CLIMATE AND COMPLEXION. 9 



show that the natives of this peninsula are fairer than the rest of the 

 Chinese.* 



If this theory be correct, it is the destiny of the white race in North 

 America to approximate in color to the aborigines. Two causes at 

 present, to a considerable extent, counteract the effects of climate. 

 The first is the constant influx of immigrants from the Old World ; the 

 second, the fact that, until the great "West is filled up, the struggle for 

 existence can not become very severe, and the degree of cutaneous 

 adaptation to climate can not assume great importance. But there 

 are, nevertheless, indications that climatic influences are producing 

 their natural effect. The unmixed descendants of the original settlers 

 everywhere appear to have dark hair and a more or less sallow com- 

 plexion. The writer can testify from personal observation that this is 

 generally the case with the descendants of the united empire loyalists 

 who settled after the Revolution in what is now the Province of On- 

 tario. He can also testify to the darkness of the French Canadians, 

 who derive their origin principally from Normandy, and therefore 

 may be assumed to have at first included a large number of fair-com- 

 plexioned individuals. It is remarkable that among this race a great 

 many persons are to be seen whose features are more or less Indian in 

 type. This, however, may (as Dr. Wilson, of University College, To- 

 ronto, supposes) be the result of an admixture of native blood. 



However similar, physically, our descendants may, under the influ- 

 ence of climate, become to the Indians, it by no means follows that 

 they will resemble them mentally or morally. The same struggle for 

 existence that will eliminate the individuals ill adapted to the physical 

 climate will also eliminate those ill adapted to the intellectual and 

 spiritual climate, so that I am inclined to predict that the result will 

 show, what history has indeed already established, that capacity for 

 progress is not indissolubly connected with any particular hue. 



It is obvious that on this hypothesis agreement in color does not 

 prove, and disagreement does not disprove, community of origin. 

 Guided by linguistic affinities, ethnologists have already in many cases 

 disregarded color in their classifications. In the Indo-European fam- 

 ily they include both the fair Teutons and the dark Hindoos. The 

 white Finns and Magyars are classed with the yellow Ural-Altaic 

 races. Black Arabs and white Jews go togethertin the Semitic group. 

 But the principle has not been applied throughout. The Basques and 

 the Caucasians, between whose languages and those of the Aryan fam- 

 ily no relationship has ever been established, are generally considered 

 to be nearer in blood to us than those members of the Ural-Altaic 

 group who exemplify in the fullest degree the Indo-European type of 

 physique. Hitherto the ethnological results of investigations into the 

 physical characteristics of different races have been mainly negative ; 



* See a paper by J. Lamprey, in the " Transactions of the Ethnological Society " 

 for 1867. 



