304 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



written record began, so that their formation is hidden far back in the 

 prehistoric period. Nor are alterations of such amount known to 

 have taken phxce in any people Avithin the range of history. 



That there is a real connection between the color of races and the 

 climate they belong to, seems most likely from the so-called black 

 peoples. Ancient writers were satisfied to account for the color of the 

 Ethiopians by saying that the siin had burned them black, and, though 

 modern anthrojiologists would not settle the question in this off-hand 

 way, yet the map of the world shows that this darkest race-type is 

 principally found in a troj^ical climate. The main line of black races 





Fig. 17. Calmuck (after Goldsmid). 



stretches along the hot and fertile regions of the equator, from Guinea 

 in West Africa to that great island of the Eastern Ai'chipelago, which 

 has its name of New Guinea from its neg^*o-like natives. The type of 

 the African negro race perhaps shows itself most perfectly in the 

 nations near the equator, as in Guinea, but it spreads far and wide 

 over the continent, shading off by crossing with lighter-colored races 

 on its borders, such as the Berbers in the north, and the Ai-abs on the 

 east coast. As the race spreads southward into Congo and the Caffre 

 regions, there is noticed a less full negro complex;ion and feature, look- 



