37 



The National Geographic Magazine 



south France the repulsive pole of pop- 

 ulation. 



" But it is absurd to seek by statistics 

 a direct mathematical relation between 

 population and land. The population 

 of a country is not dense exactly in 

 accordance with its topography. Plains 

 do not always have a dense population, 

 and mountains are not always barren. 

 Population does not increase or decrease 

 regularly according to distance from a 

 certain parallel of latitude or longitude. 

 There is no direct proportion between 

 the degrees of temperature or inches of 

 rainfall and the number of inhabitants 

 in a certain district. In this respect 

 many of the statistics distributing popu- 

 lation according to topographical feat- 

 ures or natural relations, such as those 

 of the Tenth and Eleventh Census of the 

 United States, are the merest vanity. 

 One searches in vain in these elaborate 

 tables for any illumination. Such in- 

 fluences are not direct, but indirect. 

 Altitude, temperature, rainfall, influence 

 population because they affect the eco- 

 nomic resources necessary for popula- 

 tion. We must always remember that 

 economy is the basis of social organiza- 

 tion. The economic is the fundamental 

 side of civilization. Natural forces con- 

 trol human life in this way. Statistics, 

 by showing the distribution of popula- 

 tion, discloses the harmony between 

 population and nature, which is medi- 

 ated by economic relations, and these 

 are on the one side the result of natural 

 forces, and on the other the conditions 

 of human existence. 



' ' We must also remember, in studying 

 the distribution of population, that there 

 are commonly many influences at work — 

 some of them economic, others historical 

 and political — and that it is often ex- 

 tremely difficult to disentangle them. 

 We ought, therefore, to expect from 

 statistics not exact data, but only general 

 indications of the influence of natural 

 forces. The density of population in 

 England, for example, is due partly to 



the richness of its soil, partly to its 

 mineral resources, and partly to its com- 

 mercial advantages ; but it is due also 

 in part to its insular position, which 

 has given it peace and stable govern- 

 ment for generations, and to the energy 

 and enterprise of its inhabitants, which 

 have made the little island the center of 

 a world empire. It is impossible for 

 statistics to disentangle these different 

 influences. It can only confirm the ob- 

 servations of histor3^. Who could ex- 

 plain that oasis of population in the 

 great western plain of the United States 

 called Utah, if he did not know the 

 history of the Mormons? Why should 

 the sterile mountain tops of Nevada be 

 populated ? might be asked by one who 

 did not know the history of gold and 

 silver mining. The coast swamps of 

 the United States would probably be 

 uninhabited did not the population of 

 the United States include a large propor- 

 tion of negroes, who are proof against . 

 pestilential fevers. Race explains in this 

 case what physical geography would 

 leave inexplicable. 



" Finally, we must remember that all 

 these natural influences are much more 

 powerful over primitive than over civil- 

 ized man. As Spencer says, ' The ear- 

 lier stages of social evolution are far 

 more dependent on local conditions than 

 the later stages. Those societies such 

 as we are most familiar with, highly 

 organized, rich in appliances, advanced 

 in knowledge, can, by the help of various 

 artifices, thrive in unfavorable habitats ; 

 yet feeble, unorganized societies cannot 

 do so ; they are at the mercy of their 

 natural surroundings.' Spencer finds 

 here also the explanation of the fact 

 that so man)' tribes of savages have 

 made no manifest progress during the 

 long period over which human records 

 extend. Statistics observes man only 

 in an advanced state of civilization, 

 when he has been able to free himself 

 to a certain extent from the influence 

 of natural forces, or at least to neutral- 



