nteresting hints of an explanation. It
appears that the fourteenth century was a time of great distress. In
Norway the crops failed year after year because of cold and storms.
Provinces which were formerly able to support themselves by agriculture
were obliged to import food. The people at home were no longer able to
keep in touch with the struggling colony in Greenland. No supplies came
from the home land, no reenforcements to strengthen the colonists and
make them feel that they were a part of the great world. Moreover in the
late Norse sagas much is said about the ice along the Greenland coast,
which seems to have been more abundant than formerly. Even the Eskimos
seem to have been causing trouble, though formerly they had been a
friendly, peaceable people who lived far to the north and did not
disturb the settlers. In the fourteenth century, however, they began to
make raids such as are common when primitive people fall into distress.
Perhaps the storms and the advancing ice drove away the seals and
other animals, so that the Eskimos were left hungry. They consequently
migrated south and, in the fifteenth century, finally wiped out the
last of the old Norse settlers. If the Norse had established permanent
settlements on the mainland of North America, they might have persisted
to this day. As it was, the cold, bleak climate of the northern route
across the Atlantic checked their progress. Like the Indians, they had
the misfortune of finding a route to America through regions that are
not good for man.

Though islands may be stepping-stones between the Old World and the New,
they have not been the bringers of civilization. That function in the
history of man has been left to the winds. The westerlies, however,
which are the prevailing winds in the latitude of the United States and
Europe, have not been of much importance. On the Atlantic side they were
for many centuries a barrier to contact between the Old World and the
New. On the Pacific side they have been known to blow Japanese vessels
to the shores of America contrary to the will of the mariners. Perhaps
the same thing may have happened in earlier times. Asia may thus have
made some slight contribution to primitive America, but no important
elements of civilization can be traced to this source.

From latitude 30 degrees N. to 30 degrees S. the tradewinds prevail. As
they blow from the east, they make it easy for boats to come from Africa
to America. In comparat