t of life through a region of mountain and
desert, they came out in diminished bands to survive in the protection
of the great barrier. Of the twenty-one Indian linguistic stocks which
have become extinct since the arrival of the white man, fifteen belong
to this transmontane strip of the Pacific slope[176]--evidence of the
fragmentary character of these stocks and their consequently small power
of resistance, [See map page 54.]

[Sidenote: Emigration and colonization.]

Advance to a completely sedentary life, as we see it among modern
civilized nations, prohibits the migration of whole peoples, or even of
large groups when maintaining their political organization. On the other
hand, however, sedentary life and advanced civilization bring rapid
increase of population, improved methods of communication, and an
enlarged geographical horizon. These conditions encourage and facilitate
emigration and colonization, forms of historical movement which have
characterized the great commercial peoples of antiquity and the
overcrowded nations of modern times. These forms do not involve a whole
people, but only individuals and small groups, though in time the total
result may represent a considerable proportion of the original
population. The United States in 1890 contained 980,938 immigrants from
Canada and Newfoundland,[177] or just one-fifth the total population of
the Dominion in that same year. Germany since 1820 has contributed at
least five million citizens to non-European lands. Ireland since 1841
has seen nearly four millions of its inhabitants drawn off to other
countries,[178] an amount only little less than its present population.
It is estimated that since 1851 emigration has carried off from County
Clare and Kerry seventy-two per cent. of the average population; and yet
those counties are still crowded.[179] Among those who abandon their
homes in search of easier conditions of living, certain ages and certain
social and industrial classes predominate. A typical emigrant group to
America represents largely the lower walks of life, includes an abnormal
proportion of men and adults, and about three-fourths of it are
unskilled laborers and agriculturists.[180]

Colonization, the most potent instrument of organized expansion, has in
recent centuries changed the relative significance of the great colonial
nations of Europe. It raised England from a small insular country to the
center of a world power. It gave sudden though