i8 Inaugural Lecture 1889 



that the new countries to which almost the whole of European 

 emigration has been directed occupy similar or, better said, 

 homologous positions on the earth's surface. Their principal 

 extension is in zones between 30 and 40 Latitude (N. and S.), 

 as will be seen from the position of the cities giving access 

 to the countries and which therefore are physically their 

 capitals thus San Francisco lies in 37 J N., New York 40 J, 

 Buenos Ayres in 35 S., and Sydney and Cape Town in 34 S. 

 The prairies and pampas and the corresponding part of Australia 

 and South Africa which have no distinctive name all lie in 

 latitudes which, if covered by sea, would be subjected to the 

 constant influences of the trade winds. This is somewhat 

 modified by the land but the distinctive character of the trade 

 wind climate prevails ; it is a dry and on the whole salubrious 

 one. It is chiefly owing to the droughts that these districts 

 in their natural state have always been inhabited by nomadic 

 populations, as is shown by the inhabitants of the Russian 

 Steppes, the African Bedouin, the North and South American 

 Indians and the cross-breed Gauchos. The soils also, which 

 are as similar as the climates, are always fertile under cultiva- 

 tion and require but little labour to produce heavy crops of 

 boundless extent. 



But the population is at first very small and a single family 

 can raise grain sufficient for many times its own number. 

 All the neighbours are in the same position, and except close 

 to the shore of the sea or the banks of the river, there is no 

 means of getting rid of the crops. Ten years ago the pampas 

 of the Argentine Republic lying between the Atlantic and the 

 Andes were like a coal seam in the bowels of the earth. The 

 proprietor of the mine wishes to utilise his possession and to 

 do so he must open it out. First he has to sink his shaft 

 to the seam, and when he arrives at it and finds it as good as 

 he expected, he is still only at the threshold. Although he 

 may have abundance of willing labour he cannot utilise it until 

 he has opened out workings so as to admit of the labourers 

 at his command getting free access to the mineral and working 

 their best at its extraction. Having secured the rapid mining 

 of the seam, he must have arranged to have sufficient haulage 



