heer cold so much as the monotony of the
unbroken cold and darkness. The negroes of Africa also failed to
progress, but in their case it was the energy-inhibiting equatorial
climate, and especially the monotony of unbroken equatorial conditions.
The European Nordics,--remember, of ancestral stock originating in that
same Asiatic cradle,--had severe cold, and in summer, often, extreme
heat,--but there was no monotony.

"The too active Hottentot soon killed himself off, and only the indolent
survived. The races that have had long sojourns, in the course of their
racial wanderings, under desert conditions, where patient endurance is an
asset, also suffered a decimation of their more alert members. The stolid
were the more fit to survive desert conditions. You will find races now
dwelling in favorable climates who may exhibit these unprogressive
qualities, but back of them is a history of some experience that has
weeded out the more active individuals.

"But am I getting too long-winded?"

"You haven't told us yet why one tribe of Indians will be so different
from another, if they both came here via the Arctic Circle," urged Ace.

"Well, there is where another factor comes in,--that of material
resources. What could an Arab have accomplished with nothing but desert
sands to work with? What can the Esquimos accomplish with little but ice
to grow crops? They must secure their food by hunting, and hunters must
be nomadic. Nomads cannot carry many creature comforts with them, nor can
scattered groups be much mental stimulus to one another. Nor can the arts
develop when the mere struggle for animal existence demands one's whole
energy.

"These Digger Indians came from the as yet unirrigated deserts around Los
Angeles, with its long dry season, whereas Hopis and other Pueblos around
Santa Fe, though up against as dry a climate, taking it in actual number
of inches rainfall per year, have enough of their rain during the summer
months to enable them to raise crops, and hence to establish permanent
habitats, and hence to work out a form of government, a social system, an
art and an organized religion."

"But the Utes around Salt Lake City, who were living on grasshoppers when
the Pueblos were eating squash and beans,--utter savages,--didn't they
have much the same climate as the Pueblos?"

"What I said of the Diggers of Los Angeles applies to them. Their
rainfall did not come at the right time of year to raise crops, and of