372
AMERICA
this desert coastal strip it seldom rains, but rain and snow fall on the mountains of Peru and Bolivia during the summer. North of lat. 4° S. there is abundant rainfall from the equatorial rainy belt, reaching 160 inches a year on the coast of Colombia north of the equator. Near the west coast the migration of the equatorial rain belt produces two rainy and two dry seasons at certain stations nearly on the equator (Quito and Bogota). Within the latitudes of the prevailing westerly winds, the rainfall reaches 80 inches annually along the southern coast of Chile. East of the Andes, over much of the pampas of Argentina and Patagonia, the average is under 10 inches. Towards the southern extremity of the continent the rainfall east of the mountains increases again, reaching 40 inches a year in the extreme south-east. There is a seasonal distribution of rainfall in Chile which depends upon the migration of the tropical high pressure belt. Northern Chile, north of about 30° S. lat., is always dry. Southern Chile has rain throughout the year, because it is always under the regime of the prevailing westerly winds. In the central portion there are rains only in winter, when the westerlies impinge on that coast. Cyclonic storms do not occur north of the latitudes occupied by the prevailing westerly winds, but are very common in the high southern latitudes. The winter rains of Central Chile come in connexion with the cyclonic storms of that season. Thunderstorms are most frequent over the north-west coast, as far south as 4° S. lat., and occur in considerable numbers over all of tropical South America, except the arid west coast. The violent summer thunderstorms of Argentina and Uruguay (pamperos) often do serious damage to shipping in the Bio de la Plata estuary. South America may be divided into six climatic provinces (following Supan). The first (“Tropical Cordilleran ”) includes the extreme north-western provinces sec^i°n (coasts of Colombia and Ecuador), with “ perpetual spring ” climates at high altitudes, high temperatures near sea-level, and tropical rains. The second (“ Tropical ”) takes in the vast northern and northeastern territory east of the Andes, and reaches somewhat south of the tropics. This is under the control of trades and equatorial rains, and has mean annual temperatures over 80°. The third (“ Peruvian ”) extends along the Pacific coast to 30° S. lat., including Northern Chile. This province is abnormally cool, and rainless. The “North Chilian ” province, adjoining it on the south, has a subtropical climate, with winter rains. Farther south the “ South Chilian ” province, which takes in also the extreme southern extremity of the continent, is very rainy and has equable temperatures throughout the year, with cool summers. The sixth (“Pampa”) province, which includes the section east of the Andes and south of the tropical province, has a fairly large range of temperature, especially in the north, while rain is not plentiful. The following brief list includes some of the last notable additions to our knowledge of the geography of South America :— Henri A. Gottdreau. iLtudes sur les Guyctnes et VA.nidzoiiic Paris, 1886. —Henri A. Coudreau. Voyages d travers les Guyanes et VAmazonie. Paris, 1887.—Karl von den Steinen. lieise-
[anthropology
schilderung und Ergebnisse der zweiter Schingti, Expedition, 18871888. Berlin, 1894.—Edward Whymper. Travels amongst the Great Andes of the Equator. London, 1892.—Teodoro Wolf. Geografia y Geologia del Ecuador. Leipzig, 1892.—E. A. Fitzgerald. The Highest Andes. London, 1899.—A Topographic Survey of the State oj Sdo Paulo, Brazil, wider the direction of O. A. Derby, H. E. Williams, chief topographer. In course of publication at Sao Paulo, Brazil.-—A Topographic Survey of the State of Minas Geraes, Brazil, under the direction of Alvaro da Silveira. In course of publication at Bello Horizonte, Minas Geraes, Brazil. See also for Climate.—Hann. Handbuch der Klimatoloyie. 2nd edition, Stuttgart, 1897. (The most complete discussion of South American climates. Gives numerous references.)—Bartholomew’s Physical Atlas, vo. . “Meteorology,” London, 1899. (Charts of temperature, pressure, winds, rainfall, &c., with discussion.) (r. DE C. W.) American Ethnology and Archaeology. The opinion is now well-nigh universal among anthropologists that the American aborigines came from the Old World. Whether with Payne it is assumed that in some remote time a speechless anthro- American poid passed over a land bridge, now the Bering aborigines. Sea, which then sank behind him; or with Dawkins and Brinton, that the French cave man came hither by way of Iceland; or with Keane, that two subvarieties, the long-headed Eskimo-Botocudo type and the Mexican round-headed type, prior to all cultural developments, reached the New World, one by Iceland, the other by Bering Sea ; or that Malayoid wanderers were stranded on the coast of South America; or that no breach of continuity has occurred since first the march of tribes began this way—ethnologists agree that the aborigines of the western came from the eastern hemisphere, and there is lacking any biological evidence of Caucasoid or Negroid blood flowing in the veins of Americans before the invasions of historic times. The time question is one of geology. Following Notes and Queries on Anthropology, published by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, the study of the American aborigines divides itself into two parts : that relating to their biology, and that relating to their culture. In the four subdivisions of humanity based on the hair, the Americans are straight-haired or Mongoloid. But it will free this account of them from embarrassments if they be looked upon as a distinct subspecies of Homo sapiens. Occupying 135 degrees of latitude, living on the shores of frozen or of tropical waters; at altitudes varying from sea-level to several thousands of feet; in forests, grassy prairies, or deserts; here starved, there in plenty; with a night here of six months’ duration, there twelve hours long; here among health-giving winds, and there cursed with malaria; this brown man became, in different culture provinces, brunette or black, tall or short, long-headed or short-headed, and developed on his own hemisphere variations from an average type. Since the tribes practised far more in-breeding than out-breeding, the tendency was toward forming not only verbal linguistic groups, but biological varieties; the weaker the tribe, the fewer the captures, the greater the isolation, and harder the conditions—producing dolichocephaly, dwarfism, and other retrogressive characteristics. The student will find differences among anthropologists in the interpretation of these marks—some averring that comparative anatomy is worthless as a means of subdividing the American subspecies, others that biological variations point to different Old World origins, a third class believing these structural variations to be of the soil. The high cheek-bone and the hawk’s-bill nose are universally distributed in the two Americas; so also are proportions between parts of the body, and the frequency
