174 STEPPES AND DESEKTS. 



of civilisation are confined to the elevated plateaux. "We 

 have seen on the Andes the ruins of palaces and baths at 

 heights between 1600 and ISOOtoises (10230 and 11510 

 English feet). It can only have been men of a northern 

 race, who., migrating from the north towards the south, could 

 find delight in such a climate. 



( 29 ) p. 15. " The history of the peopling of Japan" 



The probability of the western nations of the New Con- 

 tinent having had communication with the east of Asia long 

 before the arrival of the Spaniards, was I think shewn by 

 me in a work on the monuments of the native inhabitants 

 of America (Vues des Cordilleres et Monumens des peuples 

 indigenes de TAmerique). I inferred this probability from 

 a comparison of the Mexican and Thibeto- Japanese calendars, 

 from the correct orientation of the steps of the pyramidal 

 elevations towards the different quarters of the heavens, 

 and from the ancient myths and traditions of the four ages 

 or four epochs of destruction of the world, and the dispersion 

 of mankind after a great flood of waters. The accounts 

 published since my work, in England, France, and the 

 United States, describing the wonderful bas reliefs, almost 

 in the Indian style, in the ruins of Guatimala and Yucatan, 

 have given to these analogies a still higher value. (Com- 

 pare Antonio del Eio, Description of the Ruins of an 

 Ancient City discovered near Palenque, 1822, translated 

 from the original manuscript report by Cabrera (del Rio's 

 exploration took place in 1787), p. 9, tab. 12-14; with 

 Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, 1843, vol. i. 

 pp. 391 and 429-434; vol. ii. pp. 21, 54, 56, 317, 323; 



