42 



the Gnind Canon of the Coloradi), the harn-l cactus, animals that never 

 taste water and do not know how to drink, men wlio can run SOO miles 

 in five days, and the i)eaeeful I'nehlos. where men without f^iiile. vice or 

 crime, jilead with the Great Father at Washington to be let alone, and to 

 have tile Yankee school teachers removed. 



The desert is crossed by rivers fed by mountain snows, and suiii^lyins 

 water enough to irrigate some iwrtion of the area less than two jx-r cent. 

 Agricultural isl.-inds are siiringing up in the desert sea where seven crops a 

 year are liarvested, each acre supports one person, and wealth is assessed 

 not so nuich by acres of land as by acre-feet of water. The lower Coloradi 

 valley will become a little Egypt without the iiyrainids. .Mining camps 

 will spring nj) and maintain their liigli pressure, uncertain existe::ce, fed 

 by automobiles instead of camel cartivans. They will live their day and 

 disapjiear. and the desert will remain the dcscrl, with ail its highest values 

 untouched, its healthful climate, its inspiring scenery, and the lessons 

 which the geographer, geologist, biologist, and artist may learn there. 



The ;\Iexican plateau, a bit of the ti'opics lifted into a temperate and 

 semi-arid atmos[)here, is the euvironment in which the American Indiau, 

 on a maize basis, without iron or domestic animals, .attained his highest 

 indigenous civilization. I'erha])s for that reason the hand of the Spaniard 

 was not wholly destructive, and a blending of Euroi)ean and American 

 civilizations occurred. Of l.j.OOO.WMJ i)eoi>le SO per cent, are of Indian 

 blood and more than half of lli(/se without a st.iin of white. With all 

 his faults, the Mexican i)eon is not lazy or vicious, and remains now. as 

 of old, the pure American .at his liest. Mexico is the land of cactus and 

 agave, of tortillas .and I'rijoles, of chili and iiuhpie. of silver and maniiower, 

 of cockfights .and n'volutions, of opportunity and nninana, out of which 

 I', stable and prosperous civilization, more promising tlnin that of Old 

 Spain, seems to be rising as rapidly as tropical nature and human nature 

 will pernut. 



The Caribbean province lies in tlu' eipiatoriai zone of volcanoes, earth- 

 quakes, perennial heat, heavy raiiit'all and tmpicnl forest. These condi- 

 tions attain their extreini's for the continent in Centra! America, where 

 4,n(X(,(MM> Indi.ans. negroes, and mestizos are leaNcned with less than one 

 percent, of jiure f'aii'oiiean stock. The n.-itural .iml human <-on(litions are 

 less favorable than on tiie .Mexiian plateau. 'I"he most niomeidous things 

 ii! the province just now are the Tehuanteiiec r.iilway and the T'anama 



