The fact that the same opinions and customs exist on both sides of the
ocean implies identity of origin; it might be argued that the fact that
the explanation of many customs existing on both hemispheres is to be
found only in America, implies that the primeval stock existed in
America, the emigrating portion of the population carrying away the
custom, but forgetting the reason for it. The fact that domestic cattle
and the great cereals, wheat, oats, barley, and rye, are found in Europe
and not in America, would imply that after population moved to Atlantis
from America civilization was developed in Atlantis, and that in the
later ages communication was closer and more constant between Atlantis
and Europe than between Atlantis and America. In the case of the bulky
domestic animals, it would be more difficult to transport them, in the
open vessels of that day, from Atlantis across the wider expanse of sea
to America, than it would be to carry them by way of the now submerged
islands in front of the Mediterranean Sea to the coast of Spain. It may
be, too, that the climate of Spain and Italy was better adapted to the
growth of wheat, barley, oats and rye, than maize; while the drier
atmosphere of America was better suited to the latter plant Even now
comparatively little wheat or barley is raised in Central America,
Mexico, or Peru, and none on the low coasts of those countries; while a
smaller quantity of maize, proportionately, is grown in Italy, Spain,
and the rest of Western Europe, the rainy climate being unsuited to it.
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