832 TRAJi^SACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



It brought up with it more of the precious metals than all others 

 of both continents. It elevated above the bosom of the ocean the 

 grandest hj'drographical basins the geographer is called upon to 

 contemplate. The great valleys of South America, drained by the 

 La Plata, Amazon and Orinoco rivers, the valley of the Eio Grande 

 and Mississippi, with streams flowing north from the same depres- 

 sion in North America, the Amoor, Yellow and White rivers of 

 China, and the Cambodia and Irrawady of Siam, all owe their 

 origin to that tremendous force which elevated this mountain range. 



Considering the plains of Mesopotamia and the valley of the 

 Tigris to have been the early home of the sons of Adam, the over- 

 teeming population pushed their fortunes eastward, until the 

 Asiatic portion was filled ; then, either by accident or design, the 

 red tribes crossed the narrow straits of Behring, crowded down 

 the Pacific slope, and pushing through the defiles of the Eocl^y 

 mountains, the eastern slope became peopled. 



Starting from the same initial point, other tribes emigrated 

 westward and filled the plains of Europe with nomadic tribes, sub- 

 sisting by the chase. A low forehead, broad-cheeked race, with 

 shaggy brows, who fed on the reindeer, aurochs, rhinoceros and 

 mastadon, and who fouoht with the o-reat cave bear and cave lion. 

 Not long before the historic period they gave room to a more culti- 

 vated people from the mother hive, and these in turn to others, 

 until, in the person of the Genoese navigator, the westward bound 

 emigration met on the coast of the Atlantic, the eastward emigra- 

 ting tri))es who already had reached that impassible barrier to 

 their further progress. 



This latter and westward emis-ration has never ceased to flow. 

 It is now flowing in greater tide than at any time previously. The 

 Santa Maria, of one hundred tons, brought the early wave ; the 

 Great Ekistern of twenty-seven thousand tons l)rings the present 

 It has moulded and is now moulding the history of all other 

 nations. 



It is my purpose, in the present investigations, to inquire where 

 and whither this tide of living energy, this mass of reserved vital 

 force, tumultuous with hope and fear, shall flow ? What hydro- 

 graphical basins shall receive, and what the capacity of the various 

 basins to sustain the moving hosts, to develop their powers, and 

 bring forth the inherent strenfjth that is in each individual, and 

 the race collectively. 



