feldspar, and other minerals +could never have been formed except under a blanket of rock which almost +prevented the original magmas from cooling. The thousands or tens of +thousands of feet of rock which once overlay the schists and still more +the granites and gneisses must have been slowly removed by erosion, for +there was no other way to get rid of them. This process must have +taken tens of millions of years, and yet the whole work must have been +practically completed a hundred or perhaps several hundred million years +ago. We know this because the selfsame ancient eroded surface which +is exposed in the Laurentian highland is found dipping down under the +oldest known fossiliferous rocks. Traces of that primitive land surface +are found over a large part of the American continent. Elsewhere they +are usually buried under later strata laid down when the continent +sank in part below sea-level. Only in Laurentia has the land remained +steadily above the reach of the ocean throughout the millions of years. + +Today this old, old land might be as rich as many others if climate +had been kind to it. Its soil, to be sure, would in many parts be sandy +because of the large amount of quartz in the rocks. That would be a +small handicap, however, provided the soil were scores of feet deep like +the red soil of the corresponding highland in the Guiana region of +South America. But today the North American Laurentia has no soil worth +mentioning. For some reason not yet understood this was the part +of America where snow accumulated most deeply and where the largest +glaciers were formed during the last great glacial period. Not once but +many times its granite surface was shrouded for tens of thousands of +years in ice a mile or more thick. As the ice spread outward in almost +every direction, it scraped away the soil and gouged innumerable hollows +in the softer parts of the underlying rock. It left the Laurentian +highland a land of rocky ribs rising between clear lakes that fill the +hollows. The lakes are drained by rapid rivers which wind this way +and that in hopeless confusion as they strive to move seaward over the +strangely uneven surface left by the ice. Such a land is good for the +hunter and trapper. It is also good for the summer pleasure-seeker who +would fain grow strong by paddling a canoe. For the man who would make +a permanent home it is a rough, inscrutable region where one has need of +more than most men's share of courage and persistence. Not only did +the climate of the past cause the ice to scrape away the soil, but +the climate of the present is so cold that even where new soil has +accumulated the farmer can scarcely make a living. + +Around the borders of the Laurentian highland the ice accomplished a +work quite different from the devastation of the interior. One of its +chief activities was the scouring of a series of vast hollows which +now hold the world's largest series of lakes. Even the lakes of Central +Africa cannot compare with our own Great Lakes and the other smaller +lakes which belong to the same series. These additional lakes begin +in the far north with Great Bear Lake and continue through Great Slave +Lake, Lake Athabasca, and Lake Winnipeg to the Lake of the Woods, which +drains into Lake Superior. All these lakes lie on the edge of the great +Laurentian shield, where the ice, crowding down from the highland to +the north and east, was compressed into certain already existent hollows +which it widened, deepened, and left as vast bowls ready to be filled +with lakes. + +South and southwest of the Laurentian highland the great ice sheet +proved beneficial to man. There, instead of leaving the rock naked, +as in the Laurentian region, it merely smoothed off many of the +irregularities of the surface and covered large areas with the most +fertile soil. + +In doing this, to be sure, the ice-cap scoured some hollows and left a +vastly larger number of basins surrounded in whole or in part by glacial +debris. These have given rise to the innumerable lakes, large and small, +whose beauty so enhances the charms of Canada, New England, New York, +Minnesota, and other States. They serve as reservoirs for the water +supply of towns and power plants and as sources of ice and fish. Though +they take land from agriculture, they probably add to the life of +the community as much in other ways as they detract in this. Moreover +glaciation diverted countless streams from their old courses and made +them flow over falls and rapids from which water-power can easily be +developed. That is one reason why glaciated New England contains over +forty per cent of all the developed water-power in the United States. + +Far more important, however, than the glacial lakes and rivers is the +fertile glacial soil. It comes fresh from the original rocks and has not +yet been exhausted by hundreds of thousands of years of weathering. +It also has the advantage of being well mixed, for generally it is the +product of scrapings from many kinds of rocks, each of which contributes +its own particular excellence to the general composition. Take Wisconsin +as an example. * Most parts of that State have been glaciated, but in +the southwest there lies what is known as the "driftless area" because +it is not covered with the "drift" or glacial debris which is thickly +strewn over the rest of the State. A comparison of otherwise similar +counties lying within and without the driftless area shows an +astonishing contrast. In 1910 the average value of all the farm land in +twenty counties covered with drift amounted to $56.90 per acre. In six +counties partly covered with drift and partly driftless the value was +$59.80 per acre, while in thirteen counties in the driftless area it was +only $33.30 per acre. In spite of the fact that glaciation causes swamps +and lakes, the proportion of land cultivated in the glaciated areas is +larger than in the driftless. In the glaciated area 61 per cent of the +land is improved and in the driftless area only 43.5 per cent. Moreover, +even though the underlying rock and the original topography be of the +same kind in both cases, the average yield of crops per acre is greater +where the ice has done its work. Where the country rock consists of +limestone, which naturally forms a rich soil, the difference in favor +of the glaciated area amounts to only 1 or 2 per cent. Where the country +rock is sandy, the soil is so much improved by a mixture of fertilizing +limestone or even of clay and other materials that the average yield +of crops per acre in the glaciated areas is a third larger than in the +driftless. Taking everything into consideration it appears that the +ancient glaciation of Wisconsin increases the present agricultural +output by from 20 to 40 per cent. Upwards of 10,000,000 acres of +glaciated land have already been developed in the most populous parts of +the State. If the average value of all products on this area is reckoned +at $15 per acre and if the increased value of agricultural products due +to glaciation amounts to 30 per cent, then the net value of glaciation +per year to the farmers of Wisconsin is $45,000,000. This means about +$300 for each farmer in the glaciated area. + + + * R. H. Whitbeck, "Economic Aspects of Glaciation in Wisconsin", +in "Annals of the Association of American Geographers," vol. III in +(1913), pp. 62-67. + + +Wisconsin is by no means unique. In Ohio, for instance, there is also +a driftless area. * It lies in the southeast along the Ohio River. The +difference in the value of the farm land there and in the glaciated +region is extraordinary. In the driftless area the average value per +acre in 1910 was less than $24, while in the glaciated area it was +nearly $64. Year by year the proportion of the population of the State +in the unglaciated area is steadily decreasing. The difference between +the two parts of the State is not due to the underlying rock structure +or to the rainfall except to a slight degree. Some of the difference is +due to the fact that important cities such as Cleveland and Toledo lie +on the fertile level strip of land along the lake shore, but this strip +itself, as well as the lake, owes much of its character to glaciation. +It appears, therefore, that in Ohio, perhaps even more than in +Wisconsin, man prospers most in the parts where the ice has done its +work. + + + * William H. Hess, "The Influence of Glaciation in Ohio," in +"Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia," vol. XV (1917), +pp. 19-42. + + +We have taken Wisconsin and Ohio as examples, but the effect of +glaciation in those States does not differ materially from its effect +all over southern Canada and the northern United States from New England +to Kansas and Minnesota. Each year the people of these regions are +richer by perhaps a billion dollars because the ice scraped its way down +from Laurentia and spread out over the borders of the great plains on +the west and of the Appalachian region on the east. + +We have considered the Laurentian highland and the glaciation which +centered there. Let us now turn to another highland only the northern +part of which was glaciated. The Appalachian highland, the second great +division of North America, consists of three parallel bands which extend +southwestward from Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence River to Georgia +and Alabama. The eastern and most important band consists of hills and +mountains of ancient crystalline rocks, somewhat resembling those of the +Laurentian highland but by no means so old. West of this comes a broad +valley eroded for the most part in the softer portions of a highly +folded series of sedimentary rocks which are of great age but younger +than the crystalline rocks to the east. The third band is the Alleghany +plateau, composed of almost horizontal rocks which lie so high and have +been so deeply dissected that they are often called mountains. + +The three Appalachian bands by no means preserve a uniform character +throughout their entire length. The eastern crystalline band has its +chief development in the northeast. There it comprises the whole of New +England and a large part of the maritime provinces of Canada as well as +Newfoundland. Its broad development in New England causes that region to +be one of the most clearly defined natural units of the United States. +Ancient igneous rocks such as granite lie intricately mingled with old +and highly metamorphosed sediments. Since some of the rocks are hard and +others soft and since all have been exposed to extremely long erosion, +the topography of New England consists typically of irregular masses +of rounded hills free from precipices. Here and there hard masses of +unusually resistant rock stand up as isolated rounded heights, like +Mount Katahdin in Maine. They are known as "monadnocks" from the +mountain of that name in southern New Hampshire. In other places larger +and more irregular masses of hard rock form mountain groups like the +White Mountains, the Green Mountains, and the Berkshires, each of which +is merely a great series of monadnocks. + +In the latitude of southern New York the crystalline rocks are +compressed into narrow compass and lose their mountainous character. +They form the irregular hills on which New York City itself is built and +which make the suburbs of Westchester County along the eastern Hudson +so diverse and beautiful. To the southeast the topography of the old +crystalline band becomes still less pronounced, as may be seen in the +rolling, fertile hills around Philadelphia. Farther south the band +divides into two parts, the mountains proper and the Piedmont plateau. +The mountains begin at the Blue Ridge, which in Virginia raises its +even-topped heights mile after mile across the length of that State. In +North Carolina, however, they lose their character as a single ridge +and expand into the broad mass of the southern Appalachians. There Mount +Mitchell dominates the eastern part of the American continent and is +surrounded by over thirty other mountains rising to a height of at least +six thousand feet. The Piedmont plateau, which lies at the eastern foot +of the Blue Ridge, is not really a plateau but a peneplain or ancient +lowland worn almost to a plain. It expands to a width of one hundred +miles in Virginia and the Carolinas and forms the part of those States +where most of the larger towns are situated. Among its low gentle +heights there rises an occasional little monadnock like Chapel Hill, +where the University of North Carolina lies on a rugged eminence which +strikingly recalls New England. For the most part, however, the hills +of the Piedmont region are lower and more rounded than those in +the neighborhood of Philadelphia. The country thus formed has many +advantages, for it is flat enough to be used for agriculture and yet +varied enough to be free from the monotony of the level plains. + +The prolonged and broken inner valley forming the second band of the +Appalachians was of some importance as a highway in the days of the +Indians. Today the main highways of traffic touch it only to cross it as +quickly as possible. From Lake Champlain it trends straight southward in +the Hudson Valley until the Catskills have been passed. Then, while the +railroads and all the traffic go on down the gorge of the Hudson to +New York, the valley swings off into Pennsylvania past Scranton, +Wilkesbarre, and Harrisburg. There the underlying rock consists of a +series of alternately hard and soft layers which have been crumpled up +much as one might wrinkle a rug with one's foot. The pressure involved +in the process changed and hardened the rocks so much that the coal +which they contain was converted into anthracite, the finest coal in all +the world and the only example of its kind. Even the famous Welsh coal +has not been so thoroughly hardened. During a long period of erosion the +tops of the folded layers were worn off to a depth of thousands of feet +and the whole country was converted into an almost level plain. Then +in the late geological period known as the early Tertiary the land was +lifted up again, and once more erosion went on. The soft rocks were thus +etched away until broad valleys were formed. The hard layers were left +as a bewildering succession of ridges with flat tops. A single ridge +may double back and forth so often that the region well deserves the old +Indian name of the "Endless Mountains." Southwestward the valley grows +narrower, and the ridges which break its surface become straighter. +Everywhere they are flat-topped, steep-sided, and narrow, while between +them lie parts of the main valley floor, flat and fertile. Here in the +south, even more clearly than in the north, the valley is bordered +on the east by the sharply upstanding range of the crystalline +Appalachians, while on the west with equal regularity it comes to an end +in an escarpment which rises to the Alleghany plateau. + +This plateau, the third great band of the Appalachians, begins on the +south side of the Mohawk Valley. To the north its place is taken by +the Adirondacks, which are an outlier of the great Laurentian area of +Canada. The fact that the outlier and the plateau are separated by the +low strip of the Mohawk Valley makes this the one place where the highly +complex Appalachian system can easily be crossed. If the Alleghany +plateau joined the Adirondacks, Philadelphia instead of New York would +be the greatest city of America. Where the plateau first rises on the +south side of the Mohawk, it attains heights of four thousand feet in +the Catskill Mountains. We think of the Catskills as mountains, but +their steep cliffs and table-topped heights show that they are really +the remnants of a plateau, the nearly horizontal strata of which +have not yet been worn away. Westward from the Catskills the plateau +continues through central New York to western Pennsylvania. Those who +have traveled on the Pennsylvania Railroad may remember how the railroad +climbs the escarpment at Altoona. Farther east the train has passed +alternately through gorges cut in the parallel ridges and through +fertile open valleys forming the main floor of the inner valley. Then it +winds up the long ascent of the Alleghany front in a splendid horseshoe +curve. At the top, after a short tunnel, the train emerges in a wholly +different country. The valleys are without order or system. They wind +this way and that. The hills are not long ridges but isolated bits left +between the winding valleys. Here and there beds of coal blacken the +surface, for here we are among the rocks from which the world's largest +coal supply is derived. Since the layers lie horizontally and have never +been compressed, the same material which in the inner valley has been +changed to hard, clean-burning anthracite here remains soft and smoky. + +In its southwestern continuation through West Virginia and Kentucky +to Tennessee the plateau maintains many of its Pennsylvanian +characteristics, but it now rises higher and becomes more inaccessible. +The only habitable portions are the bottoms of the valleys, but they are +only wide enough to support a most scanty population. Between them most +of the land is too rough for anything except forests. Hence the people +who live at the bottoms of the valleys are strangely isolated. They see +little or nothing of the world at large or even of their neighbors. The +roads are so few and the trails so difficult that the farmers cannot +easily take their produce to market. Their only recourse has been to +convert their bulky corn into whisky, which occupied little space in +proportion to its value. Since the mountaineer has no other means of +getting ready money, it is not strange that he has become a moonshiner +and has fought bitterly for what he genuinely believed to be his rights +in that occupation. Education has not prospered on the plateau because +the narrowness of the valleys causes the population to be too poor and +too scattered to support schools. For the same reason feuds grow up. +When people live by themselves they become suspicious. Not being used to +dealing with their neighbors, they suspect the motives of all but their +intimate friends. Moreover, in those deep valleys, with their steep +sides and their general inaccessibility, laws cannot easily be enforced, +and therefore each family takes the law into its own hands. + +Today the more rugged parts of the Appalachian system are chiefly +important as a hindrance to communication. On the Atlantic slope of the +old crystalline band there are great areas of gentle relief where an +abundant population can dwell. Westward on the edges of the plateau and +the plains beyond a still greater population can find a living, but in +the intervening space there is opportunity for only a few. The great +problem is to cross the mountains as easily as possible. Each accessible +crossing-place is associated with a city. Boston, as well as New York, +owes much to the low Mohawk-Hudson route, but is badly handicapped +because it has no easy means of crossing the eastern crystalline band. +Philadelphia, on the other hand, benefits from the fact that in its +vicinity the crystallizes are low and can readily be crossed even +without the aid of the valleys of the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. +It is handicapped, however, by the Alleghany escarpment at Altoona, even +though this is lower there than farther south. Baltimore, in the same +way, owes much of its growth to the easy pathways of the Susquehanna +on the north and the Potomac on the south. Farther south both the +crystalline band and the Alleghany plateau become more difficult to +traverse, so that communication between the Atlantic coast and the +Mississippi Valley is reduced to small proportions. Happy is New York +in its situation where no one of the three bands of the Appalachians +opposes any obstacle. The plains of North America form the third of the +four main physical divisions of the continent. For the most part they +lie between the great western cordillera on one side and the Laurentian +and Appalachian highlands on the other. Yet they lap around the southern +end of the Appalachians and run far up the Atlantic coast to New York. +They remained beneath the sea till a late date, much later than the +other three divisions. They were not, however, covered with deep water +like that of the abysmal oceans, but only with shallow seas from which +the land at times emerged. In spite of the old belief to the contrary, +the continents appear to be so permanent that they have occupied +practically their present positions from the remotest geological times. +They have moved slowly up and down, however, so that some parts have +frequently been submerged, and the plains are the parts that remained +longest under water. + +The plains of North America may be divided into four parts according +to the character of their surface: the Atlantic coastal plain, the +prairies, the northwestern peneplain, and the southwestern high plains. +The Atlantic coastal plain lies along the Atlantic coast from New York +southward to Florida and Alabama. It also forms a great embayment up the +Mississippi Valley as far as the Ohio River, and it extends along the +shore of the Gulf of Mexico to the Rio Grande. The chief characteristic +of this Atlantic and Gulf coastal plain is its belted nature. One layer +of rocks is sandy, another consists of limestone, and a third of clay. +When uplifted and eroded each assumes its own special topography and is +covered with its own special type of vegetation. Thus in South Carolina +and Georgia the crystalline Piedmont band of the Appalachian province +is bordered on the southeast by a belt of sandstone. This rock is so +far from the sea and has been raised so high above it that erosion has +converted it into a region of gentle hills, whose tops are six hundred +or seven hundred feet above sea-level. Its sandy soil is so poor that +farming is difficult. The hills are largely covered with pine, yielding +tar and turpentine. Farther seaward comes a broad band of younger rock +which forms a clayey soil or else a yellow sandy loam. These soils are +so rich that splendid cotton crops can be raised, and hence the region +is thickly populated. Again there comes a belt of sand, the so-called +"pine barrens," which form a poor section about fifty miles inland from +the coast. Finally the coastal belt itself has emerged from beneath the +sea so recently and lies so nearly at sea-level that it has not been +greatly eroded, and is still covered with numerous marshes and swamps. +The rich soil and the moisture are good for rice, but the region is so +unhealthy and so hard to drain that only small parts are inhabited. + +Everywhere in the coastal plain this same belted character is more +or less evident. It has much to do with all sorts of activities from +farming to politics. On consulting the map showing the cotton production +of the United States in 1914, one notices the two dark bands in the +southeast. One of them, extending from the northwestern part of South +Carolina across Georgia and Alabama, is due to the fertile soil of +the Piedmont region. The other, lying nearer the sea, begins in North +Carolina and extends well into Alabama before it swings around to the +northwest toward the area of heavy production along the Mississippi. It +is due to the fertile soil of that part of the coastal plain known +as the "cotton belt." Portions of it are called the "black belt," not +because of the colored population, but because of the darkness of the +soil. Since this land has always been prosperous, it has regularly been +conservative in politics. + +The Atlantic coastal plain is by no means the only part of the United +States where the fertility of the soil is the dominant fact in the life +of the people. Because of their rich soil the prairies which extend from +western Ohio to the Missouri River and northward into Canada are fast +becoming the most steadily prosperous part of America. They owe their +surpassing richness largely to glaciation. We have already seen how the +coming of the ice-sheet benefited the regions on the borders of the old +Laurentian highland. This same benefit extended over practically the +whole of what are now the prairies. Before the advent of the ice the +whole section consisted of a broadly banded coastal plain much older +than that of the Atlantic coast. When the ice with its burden of +material scraped from the hills of the north passed over the coastal +plain, it filled the hollows with rich new soil. The icy streams that +flowed out from the glaciers were full of fine sediment, which they +deposited over enormous flood plains. During dry seasons the winds +picked up this dust and spread it out still more widely, forming the +great banks of yellow loess whose fertile soil mantles the sides of many +a valley in the Mississippi basin. Thus glaciers, streams, and winds +laid down ten, twenty, fifty, or even one hundred feet of the finest, +most fertile soil. We have already seen how much the soil was improved +by glaciation in Wisconsin and Ohio. It was in the prairie States that +this improvement reached a maximum. The soil there is not only fine +grained and free from rocks, but it consists of particles brought from +widely different sources and is therefore full of all kinds of plant +foods. In most parts of the world a fine-grained soil is formed only +after a prolonged period of weathering which leaches out many valuable +chemical elements. In the prairies, however, the soil consists largely +of materials that were mechanically ground to dust by the ice without +being exposed to the action of weathering. Thus they have reached their +present resting-places without the loss of any of their original plant +foods. When such a soil is found with a climate which is good for crops +and which is also highly stimulating to man, the combination is almost +ideal. There is some justification for those who say that the north +central portion of the United States is more fortunate than any other +part of the earth. Nowhere else, unless in western Europe, is there such +a combination of fertile soil, fine climate, easy communication, and +possibilities for manufacturing and commerce. Iron from that outlier of +the Laurentian highland which forms the peninsula of northern Michigan +can easily be brought by water almost to the center of the prairie +region. Coal in vast quantities lies directly under the surface of this +region, for the rock of the ancient coastal plain belongs to the same +Pennsylvanian series which yields most of the world's coal. Here man is, +indeed, blessed with resources and opportunities scarcely equaled in any +other part of the world, and finds the only drawbacks to be the extremes +of temperature in both winter and summer and the remoteness of the +region from the sea. Because of the richness of their heritage and +because they live safely protected from threats of foreign aggression, +the people who live in this part of the world are in danger of being +slow to feel the currents of great world movements. + +The western half of the plains of North America consists of two parts +unlike either the Atlantic coastal plain or the prairies. From South +Dakota and Nebraska northward far into Canada and westward to the Rocky +Mountains there extends an ancient peneplain worn down to gentle relief +by the erosion of millions of years. It is not so level as the plains +farther east nor so low. Its western margin reaches heights of four or +five thousand feet. Here and there, especially on the western side, it +rises to the crest of a rugged escarpment where some resistant layer of +rocks still holds itself up against the forces of erosion. Elsewhere its +smooth surfaces are broken by lava-capped mesas or by ridges where some +ancient volcanic dike is so hard that it has not yet been worn away. +The soil, though excellent, is thinner and less fertile than in the +prairies. Nevertheless the population might in time become as dense and +prosperous as almost any in the world if only the rainfall were more +abundant and good supplies of coal were not quite so far away. Yet in +spite of these handicaps the northwestern peneplain with its vast +open stretches, its cattle, its wheat, and its opportunities is a most +attractive land. + +South of Nebraska and Wyoming the "high plains," the last of the four +great divisions of the plains, extend as far as western Texas. These, +like the prairies, have been built up by deposits brought from other +regions. In this case, however, the deposits consist of gravel, sand, +and silt which the rivers have gradually washed out from the Rocky +Mountains. As the rivers have changed their courses from one bed to +another, layer after layer has been laid down to form a vast plain +like a gently sloping beach hundreds of miles wide. In most places the +streams are no longer building this up. Frequently they have carved +narrow valleys hundreds of feet deep in the materials which they +formerly deposited. Elsewhere, however, as in western Kansas, most of +the country is so flat that the horizon is like that of the ocean. It +seems almost incredible that at heights of four or five thousand feet +the plains can still be so wonderfully level. When the grass is green, +when the spring flowers are at their best, it would be hard to find a +picture of greater beauty. Here the buffalo wandered in the days before +the white man destroyed them. Here today is the great cattle region of +America. Here is the region where the soul of man is filled with the +feeling of infinite space. + +To the student of land forms there is an ever-present contrast between +those due directly to the processes which build up the earth's surface +and those due to the erosive forces which destroy what the others have +built. In the great plains of North America two of the divisions, that +is, the Atlantic coastal plain of the southeast and the peneplain of the +northwest, owe their present form to the forces of erosion. The other +two, that is, the prairies and the high plains, still bear the impress +of the original processes of deposition and have been modified to only a +slight extent by erosion. + +A similar but greater contrast separates the mountains of eastern North +America and those of the western cordillera--the fourth and last of the +main physical divisions of the continent. In both the Laurentian and +the Appalachian highlands the eastern mountains show no trace of the +original forms produced by the faulting of the crust or by volcanic +movements. All the original distinctive topography has been removed. +What we see today is the product of erosion working upon rocks that were +thousands of feet beneath the surface when they were brought to their +present positions. In the western cordillera, on the contrary, although +much of the present form of the land is due to erosion, a vast amount is +due directly to so-called "tectonic" activities such as the breaking of +the crust, the pouring out of molten lavas, and the bursting forth of +explosive eruptions. + +The character of these tectonic activities has differed widely in +different parts of the cordillera. A broad upheaval of great blocks +of the earth's crust without tilting or disturbance has produced the +plateaus of Arizona and Utah. The gorges that have been rapidly cut +into such great upheaved blocks form part of the world's most striking +scenery. The Grand Canyon of the Colorado with its tremendous platforms, +mesas, and awe-inspiring cliffs could have been formed in no other way. +Equally wonderful are some of the narrow canyons in the broadly upheaved +plateaus of southern Utah where the tributaries of the Virgin and other +rivers have cut red or white chasms thousands of feet deep and so narrow +that at their bottoms perpetual twilight reigns. It is a curious proof +of the fallibility of human judgment that these great gorges are often +cited as the most striking examples of the power of erosion. Wonderful +as these gorges certainly are, the Piedmont plain or the northwestern +peneplain is far more wonderful. Those regions had their grand canyons +once upon a time, but now erosion has gone so far that it has reduced +the whole area to the level of the bottoms of the gorges. Though such +a fate is in store for all the marvelous scenery of the western +cordillera, we have it, for the present at least, as one of the most +stimulating panoramas of our American environment. No man worthy of the +name can sit on the brink of a great canyon or gaze up from the dark +depths of a gorge without a sense of awe and wonder. There, as in few +other places, Nature shows with unmistakable grandeur the marvelous +power and certainty with which her laws work out the destiny of the +universe. + +In other parts of the great American cordillera some of the simplest and +youngest mountain ridges in the world are found. In southern Oregon, for +example, lava blocks have been broken and uplifted and now stand with +steep fresh faces on one side and with the old surface inclining more +gently on the other. Tilted blocks on a larger scale and much more +deeply carved by erosion are found in the lofty St. Elias Mountain of +Alaska, where much of the erosion has been done by some of the world's +greatest glaciers. The western slope of the Wasatch Mountains facing the +desert of Utah is the wall of a huge fracture, as is the eastern face +of the Sierra Nevadas facing the deserts of Nevada. Each of these great +faces has been deeply eroded. At the base, however, recent breaking and +upheaval of the crust have given rise to fresh uneroded slopes. Some +take the form of triangular facets, where a series of ridges has been +sliced across and lifted up by a great fault. Others assume the shape +of terraces which sometimes continue along the base of the mountains for +scores of miles. In places they seem like bluffs cut by an ancient lake, +but suddenly they change their altitude or pass from one drainage area +to another as no lake-formed strand could possibly do. + +In other parts of the cordillera, mountains have been formed by a single +arching of the crust without any breaking. Such is the case in the Uinta +Mountains of northwestern Utah and in some of the ranges of the Rocky +Mountains in Colorado. The Black Hills of South Dakota, although lying +out in the plains, are an example of the same kind of structure and +really belong to the cordillera. In them the layers of the earth's crust +have been bent up in the form of a great dome. The dome structure, to be +sure, has now been largely destroyed, for erosion has long been active. +The result is that the harder strata form a series of concentric ridges, +while between them are ring-shaped valleys, one of which is so level and +unbroken that it is known to the Indians as the "race-course." In +other parts of the cordillera great masses of rock have been pushed +horizontally upon the tops of others. In Montana, for example, the +strata of the plains have been bent down and overridden by those of +the mountains. These are only a few of the countless forms of breaking, +faulting, and crumpling which have given to the cordillera an almost +infinite variety of scenery. + +The work of mountain building is still active in the western cordillera, +as is evident from such an event as the San Francisco earthquake. In the +Owens Valley region in southern California the gravelly beaches of old +lakes are rent by fissures made within a few years by earthquakes. In +other places fresh terraces on the sides of the valley mark the lines of +recent earth movements, while newly formed lakes lie in troughs at +their base. These Owens Valley movements of the crust are parts of the +stupendous uplift which has raised the Sierra Nevada to heights of over +14,000 feet a few miles to the west. Along the fault line at the base +of the mountains there runs for over 9.50 miles the world's longest +aqueduct, which was built to relieve Los Angeles from the danger of +drought. It is a strange irony of fate that so delicate and so vital +an artery of civilization should be forced to lie where a renewal of +earthquake movements may break it at any time. Yet there was no other +place to put it, for in spite of man's growing control of nature he +was forced to follow the topography of the region in which he lived and +labored. + +On the southern side of the Mohave Desert a little to the east of where +the Los Angeles aqueduct crosses the mountains in its southward course, +the record of an earthquake is preserved in unique fashion. The steep +face of a terrace is covered with trees forty or fifty years old. Near +the base the trees are bent in peculiar fashion. Their lower portions +stand at right angles to the steeply sloping face of the terrace, but +after a few feet the trunks bend upward and stand vertically. Clearly +when these trees were young the terrace was not there. Then an +earthquake came. One block of the earth's crust was dropped down while +another was raised up. Along the dividing line a terrace was formed. The +trees that happened to stand along the line were tilted and left in a +slanting position on the sloping surface between the two parts of the +earth's crust. They saw no reason to stop growing, but, turning their +tips toward the sky, they bravely pushed upward. Thus they preserve in a +striking way the record of this recent movement of the earth's crust. + +Volcanoes as well as earth movements have occurred on a grand scale +within a few hundred years in the cordillera. Even where there is today +no visible volcanic activity, recent eruptions have left traces as +fresh as if they had occurred but yesterday. On the borders of the Grand +Canyon of the Colorado one can see not only fresh cones of volcanic +ash but lava which has poured over the edges of the cliffs and hardened +while in the act of flowing. From Orizaba and Popocatepetl in Mexico +through Mount San Francisco in Arizona, Lassen Peak and Mount Shasta +in California, Mount Rainier with its glaciers in the Cascade Range of +Washington, and Mount Wrangell in Alaska, the cordillera contains an +almost unbroken chain of great volcanoes. All are either active at +present or have been active within very recent times. In 1912 Mount +Katmai, near the northwestern end of the volcanic chain, erupted so +violently that it sent dust around the whole world. The presence of the +dust caused brilliant sunsets second only to those due to Krakatoa +in 1883. It also cut off so much sunlight that the effect was felt in +measurements made by the Smithsonian Institution in the French provinces +of North Africa. In earlier times, throughout the length of the +cordillera great masses of volcanic material were poured out to form +high plateaus like those of southern Mexico or of the Columbia River in +Oregon. In Utah some of these have been lifted up so that heavy caps of +lava now form isolated sheets topping lofty plateaus. There the lowland +shepherds drive their sheep in summer and live in absolute isolation for +months at a time. There, as everywhere, the cordillera bears the marks +of mountains in the making, while the mountains of eastern America bear +the marks of those that were made when the world was young. + +The geysers and hot springs of the Yellowstone are another proof of +recent volcanic activity. They owe their existence to hot rocks which +lie only a little way below the surface and which not long ago were +molten lava. The terraces and platforms built by the geysers are another +evidence that the cordillera is a region where the surface of the earth +is still being shaped into new forms by forces acting from within. The +physical features of the country are still in process of construction. + +In spite of the importance of the constructive forces which are still +building up the mountains, much of the finest scenery of the cordillera +is due to the destructive forces of erosion. The majestic Columbia +Canyon, like others of its kind, is the work of running water. Glaciers +also have done their part. During the glacial period the forces which +control the paths of storms did not give to the cordillera region such +an abundance of snow as was sifted down upon Laurentia. Therefore no +such huge continental glaciers have flowed out over millions of square +miles of lower country. Nevertheless among the mountains themselves the +ice gouged and scraped and smoothed and at its lower edges deposited +great moraines. Its work today makes the cliffs and falls of the +Yosemite one of the world's most famous bits of scenery. This scenery +is young and its beauty will pass in a short time as geology counts the +years, for in natural scenery as in human life it is youth that makes +beauty. The canyons, waterfalls, and geysers of the cordillera share +their youth with the lakes, waterfalls, and rapids due to recent +glaciation in the east. Nevertheless, though youth is the condition of +most striking beauty, maturity and old age are the condition of greatest +usefulness. The young cordillera with its mountains still in the making +can support only a scanty population, whereas the old eastern mountains, +with the lines of long life engraved upon every feature, open their arms +to man and let him live and prosper. + +It is not enough that we should picture merely the four divisions of the +land of our continent. We must see how the land meets the sea. In low +latitudes in both the Old World and the New, the continents have tended +to emerge farther and farther from the sea during recent geological +times. Hence on the eastern side of both North and South America from +New Jersey to Brazil the ocean is bordered for the most part by coastal +plains, uplifted from the sea only a short time ago. On the mountainous +western side of both continents, however, the sea bottom shelves +downward so steeply that its emergence does not give rise to a plain +but merely to a steep slope on which lie a series of old beaches several +hundred and even one thousand feet above the present shore line. Such +conditions are not favorable to human progress. The coastal plains +produced by uplift of the land may be fertile and may furnish happy +homes for man, but they do not permit ready access to the sea because +they have no harbors. The chief harbor of Mexico at Vera Cruz is merely +a little nick in the coast-line and could never protect a great fleet, +even with the help of its breakwater. Where an enterprising city like +Los Angeles lies on the uplifted Pacific coast, it must spend millions +in wresting a harbor from the very jaws of the sea. + +In high latitudes in all parts of the world the land has recently been +submerged beneath the sea. In some places, especially those like the +coasts of Virginia and central California which lie in middle latitudes, +a recent slight submergence has succeeded a previous large emergence. +Wherever such sinking of the land has taken place, it has given rise to +countless bays, gulfs, capes, islands, and fiords. The ocean water has +entered the valleys and has drowned their lower parts. It has surrounded +the bases of hills and left them as islands; it has covered low valleys +and has created long sounds where traffic may pass with safety even in +great storms. Though much land has thus been lost which would be good +for agriculture, commerce has been wonderfully stimulated. Through Long +Island Sound there pass each day hundreds of boats which again and again +would suffer distress and loss if they were not protected from the open +sea. It is no accident that of the eight largest metropolitan districts +in the United States five have grown up on the shores of deep inlets +which are due to the drowning of valleys. + +Nor must the value of scenery be forgotten in a survey such as this. +Year by year we are learning that in this restless, strenuous American +life of ours vacations are essential. We are learning, too, that the +love of beauty is one of Nature's greatest healers. Regions like the +coast of Maine and Puget Sound, where rugged land and life-giving ocean +interlock, are worth untold millions because of their inspiring beauty. +It is indeed marvelous that in the latitude of the northern United +States and southern Canada so many circumstances favorable to human +happiness are combined. Fertile soil, level plains, easy passage across +the mountains, coal, iron, and other metals imbedded in the rocks, and +a stimulating climate, all shower their blessings upon man. And with all +these blessings goes the advantage of a coast which welcomes the mariner +and brings the stimulus of foreign lands, while at the same time it +affords rest and inspiration to the toilers here at home. + + + +CHAPTER IV. THE GARMENT OF VEGETATION + +No part of the world can be truly understood without a knowledge of its +garment of vegetation, for this determines not only the nature of the +animal inhabitants but also the occupations of the majority of +human beings. Although the soil has much to do with the character of +vegetation, climate has infinitely more. It is temperature which causes +the moss and lichens of the barren tundras in the far north to be +replaced by orchids, twining vines, and mahogany trees near the equator. +It is rainfall which determines that vigorous forests shall grow in the +Appalachians in latitudes where grasslands prevail in the plains and +deserts in the western cordillera. + +Forests, grass-lands, deserts, represent the three chief types of +vegetation on the surface of the earth. Each is a response to certain +well-defined conditions of climate. Forests demand an abundance of +moisture throughout the entire season of growth. Where this season +lasts only three months the forest is very different from where it lasts +twelve. But no forest can be vigorous if the ground habitually becomes +dry for a considerable period during which the weather is warm enough +for growth. Desert vegetation, on the other hand, which consists +primarily of bushes with small, drought-resistant leaves, needs only a +few irregular and infrequent showers in order to endure long periods +of heat and drought. Discontinuity of moisture is the cause of deserts, +just as continuity is the necessary condition of forest growth. Grasses +prevail where the climatic conditions are intermediate between those of +the forest and the desert. Their primary requisite is a short period of +fairly abundant moisture with warmth enough to ripen their seeds. Unlike +the trees of the forests, they thrive even though the wet period be only +a fraction of the entire time that is warm enough for growth. Unlike +the bushes of the desert, they rarely thrive unless the ground is +well soaked for at least a few weeks. Most people think of forests as +offering far more variety than either deserts or grass-lands. To them +grass is just grass, while trees seem to possess individuality. In +reality, however, the short turfy grass of the far north differs from +the four-foot fronds of the bunchy saccaton grass of Arizona, and from +the far taller tufts of the plumed pampas grass, much more than the pine +tree differs from the palm. Deserts vary even more than either forests +or grass-lands. The traveler in the Arizona desert, for example, has +been jogging across a gravelly plain studded at intervals of a few yards +with little bushes a foot high. The scenery is so monotonous and the +noon sunshine so warm that he almost falls asleep. When he wakes from +his daydream, so weird are his surroundings that he thinks he must be in +one of the places to which Sindbad was carried by the roc. The trail has +entered an open forest of joshuas, as the big tree yuccas are called in +Arizona. Their shaggy trunks and uncouth branches are rendered doubly +unkempt by swordlike, ashy-yellow dead leaves that double back on the +trunk but refuse to fall to the ground. At a height of from twelve to +twenty feet each arm of the many-branched candelabrum ends in a stiff +rosette of gray-green spiky leaves as tough as hemp. Equally bizarre and +much more imposing is a desert "stand" of giant suhuaros, great fluted +tree-cacti thirty feet or more high. In spite of their size the suhuaros +are desert types as truly as is sagebrush. + +In America the most widespread type of forest is the evergreen +coniferous woodland of the north. Its pines, firs, spruces, hemlocks, +and cedars which are really junipers, cover most of Canada together with +northern New England and the region south of Lakes Huron and Superior. +At its northern limit the forest looks thoroughly forlorn. The gnarled +and stunted trees are thickly studded with half-dead branches bent down +by the weight of snow, so that the lower ones sweep the ground, while +the upper look tired and discouraged from their struggle with an +inclement climate. Farther south, however, the forest loses this +aspect of terrific struggle. In Maine, for example, it gives a pleasant +impression of comfortable prosperity. Wherever the trees have room to +grow, they are full and stocky, and even where they are crowded together +their slender upspringing trunks look alert and energetic. The signs +of death and decay, indeed, appear everywhere in fallen trunks, dead +branches, and decayed masses of wood, but moss and lichens, twinflowers +and bunchberries so quickly mantle the prostrate trees that they do not +seem like tokens of weakness. Then, too, in every open space thousands +of young trees bank their soft green masses so gracefully that one has +an ever-present sense of pleased surprise as he comes upon this younger +foliage out of the dim aisles among the bigger trees. + +Except on their southern borders the great northern forests are not good +as a permanent home for man. The snow lies so late in the spring and the +summers are so short and cool that agriculture does not prosper. As a +home for the fox, marten, weasel, beaver, and many other fur-bearing +animals, however, the coniferous forests are almost ideal. That is why +the Hudson's Bay Company is one of the few great organizations which +have persisted and prospered from colonial times to the present. As long +ago as 1670 Charles II granted to Prince Rupert and seventeen noblemen +and gentlemen a charter so sweeping that, aside from their own powers +of assimilation, there was almost no limit to what the "Governor and +Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay" might +acquire. By 1749, nearly eighty years after the granting of the charter, +however, the Company had only four or five forts on the coast of Hudson +Bay, with about 120 regular employees. Nevertheless the poor Indians +were so ignorant of the value of their furs and the consequent profits +were so large that, after Canada had been ceded to Great Britain in +1763, a rival organization, the Northwest Fur Company of Montreal, was +established. Then there began an era that was truly terrible for the +Indians of the northern forest. In their eagerness to get the valuable +furs the companies offered the Indians strong liquors in an abundance +that ruined the poor red man, body and soul. Moreover the fur-bearing +animals were killed not only in winter but during the breeding season. +Many mother animals were shot and their little ones were left to die. +Hence in a short time the wild creatures of the great northern forest +were so scarce that the Indians well-nigh starved. + +In spite of this slaughter of fur-bearing animals, the same Company +still draws fat dividends from the northern forest and its furry +inhabitants. If the forest had been more habitable, it would long ago +have been occupied by settlers, as have its warmer, southern portions, +and the Company would have ceased to exist. Aside from the regions too +cold or too dry to support any vegetation whatever, few parts of the +world are more deadening to civilization than the forests of the far +north. Near the northern limit of the great evergreen forest of North +America wild animals are so rare that a family of hunting Indians can +scarcely find a living in a thousand square miles. Today the voracious +maw of the daily newspaper is eating the spruce and hemlock by means of +relentless saws and rattling pulp-mills. In the wake of the lumbermen +settlers are tardily spreading northward from the more favored tracts +in northern New England and southern Canada. Nevertheless most of the +evergreen forests of the north must always remain the home of wild +animals and trappers, a backward region in which it is easy for a great +fur company to maintain a practical monopoly. + +Outliers of the pine forest extend far down into the United States. The +easternmost lies in part along the Appalachians and in part along the +coastal plain from southern New Jersey to Texas. The coastal forest +is unlike the other coniferous forests in two respects, for its +distribution and growth are not limited by long winters but by sandy +soil which quickly becomes dry. This drier southern pine forest lacks +the beauty of its northern companion. Its trees are often tall and +stately, but they are usually much scattered and are surrounded by +stretches of scanty grass. There is no trace of the mossy carpet and +dense copses of undergrowth that add so much to the picturesqueness of +the forests farther north. The unkempt half-breed or Indian hunter +is replaced by the prosaic gatherer of turpentine. As the man of the +southern forests shuffles along in blue or khaki overalls and carries +his buckets from tree to tree, he seems a dull figure contrasted with +the active northern hunter who glides swiftly and silently from trap to +trap on his rawhide snowshoes. Yet though the southern pine forest may +be less picturesque than the northern, it is more useful to man. In +spite of its sandy soil, much of this forest land is being reclaimed, +and all will some day probably be covered by farms. + +Two other outliers of the northern evergreen forest extend southward +along the cool heights of the Rocky Mountains and of the Pacific coast +ranges of the United States. In the Olympic and Sierra Nevada ranges +the most western outlier of this northern band of vegetation probably +contains the most inspiring forests of the world. There grow the +vigorous Oregon pines, firs, and spruces, and the still more famous Big +Trees or sequoias. High on the sides of the Sierra above the yuccas, the +live oaks, and the deciduous forest of the lower slopes, one meets these +Big Trees. To come upon them suddenly after a long, rough tramp over +the sunny lower slopes is the experience of a lifetime. Upward the great +trees rise sheer one hundred feet without a branch. The huge fluted +trunks encased in soft, red bark six inches or a foot thick are +more impressive than the columns of the grandest cathedral. It seems +irreverent to speak above a whisper. Each tree is a new wonder. One has +to walk around it and study it to appreciate its enormous size. Where a +tree chances to stand isolated so that one can see its full majesty, the +sense of awe is tempered by the feeling that in spite of their size the +trees have a beauty all their own. Lifted to such heights, the branches +appear to be covered with masses of peculiarly soft and rounded foliage +like the piled-up banks of a white cumulus cloud before a thunderstorm. +At the base of such a tree the eye is caught by the sharp, triangular +outline of one of its young progeny. The lower branches sweep the +ground. The foliage is harsh and rough. In almost no other species of +trees is there such a change from comparatively ungraceful youth to a +superbly beautiful old age. + +The second great type of American forest is deciduous. The trees have +broad leaves quite unlike the slender needles or overlapping scales of +the northern evergreens. Each winter such forests shed their leaves. +Among the mountains where the frosts come suddenly, the blaze of glory +and brilliance of color which herald the shedding of the leaves are +surpassed in no other part of the world. Even the colors of the Painted +Desert in northern Arizona and the wonderful flowers of the California +plains are less pleasing. In the Painted Desert the patches of red, +yellow, gray-blue, white, pale green, and black have a garish, almost +repellent appearance. In California the flame-colored acres of poppies +in some places, of white or yellow daisylike flowers in others, or of +purple blossoms elsewhere have a softer expression than the bare soil +of the desert. Yet they lack the delicate blending and harmony of colors +which is the greatest charm of the autumn foliage in the deciduous +forests. Even where the forests consist of such trees as birches, +beeches, aspens, or sycamores, whose leaves merely turn yellow in the +fall, the contrast between this color and the green tint of summer or +the bare branches of winter adds a spice of variety which is lacking in +other and more monotonous forests. + +From still other points of view the deciduous forest has an almost +unequaled degree of variety. In one place it consists of graceful little +birches whose white trunks shimmering in the twilight form just the +background for ghosts. Contrast them with the oak forest half a mile +away. There the sense of gracefulness gives place to a feeling of +strength. The lines are no longer vertical but horizontal. The knotted +elbows of the branches recall the keels of sturdy merchantmen of bygone +days. The acorns under foot suggest food for the herds of half-wild pigs +which roam among the trees in many a southern county. Of quite another +type are the stately forests of the Appalachians where splendid magnolia +and tulip trees spread their broad limbs aloft at heights of one hundred +feet or more. + +Deciduous forests grow in the well-balanced regions where summer and +winter approach equality, where neither is unduly long, and where +neither is subject to prolonged drought. They extend southward from +central New England, the Great Lakes, and Minnesota, to Mississippi, +Arkansas, and eastern Texas. They predominate even in parts of such +prairie States as Michigan, Indiana, southern Illinois, and southeastern +Missouri. No part of the continent is more populous or more progressive +than the regions once covered by deciduous forests. In the United States +nearly sixty per cent of the inhabitants live in areas reclaimed from +such forests. Yet the area of the forests is less than a quarter of the +three million square miles that make up the United States. + +In their relation to human life the forests of America differ far more +than do either grass-lands or deserts. In the far north, as we have +seen, the pine forests furnish one of the least favorable environments. +In middle latitudes the deciduous forests go to the opposite extreme +and furnish the most highly favored of the homes of man. Still farther +southward the increasing luxuriance of the forests, especially along +the Atlantic coast, renders them less and less favorable to mankind. In +southern Mexico and Yucatan the stately equatorial rain forest, the most +exuberant of all types of vegetation and the most unconquerable by man, +makes its appearance. It forms a discontinuous belt along the wet east +coast and on the lower slopes of the mountains from southern Yucatan to +Venezuela. Then it is interrupted by the grasslands of the Orinoco, but +revives again in still greater magnificence in the Guianas. Thence +it stretches not only along the coast but far into the little known +interior of the Great Amazon basin, while southward it borders all the +coast as far as southern Brazil. In the Amazon basin it reaches its +highest development and becomes the crowning glory of the vegetable +world, the most baffling obstacle to human progress. + +Except in its evil effects on man, the equatorial rain forest is the +antithesis of the forests of the extreme north. The equatorial trees are +hardwood giants, broad leaved, bright flowered, and often fruit-bearing. +The northern trees are softwood dwarfs, needle-leaved, flowerless, and +cone-bearing. The equatorial trees are often branchless for one hundred +feet, but spread at the top into a broad overarching canopy which shuts +out the sun perpetually. The northern trees form sharp little pyramids +with low, widely spreading branches at the base and only short twigs at +the top. In the equatorial forests there is almost no underbrush. The +animals, such as monkeys, snakes, parrots, and brilliant insects, live +chiefly in the lofty treetops. In the northern forests there is almost +nothing except underbrush, and the foxes, rabbits, weasels, ptarmigans, +and mosquitoes live close to the ground in the shelter of the branches. +Both forests are alike, however, in being practically uninhabited by +man. Each is peopled only by primitive nomadic hunters who stand at the +very bottom in the scale of civilization. + +Aside from the rain forest there are two other types in tropical +countries--jungle and scrub. The distinction between rain forest, +jungle, and scrub is due to the amount and the season of rainfall. An +understanding of this distinction not only explains many things in +the present condition of Latin America but also in the history of +pre-Columbian Central America. Forests, as we have seen, require that +the ground be moist throughout practically the whole of the season that +is warm enough for growth. Since the warm season lasts throughout the +year within the tropics, dense forests composed of uniformly large trees +corresponding to our oaks, maples, and beeches will not thrive unless +the ground is wet most of the time. Of course there may be no rain for a +few weeks, but there must be no long and regularly recurrent periods of +drought. Smaller trees and such species as the cocoanut palm are much +less exacting and will flourish even if there is a dry period of several +months. Still smaller, bushy species will thrive even when the rainfall +lasts only two or three months. Hence where the rainy season lasts most +of the year, rain forest prevails; where the rainy and dry seasons do +not differ greatly in length, tropical jungle is the dominant growth; +and where the rainy season is short and the dry season long, the jungle +degenerates into scrub or bush. + +The relation of scrub, jungle, and rain forest is well illustrated in +Yucatan, where the ancient Mayas reared their stately temples. On the +northern coast the annual rainfall is only ten or fifteen inches and is +concentrated largely in our summer months. There the country is covered +with scrubby bushes six to ten feet high. These are beautifully green +during the rainy season from June to October, but later in the year +lose almost all their leaves. The landscape would be much like that of +a thick, bushy pasture in the United States at the same season, were +it not that in the late winter and early spring some of the bushes bear +brilliant red, yellow, or white flowers. As one goes inland from the +north coast of Yucatan the rainfall increases. The bushes become taller +and denser, trees twenty feet high become numerous, and many rise thirty +or forty feet or even higher. This is the jungle. Its smaller portions +suggest a second growth of timber in the deciduous forests of the United +States fifteen or twenty years after the cutting of the original forest, +but here there is much more evidence of rapid growth. A few species of +bushes and trees may remain green throughout the year, but during the +dry season most of the jungle plants lose their leaves, at least in +part. + +With every mile that one advances into the more rainy interior, the +jungle becomes greener and fresher, the density of the lower growths +increases, and the proportion of large trees becomes greater until +finally jungle gives place to genuine forest. There many of the trees +remain green throughout the year. They rise to heights of fifty or sixty +feet even on the borders of their province, and at the top form a canopy +so thick that the ground is shady most of the time. Even in the drier +part of the year when some of the leaves have fallen, the rays of the +sun scarcely reach the ground until nine or ten o'clock in the morning. +Even at high noon the sunlight straggles through only in small patches. +Long, sinuous lianas, often queerly braided, hang down from the trees; +epiphytes and various parasitic growths add their strange green and red +to the complex variety of vegetation. Young palms grow up almost in +a day and block a trail which was hewn out with much labor only a few +months before. Wherever the death of old trees forms an opening, a +thousand seedlings begin a fierce race to reach the light. Everywhere +the dominant note is intensely vigorous life, rapid growth, and quick +decay. + +In their effect on man, the three forms of tropical forest are very +different. In the genuine rain forest agriculture is almost impossible. +Not only does the poor native find himself baffled in the face of +Nature, but the white man is equally at a loss. Many things combine to +produce this result. Chief among them are malaria and other tropical +diseases. When a few miles of railroad were being built through a +strip of tropical forest along the coast of eastern Guatemala, it was +impossible to keep the laborers more than twenty days at a time; indeed, +unless they were sent away at the end of three weeks, they were almost +sure to be stricken with virulent malarial fevers from which many died. +An equally potent enemy of agriculture is the vegetation itself. Imagine +the difficulty of cultivating a garden in a place where the weeds grow +all the time and where many of them reach a height of ten or twenty +feet in a single year. Perhaps there are people in the world who might +cultivate such a region and raise marvelous crops, but they are not the +indolent people of tropical America; and it is in fact doubtful whether +any kind of people could live permanently in the tropical forest and +retain energy enough to carry on cultivation. Nowhere in the world is +there such steady, damp heat as in these shadowy, windless depths +far below the lofty tops of the rain forest. Nowhere is there greater +disinclination to work than among the people who dwell in this region. +Consequently in the vast rain forests of the Amazon basin and in +similar small forests as far north as Central America, there are today +practically no inhabitants except a mere handful of the poorest and most +degraded people in the world. Yet in ancient times the northern border +of the rain forest was the seat of America's most advanced civilization. +The explanation of this contradiction will appear later. * + + + * See Chapter 5, Aztecs. + + +Tropical jungle borders the rain forest all the way from southern Mexico +to southern Brazil. It treats man far better than does the rain forest. +In marked contrast to its more stately neighbor, it contains abundant +game. Wild fruits ripen at almost all seasons. A few banana plants and +palm trees will well-nigh support a family. If corn is planted in a +clearing, the return is large in proportion to the labor. So long as +the population is not too dense, life is so easy that there is little to +stimulate progress. Hence, although the people of the jungle are +fairly numerous, they have never played much part in history. Far more +important is the role of those living in the tropical lands where scrub +is the prevailing growth. In our day, for example, few tropical lowlands +are more progressive than the narrow coastal strip of northern Yucatan. +There on the border between jungle and scrub the vegetation does not +thrive sufficiently to make life easy for the chocolate-colored natives. +Effort is required if they would make a living, yet the effort is not +so great as to be beyond the capacity of the indolent people of the +tropics. + +Leaving the forests, let us step out into the broad, breezy grass-lands. +One would scarcely expect that a journey poleward out of the forest of +northern Canada would lead to an improvement in the conditions of human +life, yet such is the case. Where the growing season becomes so short +that even the hardiest trees disappear, grassy tundras replace the +forest. By furnishing food for such animals as the musk-ox, they are a +great help to the handful of scattered Indians who dwell on the northern +edge of the forest. In summer, when the animals grow fat on the short +nutritious grass, the Indians follow them out into the open country and +hunt them vigorously for food and skins to sustain life through the long +dreary winter. In many cases the hunters would advance much farther into +the grass-lands were it not that the abundant musk-oxen tempt the Eskimo +of the seacoast also to leave their homes and both sides fear bloody +encounters. + +With the growth of civilization the advantage of the northern +grass-lands over the northern forests becomes still more apparent. The +domestic reindeer is beginning to replace the wild musk-ox. The +reindeer people, like the Indian and Eskimo hunters, must be nomadic. +Nevertheless their mode of life permits them to live in much greater +numbers and on a much higher plane of civilization than the hunters. +Since they hunt the furbearing animals in the neighboring forests during +the winter, they diminish the food supply of the hunters who dwell +permanently in the forest, and thus make their life still more +difficult. The northern forests bid fair to decline in population rather +than increase. In this New World of ours, strange as it may seem, the +almost uninhabited forest regions of the far north and of the equator +are probably more than twice as large as the desert areas with equally +sparse population. + +South of the tundras the grass-lands have a still greater advantage over +the forests. In the forest region of the Laurentian highland abundant +snow lasts far into the spring and keeps the ground so wet and cold that +no crops can be raised. Moreover, because of the still greater abundance +of snow in former times, the largest of ice sheets, as we have seen, +accumulated there during the Glacial Period and scraped away most of +the soil. The grassy plains, on the contrary, are favored not only by +a deep, rich soil, much of which was laid down by the ice, but by the +relative absence of snow in winter and the consequent rapidity with +which the ground becomes warm in the spring. Hence the Canadian plains +from the United States boundary northward to latitude 57 degrees contain +a prosperous agricultural population of over a million people, while +the far larger forested areas in the same latitude support only a few +thousand. + +The question is often asked why, in a state of nature, trees are so +scarce on the prairies--in Iowa, for instance--although they thrive +when planted. In answer we are often told that up to the middle of the +nineteenth century such vast herds of buffaloes roamed the prairies that +seedling trees could never get a chance to grow. It is also said that +prairie fires sweeping across the plains destroyed the little trees +whenever they sprouted. Doubtless the buffaloes and the fires helped +to prevent forest growth, but another factor appears to be still more +important. All the States between the Mississippi River and the Rocky +Mountains receive much more rain in summer than in winter. But as the +soil is comparatively dry in the spring when the trees begin their +growth, they are handicapped. They could grow if nothing else interfered +with them, just as peas will grow in a garden if the weeds are kept out. +If peas, however, are left uncared for, the weeds gain the upper hand +and there are no peas the second year. If the weeds are left to contend +with grass, the grass in the end prevails. In the eastern forest region, +if the grass be left to itself, small trees soon spring up in its midst. +In half a century a field of grass goes back to forest because trees +are especially favored by the climate. In the same way in the prairies, +grass is especially favored, for it is not weakened by the spring +drought, and it grows abundantly until it forms the wonderful stretches +of waving green where the buffalo once grew fat. Moreover the fine +glacial soil of the prairies is so clayey and compact that the roots of +trees cannot easily penetrate it. Since grasses send their roots only +into the more friable upper layers of soil, they possess another great +advantage over the trees. + +Far to the south of the prairies lie the grass-lands of tropical +America, of which the Banos of the Orinoco furnish a good example. +Almost everywhere their plumed grasses have been left to grow +undisturbed by the plough, and even grazing animals are scarce. These +extremely flat plains are flooded for months in the rainy season from +May to October and are parched in the dry season that follows. As +trees cannot endure such extremes, grasses are the prevailing growth. +Elsewhere the nature of the soil causes many other grassy tracts to +be scattered among the tropical jungle and forest. Trees are at a +disadvantage both in porous, sandy soils, where the water drains away +too rapidly, and in clayey soil, where it is held so long that the +ground is saturated for weeks or months at a time. South of the tropical +portion of South America the vast pampas of Argentina closely resemble +the North American prairies and the drier plains to the west of +them. Grain in the east and cattle in the west are fast causing the +disappearance of those great tussocks of tufted grasses eight or nine +feet high which hold among grasses a position analogous to that of the +Big Trees of California among trees of lower growth. + +It is often said that America has no real deserts. This is true in the +sense that there are no regions such as are found in Asia and Africa +where one can travel a hundred miles at a stretch and scarcely see a +sign of vegetation-nothing but barren gravel, graceful wavy sand dunes, +hard wind-swept clay, or still harder rock salt broken into rough blocks +with upturned edges. In the broader sense of the term, however, America +has an abundance of deserts--regions which bear a thin cover of bushy +vegetation but are too dry for agriculture without irrigation. On the +north such deserts begin in southern Canada where a dry region abounding +in small salt lakes lies at the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains. +In the United States the deserts lie almost wholly between the Sierra +Nevada and the Rocky Mountain ranges, which keep out any moisture that +might come from either the west or the east. Beginning on the north with +the sagebrush plateau of southern Washington, the desert expands to a +width of seven hundred miles in the gray, sage-covered basins of Nevada +and Utah. In southern California and Arizona the sage-brush gives place +to smaller forms like the saltbush, and the desert assumes a sterner +aspect. Next comes the cactus desert extending from Arizona far south +into Mexico. One of the notable features of the desert is the extreme +heat of certain portions. Close to the Nevada border in southern +California, Death Valley, 250 feet below sea-level, is the hottest +place in America. There alone among the American regions familiar to the +writer does one have that feeling of intense, overpowering aridity which +prevails so often in the deserts of Arabia and Central Asia. Some +years ago a Weather Bureau thermometer was installed in Death Valley at +Furnace Creek, where the only flowing water in more than a hundred miles +supports a depressing little ranch. There one or two white men, helped +by a few Indians, raise alfalfa, which they sell at exorbitant prices to +deluded prospectors searching for riches which they never find. Though +the terrible heat ruins the health of the white men in a year or two, +so that they have to move away, they have succeeded in keeping +a thermometer record for some years. No other properly exposed, +out-of-door thermometer in the United States, or perhaps in the world, +is so familiar with a temperature of 100 degrees F. or more. During the +period of not quite fifteen hundred days from the spring of 1911 to May, +1915, a maximum temperature of 100 degrees F. or more was reached on +five hundred and forty-eight days, or more than one-third of the time. +On July 10, 1913, the mercury rose to 134 degrees F. and touched the top +of the tube. How much higher it might have gone no one can tell. That +day marks the limit of temperature yet reached in this country according +to official records. In the summer of 1914 there was one night when the +thermometer dropped only to 114 degrees F., having been 128 degrees +F. at noon. The branches of a peppertree whose roots had been freshly +watered wilted as a flower wilts when broken from the stalk. + +East and south of Death Valley lies the most interesting section of the +American desert, the so-called succulent desert of southern Arizona and +northern Mexico. There in greatest profusion grow the cacti, perhaps the +latest and most highly specialized of all the great families of plants. +There occur such strange scenes as the "forests" of suhuaros, whose +giant columns have already been described. Their beautiful crowns of +large white flowers produce a fruit which is one of the mainstays of the +Papagos and other Indians of the regions. In this same region the yucca +is highly developed, and its tall stalks of white or greenish flowers +make the desert appear like a flower garden. In fact this whole +desert, thanks to light rains in summer as well as winter, appears +extraordinarily green and prosperous. Its fair appearance has deceived +many a poor settler who has vainly tried to cultivate it. + +Farther south the deserts of America are largely confined to plateaus +like those of Mexico and Peru or to basins sheltered on all sides from +rain-bearing winds. In such basins the suddenness of the transition +from one type of vegetation to another is astonishing. In Guatemala, +for instance, the coast is bordered by thick jungle which quickly gives +place to magnificent rain forest a few miles inland. This continues +two or three score miles from the coast until a point is reached where +mountains begin to obstruct the rain-bearing trade-winds. At once the +rain forest gives place to jungle; in a few miles jungle in its turn +is replaced by scrub; and shortly the scrub degenerates to mere desert +bush. Then in another fifty miles one rises to the main plateau passing +once more through scrub. This time the scrub gives place to grass-lands +diversified by deciduous trees and pines which give the country a +distinctly temperate aspect. On such plateaus the chief civilization of +the tropical Latin-American countries now centers. In the past, however, +the plateaus were far surpassed by the Maya lowlands of Yucatan and +Guatemala. + +We are wont to think of deserts as places where the plants are of few +kinds and not much crowded. As a matter of fact, an ordinary desert +supports a much greater variety of plants than does either a forest or +a prairie. The reason is simple. Every desert contains wet spots near +springs or in swamps. Such places abound with all sorts of water-loving +plants. The deserts also contain a few valleys where the larger streams +keep the ground moist at all seasons. In such places the variety of +trees is as great as in many forests. Moreover almost all deserts have +short periods of abundant moisture. + +At such times the seeds of all sorts of little annual plants, including +grasses, daisies, lupines, and a host of others, sprout quickly, and +give rise to a carpet of vegetation as varied and beautiful as that of +the prairie. Thus the desert has not only its own peculiar bushes and +succulents but many of the products of vegetation in swamps, grasslands, +and forests. Though much of the ground is bare in the desert, the plants +are actually crowded together as closely as possible. The showers of +such regions are usually so brief that they merely wet the surface. At +a depth of a foot or more the soil of many deserts never becomes moist +from year's end to year's end. It is useless for plants to send their +roots deep down under such circumstances, for they might not reach water +for a hundred feet. Their only recourse is to spread horizontally. The +farther they spread, the more water they can absorb after the scanty +showers. Hence the plants of the desert throttle one another by +extending their roots horizontally, just as those of the forest kill one +another by springing rapidly upward and shutting out the light. + +Vegetation, whether in forests, grasslands, or deserts, is the primary +source of human sustenance. Without it man would perish miserably; and +where it is deficient, he cannot rise to great heights in the scale of +civilization. Yet strangely enough the scantiness of the vegetation of +the deserts was a great help in the ascent of man. Only in dry regions +could primitive man compete with nature in fostering the right kind +of vegetation. In such regions arose the nations which first practised +agriculture. There man became comparatively civilized while his +contemporaries were still nomadic hunters in the grasslands and the +forests. + + + +CHAPTER V. THE RED MAN IN AMERICA + +When the white man first explored America, the parts of the continent +that had made most progress were by no means those that are most +advanced today. * None of the inhabitants, to be sure, had risen above +barbarism. Yet certain nations or tribes had advanced much higher +than others. There was a great contrast, for example, between the +well-organized barbarians of Peru and the almost completely unorganized +Athapascan savages near Hudson Bay. + + + * In the present chapter most of the facts as to the Indians +north of Mexico are taken from the admirable "Handbook of American +Indians North of Mexico," edited by F. W. Hodge, Smithsonian +Institution, Bureau of Ethnology, Bulletin 30, Washington, 1907, two +volumes. In summing up the character and achievements of the Indians +I have drawn also on other sources, but have everywhere taken pains +to make no statements which are not abundantly supported by this +authoritative publication. In some cases I have not hesitated to +paraphrase considerable portions of its articles. + + +In the northern continent aboriginal America reached its highest +development in three typical environments. The first of these regions +centered in the valley of Mexico where dwelt the Aztecs, but it extended +as far north as the Pueblos in Arizona and New Mexico. The special +feature of the environment was the relatively dry, warm climate with the +chief rainfall in summer. The Indians living in this environment +were notable for their comparatively high social organization and for +religious ceremonials whose elaborateness has rarely been surpassed. +On the whole, the people of this summer rain or Mexican type were not +warlike and offered little resistance to European conquest. Some tribes, +to be sure, fought fiercely at first, but yielded within a few years; +the rest submitted to the lordly Spaniards almost without a murmur. +Their civilization, if such we may call it, had long ago seen its +best days. The period of energy and progress had passed, and a time of +inertia and decay had set in. A century after the Spaniards had +overcome the aborigines of Mexico, other Europeans--French, English, +and Dutch--came into contact with a sturdier type of red man, best +represented by the Iroquois or Five Nations of central New York. +This more active type dwelt in a physical environment notable for two +features--the abundance of cyclonic storms bringing rain or snow at all +seasons and the deciduous forest which thickly covered the whole +region. Unlike the Mexican, the civilization of the Iroquois was young, +vigorous, and growing. It had not learned to express itself in durable +architectural forms like those of Mexico, nor could it rival the older +type in social and religious organization. In political organization, +however, the Five Nations had surpassed the other aboriginal peoples of +North America. When the white man became acquainted with the Iroquois in +the seventeenth century, he found five of their tribes organized into +a remarkable confederation whose avowed object was to abolish war among +themselves and to secure to all the members the peaceful exercise of +their rights and privileges. So well was the confederation organized +that, in spite of war with its enemies, it persisted for at least two +hundred years. One of the chief characteristics of the Iroquois was +their tremendous energy. They were so energetic that they pursued +their enemies with an implacable relentlessness similar to the restless +eagerness with which the people of the region from New York to Chicago +now pursue their business enterprises. This led the Iroquois to torture +their prisoners with the utmost ingenuity and cruelty. Not only did the +savages burn and mutilate their captives, but they sometimes added the +last refinement of torture by compelling the suffering wretches to +eat pieces of flesh cut from their own bodies. Energy may lead to +high civilization, but it may also lead to excesses of evil. The third +prominent aboriginal type was that of the fishermen of the coast of +British Columbia, especially the Haidas of the Queen Charlotte Islands. +The most important features of their environment were the submerged +coast with its easy navigation, the mild oceanic climate, and the dense +pine forests. The Haidas, like the Iroquois, appear to have been a +people who were still advancing. Such as it was, their greatness was +apparently the product of their own ingenuity and not, like that of +the Mexicans, an inheritance from a greater past. The Haidas lacked the +relentless energy of the Iroquois and shared the comparatively gentle +character which prevailed among all the Indians along the Pacific Coast. +They were by no means weaklings, however. Commercially, for instance, +they seem to have been more advanced than any North American tribe +except those in the Mexican area. In architecture they stood equally +high. We are prone to think of the Mexicans as the best architects among +the aborigines, but when the white man came even the Aztecs were merely +imitating the work of their predecessors. The Haidas, on the contrary, +were showing real originality. They had no stone with which to build, +for their country is so densely forested that stone is rarely visible. +They were remarkably skillful, however, in hewing great beams from the +forest. With these they constructed houses whose carved totem poles and +graceful facades gave promise of an architecture of great beauty. Taking +into account the difficulties presented by a material which was not +durable and by tools which were nothing but bits of stone, we must +regard their totem poles and mural decorations as real contributions to +primitive architecture. + +In addition to these three highest types of the red man there were many +others. Each, as we shall see, owed its peculiarities largely to the +physical surroundings in which it lived. Of course different tribes +possessed different degrees of innate ability, but the chief differences +in their habits and mode of life arose from the topography, the climate, +the plants, and the animals which formed the geographical setting of +their homes. + +In previous chapters we have gained some idea of the topography of the +New World and of the climate in its relation to plants and animals. We +have also seen that climate has much to do with human energy. We have +not, however, gained a sufficiently clear idea of the distribution +of climatic energy. A map of the world showing how energy would be +distributed if it depended entirely upon climate clarifies the subject. +The dark shading of the map indicates those regions where energy is +highest. It is based upon measurements of the strength of scores +of individuals, upon the scholastic records of hundreds of college +students, upon the piecework of thousands of factory operatives, and +upon millions of deaths and births in a score of different countries. It +takes account of three chief climatic conditions--temperature, humidity, +and variability. It also takes account of mental as well as physical +ability. Underneath it is a map of the distribution of civilization +on the basis of the opinion of fifty authorities in fifteen different +countries. The similarity of the two maps is so striking that there can +be little question that today the distribution of civilization agrees +closely with the distribution of climatic energy. When Egypt, Babylonia, +Greece, and Rome were at the height of their power this agreement was +presumably the same, for the storm belt which now gives variability +and hence energy to the thickly shaded regions in our two maps then +apparently lay farther south. It is generally considered that no race +has been more closely dependent upon physical environment than were the +Indians. Why, then, did the energizing effect of climate apparently have +less effect upon them than upon the other great races? Why were not +the most advanced Indian tribes found in the same places where white +civilization is today most advanced? Climatic changes might in part +account for the difference, but, although such changes apparently +took place on a large scale in earlier times, there is no evidence of +anything except minor fluctuations since the days of the first white +settlements. Racial inheritance likewise may account for some of the +differences among the various tribes, but it was probably not the chief +factor. That factor was apparently the condition of agriculture among +people who had neither iron tools nor beasts of burden. Civilization +has never made much progress except when there has been a permanent +cultivation of the ground. It has been said that "the history of +agriculture is the history of man in his most primitive and most +permanent aspect." If we examine the achievements and manner of life of +the Indians in relation to the effect of climate upon agriculture and +human energy, as well as in relation to the more obvious features +of topography and vegetation, we shall understand why the people of +aboriginal America in one part of the continent differed so greatly from +those in another part. In the far north the state of the inhabitants +today is scarcely different from what it was in the days of Columbus. +Then, as now, the Eskimos had practically no political or social +organization beyond the family or the little group of relatives who +lived in a single camp. They had no permanent villages, but moved from +place to place according to the season in search of fish, game, and +birds. They lived this simple life not because they lacked ability but +because of their surroundings. Their kayaks or canoes are marvels of +ingenuity. With no materials except bones, driftwood, and skins they +made boats which fulfilled their purpose with extraordinary perfection. +Seated in the small, round hole which is the only opening in the deck +of his canoe, the Eskimo hunter ties his skin jacket tightly outside +the circular gunwale and is thus shut into a practically water-tight +compartment. Though the waves dash over him, scarcely a drop enters the +craft as he skims along with his double paddle among cakes of floating +ice. So, too, the snowhouse with its anterooms and curved entrance +passage is as clever an adaptation to the needs of wanderers in a land +of ice and snow as is the skyscraper to the needs of a busy commercial +people crowded into great cities. The fact that the oilburning, +soapstone lamps of the Eskimo were the only means of producing +artificial light in aboriginal America, except by ordinary fires, is +another tribute to the ingenuity of these northerners. So, too, is the +fire-drill by which they alone devised a means of increasing the speed +with which one stick could be twirled against another to produce fire. +In view of these clever inventions it seems safe to say that the Eskimo +has remained a nomadic savage not because he lacks inventive skill but +partly because the climate deadens his energies and still more because +it forbids him to practice agriculture. + +Southward and inland from the coastal homes of the Eskimo lies the great +region of the northern pine forests. It extends from the interior of +Alaska southeastward in such a way as to include most of the Canadian +Rockies, the northern plains from Great Bear Lake almost to Lake +Winnipeg, and most of the great Laurentian shield around Hudson Bay and +in the peninsula of Labrador. Except among the inhabitants of the narrow +Pacific slope and those of the shores of Labrador and the St. Lawrence +Valley, a single type of barbarism prevailed among the Indians of all +the vast pine forest area. Only in a small section of the wheat-raising +plains of Alberta and Saskatchewan have their habits greatly changed +because of the arrival of the white man. Now as always the Indians in +these northern regions are held back by the long, benumbing winters. +They cannot practice agriculture, for no crops will grow. They cannot +depend to any great extent upon natural vegetation, for aside from +blueberries, a few lichens, and one or two other equally insignificant +products, the forests furnish no food except animals. These lowly people +seem to have been so occupied with the severe struggle with the elements +that they could not even advance out of savagery into barbarism. They +were homeless nomads whose movements were determined largely by the food +supply. + +Among the Athapascans who occupied all the western part of the northern +pine forests, clothing was made of deerskins with the hair left on. The +lodges were likewise of deer or caribou skins, although farther +south these were sometimes replaced by bark. The food of these tribes +consisted of caribou, deer, moose, and musk-ox together with smaller +animals such as the beaver and hare. They also ate various kinds of +birds and the fish found in the numerous lakes and rivers. They killed +deer by driving them into an angle formed by two converging rows +of stakes, where they were shot by hunters lying in wait. Among the +Kawchodinne tribe near Great Bear Lake hares were the chief source of +both food and clothing. When an unusually severe winter or some other +disaster diminished the supply, the Indians believed that the animals +had mounted to the sky by means of the trees and would return by the +same way. In 1841 owing to scarcity of hares many of this tribe died of +starvation, and numerous acts of cannibalism are said to have occurred. +Small wonder that civilization was low and that infanticide, especially +of female children, was common. Among such people women were naturally +treated with a minimum of respect. Since they were not skilled as +hunters, there was relatively little which they could contribute toward +the sustenance of the family. Hence they were held in low esteem, for +among most primitive people woman is valued largely in proportion to her +economic contribution. Her low position is illustrated by the peculiar +funeral custom of the Takulli, an Athapascan tribe on the Upper Frazer +River. A widow was obliged to remain upon the funeral pyre of her +husband till the flames reached her own body. When the fire had died +down she collected the ashes of her dead and placed them in a basket, +which she was obliged to carry with her during three years of servitude +in the family of her husband. At the end of that time a feast was held, +when she was released from thraldom and permitted to remarry if she +desired. + +Poor and degraded as the people of the northern forests may have +been, they had their good traits. The Kutchins of the Yukon and Lower +Mackenzie regions, though they killed their female children, were +exceedingly hospitable and kept guests for months. Each head of a family +took his turn in feasting the whole band. On such occasions etiquette +required the host to fast until the guests had departed. At such feasts +an interesting wrestling game was played. First the smallest boys began +to wrestle. The victors wrestled with those next in strength and so on +until finally the strongest and freshest man in the band remained the +final victor. Then the girls and women went through the same progressive +contest. It is hard to determine whether the people of the northern +pine forest were more or less competent than their Eskimo neighbors. It +perhaps makes little difference, for it is doubtful whether even a +race with brilliant natural endowments could rise far in the scale of +civilization under conditions so highly adverse. + +The Eskimos of the northern coasts and the people of the pine forests +were not the only aborigines whose development was greatly retarded +because they could not practice agriculture. All the people of +the Pacific coast from Alaska to Lower California were in similar +circumstances. Nevertheless those living along the northern part of this +coast rose to a much higher level than did those of California. This has +sometimes been supposed to show that geographical environment has +little influence upon civilization, but in reality it proves exactly the +opposite. + +The coast of British Columbia was one of the three chief centers of +aboriginal America. As The Encyclopaedia Britannica * puts it: "The +Haida people constituted with little doubt the finest race and that most +advanced in the arts of the entire west coast of North America." They +and their almost equally advanced Tlingit and Tsimshian neighbors on the +mainland displayed much mechanical skill, especially in canoe-building, +woodcarving, and the working of stone and copper, as well as in making +blankets and baskets. To this day they earn a considerable amount of +money by selling their carved objects of wood and slate to traders and +tourists. Their canoes were hollowed out of logs of cedar and were often +very large. Houses which were sometimes 40 by 100 feet were built of +huge cedar beams and planks, which were first worked with stone and +were then put together at great feasts. These correspond to the "raising +bees" at which the neighbors gathered to erect the frames of houses in +early New England. Each Haida house ordinarily had a single carved totem +pole in the middle of the gable end which faced toward the beach. Often +the end posts in front were also carved and the whole house was painted. +Another evidence of the fairly advanced state of the Haidas was their +active commercial intercourse with regions hundreds of miles away. +At their "potlatches," as the raising bees were called by the whites, +trading went on vigorously. Carved copper plates were among the articles +which they esteemed of highest value. Standing in the tribe depended +on the possession of property rather than on ability in war, in which +respect the Haidas were more like the people of today than were any of +the other Indian tribes. + + + * 11th Edition, vol. XXII, p. 730. + + +Slavery was common among the Haidas. Even as late as 1861, 7800 Tlingits +held 828 slaves. Slavery may not be a good institution in itself, but +it indicates that people are well-to-do, that they dwell in permanent +abodes, and that they have a well-established social order. Among the +more backward Iroquois, captives rarely became genuine slaves, for the +social and economic organization was not sufficiently developed to admit +of this. The few captives who were retained after a fight were adopted +into the tribe of the captors or else were allowed to live with them and +shift for themselves--a practice very different from that of the Haidas. + +Another feature of the Haidas' life which showed comparative progress +was the social distinctions which existed among them. One of the ways +in which individuals maintained their social position was by giving away +quantities of goods of all kinds at the potlatches which they organized. +A man sometimes went so far as to strip himself of nearly every +possession except his house. In return for this, however, he obtained +what seemed to him an abundant reward in the respect with which his +fellow-tribesmen afterward regarded him. At subsequent potlatches he +received in his turn a measure of their goods in proportion to his own +gifts, so that he was sometimes richer than before. These potlatches +were social as well as industrial functions, and dancing and singing +were interspersed with the feasting. One of the amusements was a musical +contest in which singers from one tribe or band would contend with +one another as to which could remember the greatest number of songs or +accurately repeat a new song after hearing it for the first time. At the +potlatches the children of chiefs were initiated into secret societies. +They had their noses, ears, and lips pierced for ornaments, and some +of them were tattooed. This great respect for social position which the +Haidas manifested is doubtless far from ideal, but it at least indicates +that a part of the tribe was sufficiently advanced to accumulate +property and to pass it on to its descendants--a custom that is almost +impossible among tribes which move from place to place. The question +suggests itself why these coast barbarians were so much in advance +of their neighbors a few hundred miles away in the pine woods of the +mountains. The climate was probably one reason for this superiority. +Instead of being in a region like the center of the pine forests of +British Columbia where human energy is sapped by six or eight months of +winter, the Haidas enjoyed conditions like those of Scotland. Although +snow fell occasionally, severe cold was unknown. Nor was there great +heat in summer. The Haidas dwelt where both bodily strength and mental +activity were stimulated. In addition to this advantage of a favorable +climate these Indians had a large and steady supply of food close at +hand. Most of their sustenance was obtained from the sea and from the +rivers, in which the runs of salmon furnished abundant provisions, which +rarely failed. In Hecate Strait, between the Queen Charlotte Islands and +the mainland, there were wonderfully productive halibut fisheries, from +which a supply of fish was dried and packed away for the winter, so that +there was always a store of provisions on hand. The forests in their +turn furnished berries and seeds, as well as bears, mountain goats, and +other game. + +Moreover the people of the northwest coast had the advantage of not +being forced to move from place to place in order to follow the fish. +They lived on a drowned shore where bays, straits, and sounds are +extraordinarily numerous. The great waves of the Pacific are shut out +by the islands so that the waterways are almost always safe for canoes. +Instead of moving their dwellings in order to follow the food supply, +as the Eskimo and the people of the pine forest were forced to do, the +Haidas and their neighbors were able without difficulty to bring their +food home. At all seasons the canoes made it easy to transport large +supplies of fish from places even a hundred miles away. Having settled +dwellings, the Haidas could accumulate property and acquire that feeling +of permanence which is one of the most important conditions for the +development of civilization. Doubtless the Haidas were intellectually +superior to many other tribes, but even if they had not been greatly +superior, their surroundings would probably have made them stand +relatively high in the scale of civilization. Southward from the Haidas, +around Puget Sound and in Washington and Oregon, there was a gradual +decline in civilization. The Chinook Indians of the lower Columbia, +beyond the limits of the great northern archipelago, had large communal +houses occupied by three or four families of twenty or more individuals. +Their villages were thus fairly permanent, although there was much +moving about in summer owing to the nature of the food supply, which +consisted chiefly of salmon, with roots and berries indigenous to the +region. The people were noted as traders not only among themselves but +with surrounding tribes. They were extremely skillful in handling their +canoes, which were well made, hollowed out of single logs, and often +of great size. In disposition they are described as treacherous and +deceitful, especially when their cupidity was aroused. Slaves were +common and were usually obtained by barter from surrounding tribes, +though occasionally by successful raids. These Indians of Oregon by no +means rivaled the Haidas, for their food supply was less certain and +they did not have the advantage of easy water communication, which did +so much to raise the Haidas to a high level of development. + +Of the tribes farther south an observer says: "In general rudeness +of culture the California Indians are scarcely above the Eskimo, and +whereas the lack of development of the Eskimo on many sides of their +nature is reasonably attributable in part to their difficult and +limiting environment, the Indians of California inhabit a country +naturally as favorable, it would seem, as it might be. If the degree of +civilization attained by a people depends in any large measure on their +habitat, as does not seem likely, it might be concluded from the case of +the California Indians that natural advantages were an impediment rather +than an incentive to progress." In some of the tribes, such as the Hupa, +for example, there existed no organization and no formalities in the +government of the village. Formal councils were unknown, although the +chief might and often did ask advice of his men in a collected body. In +general the social structure of the California Indians was so simple +and loose that it is hardly correct to speak of their tribes. Whatever +solidarity there was among these people was due in part to family ties +and in part to the fact that they lived in the same village and spoke +the same dialect. Between different groups of these Indians, the common +bond was similarity of language as well as frequency and cordiality of +intercourse. In so primitive a condition of society there was neither +necessity nor opportunity for differences of rank. The influence of +chiefs was small and no distinct classes of slaves were known. Extreme +poverty was the chief cause of the low social and political organization +of these Indians. The Maidus in the Sacramento Valley were so poor that, +in addition to consuming every possible vegetable product, they not +only devoured all birds except the buzzard, but ate badgers, skunks, +wildcats, and mountain lions, and even consumed salmon bones and deer +vertebrae. They gathered grasshoppers and locusts by digging large +shallow pits in a meadow or flat. Then, setting fire to the grass on all +sides, they drove the insects into the pit. Their wings being burned off +by the flames, the grasshoppers were helpless and were thus collected +by the bushel. Again of the Moquelumne, one of the largest tribes in +central California, it is said that their houses were simply frameworks +of poles and brush which in winter were covered with earth. In summer +they erected cone-shaped lodges of poles among the mountains. In +favorable years they gathered large quantities of acorns, which formed +their principal food, and stored them for winter use in granaries raised +above the ground. Often, however, the crop was poor, and the Indians +were left on the verge of starvation. + +Finally in the far south, in the peninsula of Lower California, the +tribes were "probably the lowest in culture of any Indians in North +America, for their inhospitable environment which made them wanderers, +was unfavorable to the foundation of government even of the rude and +unstable kind found elsewhere." The Yuman tribes of the mountains east +of Santiago wore sandals of maguey fiber and descended from their own +territory among the mountains "to eat calabash and other fruits" that +grew beside the Colorado River. They were described as "very dirty on +account of the much mescal they eat." Others speak of them as "very +filthy in their habits. To overcome vermin they coat their heads with +mud with which they also paint their bodies. On a hot day it is by no +means unusual to see them wallowing in the mud like pigs." They were +"exceedingly poor, having no animals except foxes of which they had +a few skins. The dress of the women in summer was a shirt and a bark +skirt. The men appear to have been practically unclothed during this +season. The practice of selling children seems to have been common. +Their sustenance was fish, fruits, vegetables, and seeds of grass, +and many of the tribes were said to have been dreadfully scorbutic." +A little to the east of these degraded savages the much more advanced +Mohave tribe had its home on the lower Colorado River. The contrast +between these neighboring tribes throws much light on the reason for the +low estate of the California Indians. "No better example of the power +of environment to better man's condition can be found than that shown +as the lower Colorado is reached. Here are tribes of the same family (as +those of Lower California) remarkable not only for their fine physical +development, but living in settled villages with well-defined tribal +lines, practising a rude, but effective, agriculture, and well advanced +in many primitive Indian arts. The usual Indian staples were raised +except tobacco, these tribes preferring a wild tobacco of their region +to the cultivated." * + + + * Hodge, "Handbook of American Indians." + + +This quotation is highly significant. With it should be compared the +fact that there is no evidence that corn or anything else was cultivated +in California west of the Rio Colorado Valley. California is a region +famous throughout America for its agriculture, but its crops are +European in origin. Even in the case of fruits, such as the grape, +which have American counterparts, the varieties actually cultivated were +brought from Europe. Wheat and barley, the chief foodstuffs for which +California and similar subtropical regions are noted, were unknown +in the New World before the coming of the white man. In pre-Columbian +America corn was the only cultivated cereal. The other great staples +of early American agriculture were beans and pumpkins. All three are +preeminently summer crops and need much water in July and August. In +California there is no rain at this season. Though the fall rains, which +begin to be abundant in October and November, do not aid these +summer crops, they favor wheat and barley. The winter rains and the +comparatively warm winter weather permit these grains to grow slowly but +continuously. When the warm spring arrives, there is still enough rain +to permit wheat and barley to make a rapid growth and to mature their +seeds long before the long, dry summer begins. The comparatively dry +weather of May and June is just what these cereals need to ripen the +crop, but it is fatal to any kind of agriculture which depends on summer +rain. + +Crops can of course be grown during the summer in California by means of +irrigation, but this is rarely a simple process. If irrigation is to +be effective in California, it cannot depend on the small streams which +practically dry up during the long, rainless summer, but it must depend +on comparatively large streams which flow in well-defined channels. With +our modern knowledge and machinery it is easy for us to make canals and +ditches and to prepare the level fields needed to utilize this water. A +people with no knowledge of agriculture, however, and with no iron tools +cannot suddenly begin to practice a complex and highly developed system +of agriculture. In California there is little or none of the natural +summer irrigation which, in certain parts of America, appears to have +been the most important factor leading to the first steps in tilling the +ground. The lower Colorado, however, floods broad areas every summer. +Here, as on the Nile, the retiring floods leave the land so moist +that crops can easily be raised. Hence the Mohave Indians were able to +practice agriculture and to rise well above their kinsmen not only in +Lower California but throughout the whole State. + +In the Rocky Mountain region of the United States, just as on the +Pacific coast, the condition of the tribes deteriorated more and more +the farther they lived to the south. In the regions where the rainfall +comes in summer, however, and hence favors primitive agriculture, there +was a marked improvement. The Kutenai tribes lived near the corner where +Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia now meet. They appear to have +been of rather high grade, noteworthy for their morality, kindness, and +hospitality. More than any other Indians of the Rocky Mountain region, +they avoided drunkenness and lewd intercourse with the whites. Their +mental ability was comparatively high, as appears from their skill in +buffalo-hunting, in making dugouts and bark canoes, and in constructing +sweat-houses and lodges of both skins and rushes. Even today the lower +Kutenai are noted for their water-tight baskets of split roots. Moreover +the degree to which they used the plants that grew about them for food, +medicine, and economical purposes was noteworthy. They also had an +esthetic appreciation of several plants and flowers--a gift rare among +Indians. These people lived in the zone of most stimulating climate and, +although they did not practice agriculture and had little else in their +surroundings to help them to rise above the common level, they dwelt in +a region where there was rain enough in summer to prevent their being +on the verge of starvation, as the Indians of California usually were. +Moreover they were near enough to the haunts of the buffalo to depend on +that great beast for food. Since one buffalo supplies as much food as a +hundred rabbits, these Indians were vastly better off than the people of +the drier parts of the western coast. + +South of the home of the Kutenai, in eastern Oregon, southern Idaho, +Nevada, Utah, and neighboring regions dwelt the Utes and other Shoshoni +tribes. In this region the rainfall, which is no greater than that of +California, occurs chiefly in winter. The long summer is so dry that, +except by highly developed methods of irrigation, agriculture is +impossible. Hence it is not surprising to find a traveler in 1850 +describing one tribe of the Ute family as "without exception the most +miserable looking set of human beings I ever saw. They have hitherto +subsisted principally on snakes, lizards, roots." The lowest of all the +Ute tribes were those who lived in the sage-brush. The early explorer, +Bonneville, found the tribes of Snake River wintering in brush shelters +without roofs merely heaps of brush piled high, behind which the Indians +crouched for protection from wind and snow. Crude as such shelters may +seem, they were the best that could be constructed by people who dwelt +where there was no vegetation except little bushes, and where the soil +was for the most part sandy or so salty that it could not easily be made +into adobe bricks. + +The food of these Utes and Shoshonis was no better than their shelters. +There were no large animals for them to hunt; rabbits were the best that +they could find. Farther to the east, where the buffalo wandered during +part of the year and where there are some forests, the food was better, +the shelters were more effective, and, in general, the standard of +living was higher, although racially the two groups of people were +alike. In this case, as in others, the people whose condition was lowest +were apparently as competent as those whose material conditions were +much better. Today, although the Ute Indians, like most of their race, +are rather slow, some tribes, such as the Payutes, are described as +not only "peaceful and moral," but also "industrious." They are highly +commended for their good qualities by those who have had the best +opportunities for judging. While not as bright in intellect as some of +the prairie tribes whom we shall soon consider, they appear to possess +more solidity of character. By their willingness and efficiency as +workers they have made themselves necessary to the white farmers +and have thus supplied themselves with good clothing and many of the +comforts of life. They have resisted, too, many of the evils coming from +the advance of civilization, so that one agent speaks of these Indians +as presenting the singular anomaly of improving by contact with the +whites. Apparently their extremely low condition in former times was due +merely to that same handicap of environment which kept back the Indians +of California. + +Compare these backward but not wholly ungifted Utes with the Hopi who +belonged to the same stock. The relatively high social organization of +the latter people and the intricacy and significance of their religious +ceremonials are well known. Mentally the Hopi seem to be the equal +of any tribe, but it is doubtful whether they have much more innate +capacity than many of their more backward neighbors. Nevertheless they +made much more progress before the days of the white man, as can easily +be seen in their artistic development. Every one who has crossed the +continent by the Santa Fe route knows how interesting and beautiful +are their pottery, basketry, and weaving. Not only in art but also +in government the Hopi are highly advanced. Their governing body is +a council of hereditary elders together with the chiefs of religious +fraternities. Among these officials there is a speaker chief and a war +chief, but there seems never to have been any supreme chief of all the +Hopi. Each pueblo has an hereditary chief who directs all the communal +work, such as the cleaning of the springs and the general care of the +village. Crimes are rare. This at first sight seems strange in view of +the fact that no penalty was inflicted for any crime except sorcery, but +under Hopi law all transgressions could be reduced to sorcery. One +of the most striking features of Hopi life was its rich religious +development. The Hopi recognized a large number of supernatural beings +and had a great store of most interesting and poetic mythological +tales. The home of the Hopi would seem at first sight as unfavorable to +progress as that of their Ute cousins, but the Hopi have the advantage +of being the most northwesterly representatives of the Indians who dwell +within the regions of summer rain. Fortunately for them, their country +is too desert and unforested for them to subsist to any great degree +by the chase. They are thus forced to devote all their energy to +agriculture, through which they have developed a relatively high +standard of living. They dwell far enough south to have their heaviest +rainfall in summer and not in winter, as is the case in Utah, so that +they are able to cultivate crops of corn and beans. Where such an +intensive system of agriculture prevails, the work of women is as +valuable as that of men. The position of woman is thus relatively high +among the Hopi, for she is useful not only for her assistance in the +labors of the field but also for her skill in preserving the crops, +grinding the flour, and otherwise preparing the comparatively varied +food which this tribe fortunately possesses. + +From northern New Mexico and Arizona to Mexico City summer rains, dry +winters, and still drier springs, are the rule. Forests are few, and +much of the country is desert. The more abundant the rains, the +greater the number of people and the greater the opportunities for the +accumulation of wealth, and thus for that leisure which is necessary +to part of a community if civilization is to make progress. That is +one reason why the civilization of the summer rain people becomes more +highly developed as they go from north to south. The fact that the +altitude of the country increases from the United States border +southward also tends in the same direction, for it causes the climate to +be cooler and more bracing at Mexico City than at places farther north. + +The importance of summer rains in stimulating growth and in facilitating +the early stages of agriculture is noteworthy. Every one familiar with +Arizona and New Mexico knows how the sudden summer showers fill the +mountain valleys with floods which flow down upon the plain and rapidly +spread out into broad, thin sheets, often known as playas. There the +water stands a short time and then either sinks into the ground or +evaporates. Such places are favored with the best kind of natural +irrigation, and after the first shower it is an easy matter for the +primitive farmer to go out and drop grains of corn into holes punched +with a stick. Thereafter he can count on other showers to water his +field while the corn sprouts and grows to maturity. All that he needs +to do is to watch the field to protect it from the rare depredations +of wild animals. As time goes on the primitive farmer realizes the +advantage of leading the water to particularly favorable spots and thus +begins to develop a system of artificial irrigation. In regions where +such advantageous conditions prevail, the people who live permanently +in one place succeed best, for the work that they do one year helps them +the next. They are not greatly troubled by weeds, for, though grasses +grow as well as corn in the places where the water spreads out, the +grasses take the form of little clumps which can easily be pulled up. +In the drier parts of the area of summer rain, it becomes necessary to +conserve the water supply to the utmost. The Hopi consider sandy fields +the best, for the loose sand on top acts as a natural blanket to prevent +evaporation from the underlying layers. Sometimes in dry seasons the +Hopi use extraordinary methods to help their seeds to sprout. For +instance, they place a seed in a ball of saturated mud which they +bury beneath several inches of sand. As the sand prevents evaporation, +practically all the water is retained for the use of the seed, which +thereupon sprouts and grows some inches by the time the first summer +floods arrive. + +The Indians of the Great Plains lived a very different life from that +of the natives of either the mountains or the Pacific coast. In the far +north, to be sure, the rigorous climate caused all the Indians to live +practically alike, whether in the Rockies, the plains, or the Laurentian +highland. South of them, in that great central expanse stretching from +the latitude of Lake Winnipeg to the Rio Grande River, the Indians +of the plains possessed a relatively uniform type of life peculiar to +themselves. This individuality was due partly to the luxuriant carpet of +grass which covered the plains and partly to the supply of animal +food afforded by the vast herds of buffaloes which roamed in tens +of thousands throughout the whole territory. The grass was important +chiefly because it prevented the Indians from engaging in agriculture, +for it must never be forgotten that the Indians had neither iron tools +nor beasts of burden to aid them in overcoming the natural difficulties +in the way of agriculture. To be sure, they did occasionally pound +meteoric iron into useful implements, but this substance was so rare +that probably not one Indian in a hundred had ever seen a piece. The +Indians were quite familiar with copper, but there is not the slightest +evidence that they had discovered any means of hardening it. Metals +played no real part in the life of any of the Indians of America, and +without such tools as iron spades and hoes it was impossible for them to +cultivate grassland. If they burned the prairie and dropped seeds into +holes, the corn or beans which they thus planted were sure to be choked +by the quickly springing grass. To dig away the tough sod around the +hole for each seed would require an almost incredible amount of work +even with iron tools. To accomplish this with wooden spades, rude hoes +made of large flakes of flint, or the shoulder blades of the buffalo, +was impossible on any large scale. Now and then in some river bottom +where the grass grew in clumps and could be easily pulled up, a little +agriculture was possible. That is all that seems to have been attempted +on the great grassy plains. + +The Indians could not undertake any widespread cultivation of the plains +not only because they lacked iron tools but also because they had no +draft animals. The buffalo was too big, too fierce, and too stupid to +be domesticated. In all the length and breadth of the two Americas there +was no animal to take the place of the useful horse, donkey, or ox. The +llama was too small to do anything but carry light loads, and it could +live only in a most limited area among the cold Andean highlands. Even +if the aboriginal Americans could have made iron ploughs, they could not +have ploughed the tough sod without the aid of animals. Moreover, +even if the possession of metal tools and beasts of burden had made +agriculture possible in the grass-lands, it would have been difficult, +in the absence of wood for fences, to prevent the buffalo from eating up +the crops or at least from tramping through them and spoiling them. Thus +the fertile land of the great plains remained largely unused until the +white man came to the New World bringing the iron tools and domestic +animals that were necessary to successful agriculture. + +Although farming of any sort was almost as impossible in the plains +as in the dry regions of winter rains farther west, the abundance of +buffaloes made life much easier in many respects. It is astonishing to +see how many purposes these animals served. An early traveler who dwelt +among one of the buffalo-hunting tribes, the Tonkawa of central Texas, +says: "Besides their meat it [the buffalo] furnishes them liberally what +they desire for conveniences. The brains are used to soften skins, the +horns for spoons and drinking cups, the shoulder blades to dig up and +clear off the ground, the tendons for threads and bow strings, the hoofs +to glue the arrow-feathering. From the tail-hair they make ropes +and girths, from the wool, belts and various ornaments. The hide +furnishes... shields, tents, shirts, footwear, and blankets to protect +them from the cold." * + + + *See Hodge, "Handbook of American Indians," vol. II, p. 781. + + +The buffalo is a surprisingly stupid animal. When a herd is feeding it +is possible for a man to walk into the midst of it and shoot down an +animal. Even when one of their companions falls dead, the buffaloes +pay no attention to the hunter provided he remains perfectly still. The +wounded animals are not at first dangerous but seek to flee. Only when +pursued and brought to bay do they turn on their pursuers. When the +Indians of an encampment united their forces, as was their regular +habit, they were able to slaughter hundreds of animals in a few days. +The more delicate parts of the meat they ate first, often without +cooking them. The rest they dried and packed away for future use, while +they prepared the hides as coverings for the tents or as rugs in which +to sleep. + +Wherever the buffaloes were present in large numbers, the habits of the +Indians were much the same. They could not live in settled villages, +for there was no assurance that the buffalo would come to any particular +place each year. The plains tribes were therefore more thoroughly +nomadic than almost any others, especially after the introduction of +horses. Because they wandered so much, they came into contact with +other tribes to an unusual degree, and much of the contact was friendly. +Gradually the Indians developed a sign language by which tribes of +different tongues could communicate with one another. At first these +signs were like pictographs, for the speaker pointed as nearly as +possible to the thing that he desired to indicate, but later they became +more and more conventional. For example, man, the erect animal, was +indicated by throwing up the hand, with its back outward and the index +finger extending upward. Woman was indicated by a sweeping downward +movement of the hand at the side of the head with fingers extended to +denote long hair or the combing of flowing locks. + +Among the plains Indians, the Dakotas, the main tribe of the Sioux +family, are universally considered to have stood highest not only +physically but mentally, and probably morally. Their bravery was never +questioned, and they conquered or drove out every rival except the +Chippewas. Their superiority was clearly seen in their system of +government. Personal fitness and popularity determined chieftainship +more than did heredity. The authority of the chief was limited by the +Band Council, without whose approbation little or nothing could be +accomplished. In one of the Dakota tribes, the Tetons, the policing of a +village was confided to two or three officers who were appointed by the +chief and who remained in power until their successors were appointed. +Day and night they were always on the watch, and so arduous were their +labors that their term of service was necessarily short. The brevity of +their term, however, was atoned for by the greatness of their authority, +for in the suppression of disturbances no resistance was suffered. Their +persons were sacred, and if in the execution of their duty they struck +even a chief of the second class they could not be punished. + +The Dakotas, who lived in the region where their name is still +preserved, inhabited that part of the great plain which is climatically +most favorable to great activity. It is perhaps because of their +response to the influence of this factor of geographical environment +that they and their neighbors are the best known of the plains tribes. +Their activity in later times is evident from the fact that the Tetons +were called "the plundering Arabs of America." If their activities +had been more wisely directed, they might have made a great name for +themselves in Indian history. In the arts they stood as high as could +be expected in view of the wandering life which they led and the limited +materials with which they had to work. In the art of making pictographs, +for instance, they excelled all other tribes, except perhaps the Kiowas, +a plains tribe of Colorado and western Kansas. On the hides of buffalo, +deer, and antelope which formed their tents, the Dakotas painted +calendars, which had a picture for each year, or rather for each winter, +while those of the Kiowas had a summer symbol and a winter symbol. +Probably these calendars reveal the influence of the whites, but they at +least show that these people of the plains were quickwitted. + +Farther south the tribes of the plains stood on a much lower level than +the Dakotas. The Spanish explorer, Cabeza de Vaca, describes the Yguases +in Texas, among whom he lived for several years, in these words: "Their +support is principally roots which require roasting two days. Many are +very bitter. Occasionally they take deer and at times fish, but the +quantity is so small and the famine so great that they eat spiders and +eggs of ants, worms, lizards, salamanders, snakes, and vipers that kill +whom they strike, and they eat earth and all that there is, the dung of +deer, things I omit to mention and I earnestly believe that were there +stones in that land they would eat them. They save the bones of the fish +they consume, the snakes and other animals, that they may afterward beat +them together and eat the powder." During these painful periods, they +bade Cabeza de Vaca "not to be sad. There would soon be prickly pears, +although the season of this fruit of the cactus might be months distant. +When the pears were ripe, the people feasted and danced and forgot their +former privations. They destroyed their female infants to prevent them +being taken by their enemies and thus becoming the means of increasing +the latter's number." + +East of the Great Plains there dwelt still another important type of +Indians, the people of the deciduous forests. Their home extended from +the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. As we have already seen, the +Iroquois who inhabited the northern part of this region were in many +respects the highest product of aboriginal America. The northern +Iroquois tribes, especially those known as the Five Nations, were second +to no other Indian people north of Mexico in political organization, +statecraft, and military prowess. Their leaders were genuine diplomats, +as the wily French and English statesmen with whom they treated soon +discovered. One of their most notable traits was the reverence which +they had for the tribal law. The wars that they waged were primarily +for political independence, for the fundamental principle of their +confederation was that by uniting with one another they would secure the +peace and welfare of all with whom they were connected by ties of blood. +They prevented blood feuds by decreeing that there should be a price for +the killing of a co-tribesman, and they abstained from eating the flesh +of their enemies in order to avoid future strife. So thoroughly did they +believe in the rights of the individual that women were accorded a high +position. Among some of the tribes the consent of all the women who had +borne children was required before any important measure could be taken. +Candidates for a chiefship were nominated by the votes of the mothers, +and, as lands and houses were the property of the women, their power in +the tribe was great. + +The Iroquois were sedentary and agricultural, and depended on the chase +for only a small part of their existence. The northern tribes were +especially noted for their skill in building fortifications and houses. +Their so-called castles were solid wooden structures with platforms +running around the top on the inside. From the platforms stones and +other missiles could be hurled down upon besiegers. According to our +standards such dwellings were very primitive, but they were almost as +great an advance upon the brush piles of the Utes as our skyscrapers +are upon them. Farther south in the Carolinas, the Cherokees, another +Iroquoian tribe, stand out prominently by reason of their unusual mental +ability. Under the influence of the white man, the Cherokees were the +first to adopt a constitutional form of government embodied in a code +of laws written in their own language. Their language was reduced to +writing by means of an alphabet which one of their number named Sequoya +had devised. Sequoya and other leaders, however, may not have been +pure Indians, for by that time much white blood had been mixed with the +tribe. Yet even before the coming of the white man the Cherokees were +apparently more advanced in agriculture than the Iroquois were, but less +advanced in their form of government, in their treatment of women, and +in many other respects. In general, as we go from north to south in +the region of deciduous forests, we find that among the early Indians +agriculture became more and more important and the people more +sedentary, though not always more progressive in other ways. The +Catawbas, for instance, in South Carolina were sedentary agriculturists +and seem to have differed little in general customs from their +neighbors. Their men were brave and honest but lacking in energy. In +the Muskhogean family of Indians, comprising the Creeks, Choctaws, +Chickasaws, and Seminoles, who occupied the Gulf States from Georgia to +Mississippi, all the tribes were agricultural and sedentary and occupied +villages of substantial houses. The towns near the tribal frontiers were +usually palisaded, but those more remote from invasion were unprotected. +All these Indians were brave but not warlike in the violent fashion of +the Five Nations. The Choctaws would fight only in self-defense, it was +said, but the Creeks and especially the Chickasaws were more aggressive. +In their government these Muskhogean tribes appear to have attained +a position corresponding to their somewhat advanced culture in other +respects. Yet their confederacies were loose and flimsy compared with +that of the Five Nations. Another phase of the life of the tribes in the +southern part of the region of deciduous forests is illustrated by +the Natchez of Mississippi. These people were strictly sedentary and +depended chiefly upon agriculture for a livelihood. They possessed +considerable skill in the arts. For instance, they wove a cloth from the +inner bark of the mulberry tree and made excellent pottery. They also +constructed great mounds of earth upon which to erect their dwellings +and temples. Like a good many of the other southern tribes, they fought +when it was necessary, but they were peaceable compared with the Five +Nations. They had a form of sun-worship resembling that of Mexico, and +in other ways their ideas were like those of the people farther south. +For instance, when a chief died, his wives were killed. In times of +distress the parents frequently offered their children as sacrifice. + +Many characteristics of the Natchez and other southern tribes seem to +indicate that they had formerly possessed a civilization higher than +that which prevailed when the white man came. The Five Nations, on +the contrary, apparently represent an energetic people who were on the +upward path and who might have achieved great things if the whites had +not interrupted them. The southern Indians resemble people whose best +days were past, for the mounds which abound in the Gulf States appear +to have been built chiefly in pre-Columbian days. Their objects of +art, such as the remarkable wooden mortars found at Key Marco and the +embossed copper plates found elsewhere in Florida, point to a highly +developed artistic sense which was no longer in evidence at the coming +of the white man. + +It is interesting to see the way in which climatic energy tended to give +the Five Nations a marked superiority over the tribesmen of the South, +while agriculture tended in the opposite direction. There has been much +discussion as to the part played by agriculture among the primitive +Americans, especially in the northeast. Corn, beans, and squashes were +an important element in the diet of the Indians of the New England +region, while farther south potatoes, sunflower seeds, and melons +were also articles of food. The New England tribes knew enough about +agriculture to use fish and shells for fertilizer. They had wooden +mattocks and hoes made from the shoulder blades of deer, from tortoise +shells, or from conch shells set in handles. They also had stone hoes +and spades, while the women used short pickers or parers about a foot +long and five inches wide. Seated on the ground they used these to +break the upper part of the soil and to grub out weeds, grass, and old +cornstalks. They had the regular custom of burning over an old patch +each year and then replanting it. Sometimes they merely put the seeds in +holes and sometimes they dug up and loosened the ground for each seed. +Clearings they made by girdling the trees, that is, by cutting off the +bark in a circle at the bottom and thus causing the tree to die. The +brush they hacked or broke down and burned when it was dry enough. + +There is much danger of confusing the agricultural condition of the +Indian after the European had modified his life with his condition +before the European came to America. For instance, in the excellent +article on agriculture in the "Handbook of American Indians," conditions +prevailing as late as 1794 in the States south of the Great Lakes are +spoken of as if typical of aboriginal America. But at that time the +white man had long been in contact with the Indian, and iron tools +had largely taken the place of stone. The rapidity with which European +importations spread may be judged by the fact that as early as 1736 the +Iroquois in New York not only had obtained horses but were regularly +breeding them. The use of the iron axe of course spread with vastly +greater rapidity than that of the horse, for an axe or a knife was the +first thing that an Indian sought from the white man. In the eighteenth +century agriculture had thus become immeasurably easier than before, yet +even then the Indians still kept up their old habit of cultivating the +same fields only a short time. The regular practice was to cultivate +a field five, ten, and sometimes even twenty or more years, and then +abandon it. * + + + *Ordinarily it is stated that this practice was due to the +exhaustion of the soil. That, however, is open to question, for five +or ten years' desultory cultivation on the part of the Indian would +scarcely exhaust the soil so much that people would go to the great +labor of making new clearings and moving their villages. Moreover, in +the Southern States it is well known today that the soil is exhausted +much more rapidly than farther north because it contains less humus. +Nevertheless the southern tribes cultivated the land about their +villages for long periods. Tribes like the Creeks, the Cherokees, and +the Natchez appear to have been decidedly less prone to move than the +Iroquois, in spite of the relatively high development of these northern +nations. + + +What hindered agriculture most in the northern part of the deciduous +forest was the grass. Any one who has cultivated a garden knows how +rapidly the weeds grow. He also knows that there is no weed so hard to +exterminate as grass. When once it gets a foothold mere hoeing seems +only to make it grow the faster. The only way to get rid of grass when +once it has become well established is to plow the field and start over +again, but this the Indians could not do. When first a clearing was made +in the midst of the forest, there was no grass to be contended with. +Little by little, however, it was sure to come in, until at length what +had been a garden was in a fair way to become a meadow. Then the Indians +would decide that it was necessary to seek new fields. + +One might suppose that under such circumstances the Indians would merely +clear another patch of forest not far from the village and so continue +to live in the old place. This, however, they did not do because the +labor of making a clearing with stone axes and by the slow process of +girdling and burning the trees was so great that it was possible only in +certain favored spots where by accident the growth was less dense than +usual. When once a clearing became grassy, the only thing to do was to +hunt for a new site, prepare a clearing, and then move the village. This +was apparently the reason why the Iroquois, although successful in other +ways, failed to establish permanent towns like those of the Pueblos and +the Haidas. Their advancement not only in architecture but in many of +the most important elements of civilization was for this reason greatly +delayed. There was little to stimulate them to improve the land to which +they were attached, for they knew that soon they would have to move. + +Farther south the character of the grassy vegetation changes, and the +condition of agriculture alters with it. The grass ceases to have that +thick, close, turfy quality which we admire so much in the fields of the +north, and it begins to grow in bunches. Often a southern hillside may +appear from a distance to be as densely covered with grass as a New +England hayfield. On closer examination, however, the growth is seen +to consist of individual bunches which can easily be pulled up, so that +among the southern tribes the fields did not become filled with grass as +they did in the north, for the women had relatively little difficulty in +keeping out this kind of weed as well as others. + +In this survey of aboriginal America we have been impressed by the +contrast between two diverse aspects of the control of human activities +by physical environment. We saw, in the first place, that in our own +day the distribution of culture in America is more closely related to +climatic energy than to any other factor, because man is now so advanced +in the arts and crafts that agricultural difficulties do not impede him, +except in the far north and in tropical forests. Secondly, we have found +that, although all the geographical factors acted upon the Indian as +they do today, the absence of metals and beasts of burden compelled man +to be nomadic, and hence to remain in a low stage of civilization in +many places where he now can thrive. In the days long before Columbus +the distribution of civilization in the Red Man's Continent offered +still a third aspect, strikingly different both from that of today and +from that of the age of discovery. In that earlier period the great +centers of civilization were south of their present situation. In +the southern part of North America from Arizona to Florida there are +abundant evidences that the Indians whom the white man found were less +advanced than their predecessors. The abundant ruins of Arizona and New +Mexico, their widespread distribution, and the highly artistic character +of the pottery and other products of handicraft found in them seem to +indicate that the ancient population was both denser and more highly +cultured than that which the Europeans finally ousted. In the Gulf +States there is perhaps not much evidence that there was a denser +population at an earlier period, but the excellence of the pre-Columbian +handicrafts and the existence of a decadent sun worship illustrate the +way in which the civilization of the past was higher than that of +later days. The Aztecs, who figure so largely in the history of the +exploration and conquest of Mexico, were merely a warlike tribe which +had been fortunate in the inheritance of a relatively high civilization +from the past. So, too, the civilization found by the Spaniards at +places such as Mitla, in the extreme south of Mexico, could not compare +with that of which evidence is found in the ruins. Most remarkable of +all is the condition of Yucatan and Guatemala. In northern Yucatan the +Spaniards found a race of mild, decadent Mayas living among the relics +of former grandeur. Although they used the old temples as shrines, they +knew little of those who had built these temples and showed still +less capacity to imitate the ancient architects. Farther south in +the forested region of southern Yucatan and northern Guatemala the +conditions are still more surprising, for today these regions are almost +uninhabitable and are occupied by only a few sickly, degraded natives +who live largely by the chase. Yet in the past this region was the scene +of by far the highest culture that ever developed in America. There +alone in this great continent did men develop an architecture which, not +only in massiveness but in wealth of architectural detail and sculptural +adornment, vies with that of early Egypt or Chaldea. There alone did the +art of writing develop. Yet today in those regions the density of +the forest, the prevalence of deadly fevers, the extremely enervating +temperature, and the steady humidity are as hostile to civilization as +are the cold of the far north and the dryness of the desert. + +The only explanation of this anomaly seems to be that in the past the +climatic zones of the world have at certain periods been shifted +farther toward the equator than they are at present. Practically all +the geographers of America now believe that within the past two or three +thousand years climatic pulsations have taken place whereby places like +the dry Southwest have alternately experienced centuries of greater +moisture than at present and centuries as dry as today or even drier. +During the moist centuries greater storminess prevailed, so that the +climate was apparently better not only for agriculture but for human +energy. At such times the standard of living was higher than now not +only in the Southwest but in the Gulf States and in Mexico. In periods +when the deserts of the southwestern United States were wet, the Maya +region of Yucatan and Guatemala appears to have been relatively dry. +Then the dry belt which now extends from northern Mexico to the northern +tip of Yucatan apparently shifted southward. Such conditions would cause +the forests of Yucatan and Guatemala to become much less dense than at +present. This comparative deforestation would make agriculture easily +possible where today it is out of the question. At the same time the +relatively dry climate and the clearing away of the vegetation would to +a large degree eliminate the malarial fevers and other diseases which +are now such a terrible scourge in wet tropical countries. Then, too, +the storms which at the present time give such variability to the +climate of the United States would follow more southerly courses. In its +stimulating qualities the climate of the home of the Mayas in the days +of their prime was much more nearly like that which now prevails where +civilization rises highest. + +From first to last the civilization of America has been bound up with +its physical environment. It matters little whether we are dealing with +the red race, the black, or the white. Nor does it matter whether we +deal with one part of the continent or another. Wherever we turn we can +trace the influence of mountains and plains, of rocks and metals from +which tools are made, of water and its finny inhabitants, of the beasts +of the chase from the hare to the buffalo, of domestic animals, of the +native forests, grass-lands, and deserts, and, last but not least, of +temperature, moisture, and wind in their direct effects upon the human +body. At one stage of human development the possibilities of agriculture +may be the dominant factor in man's life in early America. At another, +domestic animals may be more important, and at still another, iron or +waterways or some other factor may be predominant. It is the part of +the later history of the American Continent to trace the effect of these +various factors and to chronicle the influence that they have had upon +man's progress. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + +Although many books deal with the physical features of the Western +Hemisphere and many others with the Indians, few deal with the two in +relation to one another. One book, however, stands out preeminent in +this respect, namely, Edward John Payne's "History of the New World +Called America," 2 vols. (1892-99). This book, which has never been +finished, attempts to explain the conditions of life among the American +aborigines as the result of geographical conditions, especially of the +food supply. Where the author carries this attempt into the field of +special customs and religious rites, he goes too far. Nevertheless his +work is uncommonly stimulating and deserves the careful attention of the +reader who would gain a broad grasp of the relation of geography to the +history of the New World. + +Two other good books which deal with the relation of geography to +American history are Miss Ellen C. Semple's "American History and +its Geographical Conditions" (1903) and A. P. Brigham's "Geographic +Influences in American History" (1903). Both of these books interpret +geography as if it included little except the form of the land. While +they bring out clearly the effect of mountain barriers, indented coasts, +and easy routes whether by land or water, they scarcely touch on the +more subtle relationships between man on the one hand and the climate, +plants, and animals which form the dominant features of his physical +environment on the other hand. + +In their emphasis on the form of the land both Semple and Brigham follow +the lead of W. M. Davis. In his admirable articles on America and the +United States in "The Encyclopaedia Britannica" (11th edition) and in +The International Geography edited by H. R. Mill (1901), Davis has given +an uncommonly clear and vivid description of the main physical features +of the New World. Living beings, however, play little part in this +description, so that the reader is not led to an understanding of how +physical geography affects human actions. + +Other good descriptions of the North American continent are found in +the following books: I. C. Russell's "North America" (1904), Stanford's +"Compendium of Modern Geography and Travel," including the volumes on +Canada, the United States, and Central America, and the great volumes +on America in "The Earth and its Inhabitants" by Elise Reclus, 19 vols. +(1876-1894). Russell's book is largely physiographic but contains some +good chapters on the Indians. In Stanford's "Compendium" the purpose +is to treat man and nature in their relation to one another, but +the relationships are not clearly brought out, and there is too much +emphasis on purely descriptive and encyclopedic matter. So far as +interest is concerned, the famous work by Elise Reclus holds high rank. +It is an encyclopedia of geographical facts arranged and edited in such +a way that it has all the interest of a fine book of travel. Like most +of the other books, however, it fails to bring out relationships. + +As sources of information on the Indians, two books stand out with +special prominence. "The American Race," by D. G. Brinton (1891), is +a most scholarly volume devoted largely to a study of the Indians on +a linguistic basis. It contains some general chapters, however, on the +Indians and their environment, and these are most illuminating. The +other book is the "Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico," edited +by F. W. Hodge, and published by the United States Bureau of Ethnology +(Washington, 1897, 1910, 1911). Its two large volumes are arranged in +encyclopedic form. The various articles are written by a large number +of scholars, including practically all the students who were at work on +Indian ethnology at the time of publication. Many of the articles are +the best that have been written and will not only interest the general +reader but will contribute to an understanding of what America was when +the Indians came here and what it still is today. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Red Man's Continent, by Ellsworth Huntington + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RED MAN'S CONTINENT *** + +***** This file should be named 3066.txt or 3066.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/6/3066/ + +Produced by The James J. 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