Note 229 — Chapter VI
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The extremes of heat and cold are as unfavorable to intellectual as to physical superiority,[230] a fact which may be easily traced throughout the vast and varied extent of the two Americas. "As far as the parallel of 53°, the temperature of the northwest coast of America is milder than that of the eastern coasts: we are led to expect, therefore, that civilization had anciently made some progress in this climate, and even in higher latitudes. Even in our own times, we perceive that in the 59th degree of latitude, in Cox's Channel and Norfolk Sound, the natives have a decided taste for hieroglyphical paintings on wood."—Humboldt on the Ancient Inhabitants of America.
It has been ascertained that this western coast is populous, and the race somewhat superior to the other Indians in arts and civilization.—Ramusio, tom. iii., p. 297-303; Venegas's California, Part ii., §ii.
"From the happy coincidence of various circumstances, man raises himself to a certain degree of cultivation, even in climates the least favorable to the development of organized beings. Near the polar circle, in Iceland, in the twelfth century, we know the Scandinavians cultivated literature and the arts with more success than the inhabitants of Denmark and Prussia."—Humboldt.