140 SPARKS PROM A GEOLOGIST'S HAMMER. 



Turn next to the opposite side of the globe. Southeast 

 of Africa is a group of islands which Milne-Edwards first 

 desii^nated as the remnant of a wasted continent. Mada- 

 gascar, the Isle of France, the Isle of Bourbon, and their 

 associates, seem to be the vestiges of an obliterated land, 

 which the French zoologist proposed to call the Mascarene 

 continent. Lemuria is a name now generally employed 

 to designate an obliterated land which embraced the Mas- 

 earene continent, and stretched eastward over a portion 

 of the site of the Indian ocean, perhajDS far enough east- 

 ward to embrace the East India Islands. There, at least, 

 seem to be the remnants of an ancient land which fulfilled 

 its destiny before the broad plains and stupendous moun- 

 tain chains of Asia had first received the sunlight. This 

 lost continent is named Lemuria, because there is evidence 

 that it was the original, the central home of the Lemurs, 

 the lowest of the monkeys, from which all higher types 

 of four-handed animals are descended. Lemuria was a 

 central land for animal and vegetable life. Here, it is 

 fancied, the human species began its existence, its diverg- 

 incr streams extendinsr themselves to all other lands, and 

 developing upon them the various races of men as we 

 know them. In Africa, human beings became Negroes 

 and Hottentots; in Australia, Australians and Papuans; in 

 Hindustan, Dravidians; in Eastern Asia, Mongoloids; in 

 central and western Asia, the Mediterranean race. The 

 theory implies that the progenitor of the Mediterranean 

 race made his appearance long, ver}^ long, after the first 

 human being appeared in Lemuria. In consequence of 

 these speculations, the lost continent of Lemuria possesses 

 a high degree of interest. There organization first reached 

 its culmination. Thence, as a center, the modern tribes of 



