8 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



ments, they are very unequal in importance. The environmental here 

 cfvme first, the historical second, and the sociolo^^ical third. This is 

 chiefly because in the I'onnatinn of settlements the original historical 

 factors cease to operate with the accomplishment of the migrations 

 they cause, while the later historical factors, at least those connected 

 with the progress of the country itself, being themselves very greatly 

 influenced by environmental conditions, are hardly of distinct im- 

 portance. The sociological factors also are in time modified givatly 

 by environment, the only one which is strongly resistant to suoh 

 modification being the racial character, though even this yields in the 

 end. The environmental factors alone are incessant in their action, 

 and, in a broad way, almost unvarying in their operation, though it is 

 true they may to some extent be modified by man, and also they are of 

 very dili'erent relative values in the different periods of a country's 

 history. With mankind, as with other phases of nature, the environ- 

 ment can, with time enough, mould the organism to a form adaptive to 

 it; and, moreover, it can bring very different original organisms (viz., 

 races) into very similar ultimate forms, though in both cases there are 

 limits to the process. 



It is of course true that these three sets of factors are not distinct 

 from one another; on the contrary they both are closely interlo'cked, 

 and also re-act upon one another. The most important case of thi? 

 interaction is found in the modification of environment by the action 

 of man, which modification is determined in part by historical reasons, 

 but in larger part by sociological causes, especially by those arising 

 from a bold, progressive, dominating, racial character. This modiPc-i- 

 tion of environanent shows itself most conspicuously in the development 

 of artificial linges of communication, both highway roads and railroads, 

 wliich permit of extensive settlement in regions where, from purely 

 natural conditions, it would be impracticable, and which tend also to 

 attract settlements towards themselves, especially at their junctions, 

 foci, and other natural stopping-places. Another important case, net 

 so much of modification O'f environment as of alteration in its influences 

 through purely sociological reasons, is found in the formation of large 

 settlements in places where they would not bo determined by environ- 

 mental features alone. This is conspicuously the case with the cajntals 

 or other governing centres of countries, in wbich artificial govTrnmental 

 needs often determine a much greater population than environmental 

 influences alone would induce, and something of the same sort deter- 

 mines summer and health resorts. A third and im])ortant method by 

 wliich sociological conditions inodiry the effects of environment i? 

 found ill a tendency to aggregation of jxipuhiition causi'd by the attrac- 



