284 FARABEE— THE SOUTH AMERICAN INDIAN. 



between them and each was allowed to develop its own culture. 

 The archaeological remains show the results of this development 

 from independent centers. 



Near the southern end of the continent climatic and topographic 

 conditions are reversed. The coast and western slopes of the 

 mountains are forested, while the interior is a semi-desert. The 

 deeply embayed coast has a chain of outlying islands. The steep 

 mountains come down to the sea leaving little arable land. The 

 forests furnish an abundance of suitable timber for canoes. All 

 these elements of environment unite to force the unfortunate tribes 

 who have been pushed along into this region to become a maritime 

 people. The inhospitable snowclad mountains prevent contact with 

 the interior tribes. They were shut off also from the people of the 

 northern coast by rough seas and steep harborless shores. They 

 were thus limited to the islands and the channels between. Their 

 isolation and their hard conditions of life with an uncertain food 

 supply has prevented them from developing a high culture. They 

 have had no leisure. All their energies have been taxed to the utter- 

 most to secure their daily bread. 



The nearest neighbors of these canoe people are living under 

 worse conditions even because they were an interior people who 

 have been forced down across the straits into the last point of land 

 on the continent, from which there is no possible escape. With hard 

 conditions and scant food supply they lead a precarious life. They 

 must live in small separate groups in order to make the most of 

 their wild foods. These small units have developed a rugged inde- 

 pendence which will permit of no control. There is no necessity nor 

 opportunity for community effort and hence there are no chiefs and 

 no organized government. Left behind and held at bay in a most 

 rigorous climate they have done well to maintain themselves even 

 in their present culture. Their simple life reveals their origin. The 

 absence of the canoe proves them to belong to the mainland east 

 of the mountains where there are no navigable rivers and a harbor- 

 less cliff coast for a thousand miles. The inhabitants of this plain 

 have always been hunters and not fishermen. 



Farther north on the same coast the narrow fringe of lowland 

 is fertile and contains a number of deep bays. Here the people 



