Ellsworth Huntington

“Although farming of any sort was almost as impossible in the plains as in the dry regions of winter rains farther west, the abundance of buffaloes made life much easier in many respects.”

“America is the last great goal of these migrations.”

“History in its broadest aspect is a record of man's migrations from one environment to another.”

“It seems strange that almost no other traces of the strong vikings are found in America.”

“Curiously enough man's body and his mind appear to differ in their climatic adaptations.”

“Surprising as it may seem, this study indicates that similar conditions are best for all sorts of races.”

“Thus the races, though alike in their physical response to climate, may possibly be different in their mental response because they have approached America by different paths.”

“Nevertheless most of the evergreen forests of the north must always remain the home of wild animals and trappers, a backward region in which it is easy for a great fur company to maintain a practical monopoly.”

“America forms the longest and straightest bone in the earth's skeleton.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Today, no less than in the past, the tetrahedral form of the earth and the relation of the tetrahedron to the poles and to the equator preserve the conditions that favor rapid evolution.”

“Geologists are rapidly becoming convinced that the mammals spread from their central Asian point of origin largely because of great variations in climate.”

“Man could not stay there forever. He was bound to spread to new regions, partly because of his innate migratory tendency and partly because of Nature's stern urgency.”

“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.”

“We are learning, too, that the love of beauty is one of Nature's greatest healers.”

“In America the most widespread type of forest is the evergreen coniferous woodland of the north.”

“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.”

“The coast of British Columbia was one of the three chief centers of aboriginal America.”

“The geysers and hot springs of the Yellowstone are another proof of recent volcanic activity.”