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diff --git a/old/redma10.txt b/old/redma10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8402fe6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/redma10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4120 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Red Man's Continent, A Chronicle of +Aboriginal America, by Ellsworth Huntington + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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GREGORY'S UNIVERSITY; THANKS TO 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 becamefixed. 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 everpresent 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 The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Red Man's Continent, A +Chronicle of Aboriginal America, by Ellsworth Huntington + |