16 THE MIGRATIONS OF MAN. 
They drove the Eskimo into their present desolate country* and 
proceeded to colonise America. The main stream would pro- 
bably pass down the coast line as far as San Francisco, and off- 
shoots, that is little parties of fishing and hunting folks, would 
journey up the salmon rivers, and gradually diffuse eastwards 
throughout the wonderful river systems of British North America. 
It is very probable that the invaders crossed the Rocky Mountains 
somewhere near San Francisco, and so reached the Prairies. 
There they developed into fierce hunting tribes, living mainly on 
the Buffalo, and, when population increased to an inconvenient 
degree, fighting ferociously with one another. Hence a further 
migration was necessary, and so first the small hunting clans and 
then larger tribes travelled southward. The road lies by Mexico, 
Bogota, and Peru; it is probably the old Inca highway, followed 
by Almagro, the first invader of Chile, which crosses by Tucuman 
to Paraguay and the Pampas of Argentina. In the rich natural 
pasture of those illimitable plains other vigorous hunting tribes 
developed, who chased the Guanaco and the Ostrich, and 
quarrelled with one another over their hunting grounds. Then 
the same forced migration became necessary, and continued until 
the Yaghan was driven by the Onas into the extreme south-west 
of Tierra del Fuego. In the jungle forests and intricate river 
systems of the Orinoco and Amazon, as well as in those of the 
Gran Chaco and of Southern Chile, there are still miserabl2 
hunting folk, often living in families or very small clans, which 
have diverged from the main highway and diffused into the 
worst conceivable dwelling places. 
The great civilised States of Ancient Mexico, Bogota, and 
Peru, which were flourishing empires in the old Spanish days, are 
supposed, by many American anthropologists, to be entirely the 
work of Homo Americanus. These empires were densely in- 
habited, and indeed that of Peru. probably had a larger popula- 
tion then than it has to-day: the country was intersected by post 
roads, and supplied by irrigation canals so as to produce great 
crops of maize, potatoes, and other indigenous plants. It had a 
firm and settled government. There were magnificent temples 
full of beautiful artistic work in gold and copper, and tended 
* An Eskimo population may once have existed in the Argentine 
Republic, but this is uncertain. 
