Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/409

Rh preponderancy until 1854, when they were surpassed by the Germans. The year 1847 marks the beginning of an important epoch in the history of immigration; during this year the foreign arrivals numbered 234,968, and in 1849 the number had risen to 297,024; then it advanced with startling rapidity to 460,474 in 1854, and in the following year fell off just one half. This movement was induced by three causes: the Irish famine, commercial depression in Germany, and the discovery of gold in California. That this was in part a "boom movement," and that many of the immigrants returned to their homes nourishing disappointed hopes, can not be doubted, yet, while a large number of these arrivals formed no permanent element in the American state, they served a purpose by opening up the great region to the west of the Mississippi, a land at that time almost unknown except to a few native American pioneers; in fact, it becomes apparent that in every new and unexplored section the native Americans constituted the advance guard of civilization, leaving the foreigners to come in later, when the primeval wilderness was but a tale of the past. During this period of a little over six years there crossed the borders into this country over two and a quarter millions of persons, at a time, too, when the entire population did not exceed 23,200,000; and of these alien arrivals fully eighty per cent were from Ireland and Germany. Twice have the arrivals from Germany overbalanced those of all the English-speaking people: once in 1867 to 1868, and again in 1881 to 1885. Shortly after the middle of the century the arrivals from Ireland and those from Great Britain approached an equality, and in the year 1868 the Scandinavian influx began. In the decade between 1880 and 1890 three new elements, the Russian, Austrian, and Italian, also began to arrive in considerable numbers. Since the Revolution, the English-speaking immigrants entering this country have preponderated over all others, having reached a total of 8,016,402, almost half of whom were Irish; those from the United Kingdom alone have numbered 6,964,815; the arrivals from Germany have been 5,003,490; from Scandinavia, 1,192,131; from Russia, 749,039; from Austria, 821,663; and from Italy, 818,011. But while the movement from the latter countries is increasing, that from' those first mentioned shows signs of diminution. From China over 300,000 persons have arrived, and from France, 388,000, but