nection
between Mediterranean civilization and that of Central America. They do
not even indicate that any one ever returned from the Western Hemisphere
to the Eastern previous to Columbus. Nor do they indicate that the
civilization of the New World arose from that of the Old. They simply
suggest that after the people of the Mediterranean regions had become
well civilized and after those of America were also sufficiently
civilized to assimilate new ideas, a stray ship or two was blown by
the trade-winds across the Atlantic. That hypothetical voyage was the
precursor of the great journey of Columbus. Without the tradewinds this
historic discoverer never could have found the West Indies. Suppose that
a strong west wind had blown him backward on his course when his men
were mutinous. Suppose that he had been forced to beat against head
winds week after week. Is there one chance in a thousand that even his
indomitable spirit could have kept his craft headed steadily into the
west? But because there were the trade-winds to bring him, the way was
opened for the energetic people of Europe to possess the new continent.
Thus the greatest stream of immigration commenced to flow, and the New
World began to take on a European aspect.

CHAPTER II. THE FORM OF THE CONTINENT

America forms the longest and straightest bone in the earth's skeleton.
The skeleton consists of six great bones, which may be said to form a
spheroidal tetrahedron, or pyramid with a triangular base, for when a
globe with a fairly rigid surface collapses because of shrinkage, it
tends to assume this form. That is what has happened to the earth.
Geologists tell us that during the thousand million years, more or less,
since geological history began, the earth has grown cooler and hence has
contracted. Moreover some of the chemical compounds of the interior have
been transformed into other compounds which occupy less space. For
these reasons the earth appears to have diminished in size until now its
diameter is from two hundred to four hundred miles less than formerly.
During the process of contraction the crust has collapsed in four main
areas, roughly triangular in shape. Between these stand the six ridges
which we have called the bones. Each of the four depressed areas forms a
side of our tetrahedron and is occupied by an ocean. The ridges and
the areas immediately flanking the oceans form the continents. The side
which we may think of as the base contains