MEXICAN HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY. 33 



remains of importance than we encountered in Mexico. The taste, too, as well as 

 the design and sculpture, is inferior; nor shall we again meet with traces of evident 

 superiority, until we pass the broad belts of the equatorial forests and rivers, and 

 descend beyond the Amazon to the ancient realm of the Incas in Peru. 

 • I will not close this paper by offering any theory in regard to climatic influ- 

 ences on the degrees of civilization found among the aboriginal races of our 

 continent at the period of the Spanish conquest. Still, I hope it may not be 

 considered improper to remark that, while the hot regions in the neighborhood 

 of the equatorial part of our hemisphere appear nearly destitute of monumental, 

 traditional, or recorded remains of their inhabitants, we find, according to all these 

 sources of knowledge, that the best samples of aboriginal civilization have appa- 

 rently originated and ripened, between 10 and 25 degrees of north latitude, and 

 between 10 and 25 degrees of south latitude. While the equatorial heat degene- 

 rated man into an indolent vegetation, the northern and southern portions of the 

 tropics rendered him progressive and fostered his social instincts. From these 

 points, the marks of civilization seem gradually to fade away towards both poles, 

 till they merge, through the nomadic warrior, into the squalid Esquimaux of the 

 north, and, through the Araucanian, into the barbarous Fuegan of the south. 



PUBLISHED BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 

 ■WASHINGTON, D. C. 



DECEMBER, 1856. 



