History in its broadest aspect is a record of man's migrations from one environment to another.
America forms the longest and straightest bone in the earth's skeleton.
We are learning, too, that the love of beauty is one of Nature's greatest healers.
The buffalo is a surprisingly stupid animal.
Fertile soil, level plains, easy passage across the mountains, coal, iron, and other metals imbedded in the rocks, and a stimulating climate, all shower their blessings upon man.
Curiously enough man's body and his mind appear to differ in their climatic adaptations.
The Indians could not undertake any widespread cultivation of the plains not only because they lacked iron tools but also because they had no draft animals.
No part of the world can be truly understood without a knowledge of its garment of vegetation, for this determines not only the nature of the animal inhabitants but also the occupations of the majority of human beings.
The geysers and hot springs of the Yellowstone are another proof of recent volcanic activity.
The human organism inherits so delicate an adjustment to climate that, in spite of man's boasted ability to live anywhere, the strain of the frozen North eliminates the more nervous and active types of mind.
Geologists are rapidly becoming convinced that the mammals spread from their central Asian point of origin largely because of great variations in climate.
According to the now almost universally accepted theory, all the races of mankind had a common origin.
A journey of four hundred and thirty miles can be made in any part of the United States, but in Turkey it takes as many days.
After washing there was no place to pour the water except out of the window onto the heads of the people in the streets, which is the proper place to throw everything that is not wanted.
America is the last great goal of these migrations.
In fact, the history of North America has been perhaps more profoundly influenced by man's inheritance from his past homes than by the physical features of his present home.
The Negro, however, has been tested on an extensive scale.
Surprising as it may seem, this study indicates that similar conditions are best for all sorts of races.
For the source of any characteristic so widespread and uniform as this adaptation to environment we must go back to the very beginning of the human race.
Again and again, to be sure, on the way to America, and under many other circumstances, man has passed through the most adverse climates and has survived, but he has flourished and waxed strong only in certain zones.
