1012 OF THE BRANCHES OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. 



them than such as a very limited migration across this narrow channel will 

 readily account for. Now the various portions of the Indian province are 

 still connected hy a vast submarine plain, which extends over the whole of 

 the Java Sea, the Straits of Malacca, the Gulf of Siarn, and the "southern 

 part of the China Sea, at a depth of not more than three hundred feet, ab- 

 ruptly terminating at its limits in an unfathomable ocean. An elevation of 

 the sea bottom to this amount, therefore, would nearly double the extent of 

 tropical Asia ; and there is every probability that the continent was thus 

 extended before that last great elevation of the volcanic range of Java and 

 Sumatra took place, which (according to the general fact first brought into 

 notice by Mr. Darwin, of an alteration of bands of elevation and depression) 

 was coincident with the subsidence that separated those islands from Borneo 

 on the one side, and from the continent of Asia on the other. On the other 

 hand, the great Pacific Continent of which New Guinea and Australia are 

 doubtless fragments, and which (as Dr. Hooker has rendered probable by 

 botanical considerations) once connected Australia and New Zealand with 

 South America, seems to have extended itself as far westward as the Moluc- 

 cas; and its submergence, producing the limitation and separation of the 

 great islands of the South Sea, seems to have taken place before the rise of 

 the tropical Asiatic continent. There are even indications that the tropical 

 Indian Continent extended so near to what is now the coast of Africa, that 

 the Isle of Bourbon and the Mauritius, perhaps even Madagascar, were out- 

 lying portions of it ; and if the submergence which formed the bed of the 

 present Indian Ocean should have taken place subsequently to the time 

 when those countries became inhabited by Man, we have a rational explana- 

 tion of the fact which has perplexed all ethnologists, and which the hypothe- 

 sis of migration can scarcely be stretched far enough to account for, that 

 both the Fauna and the languages of Madagascar are rather Malayo-Poly- 

 nesian than African in their fundamental affinities. 



857. The inhabitants of Oceania seem divisible into two principal groups, 

 which are probably to be regarded as having constituted distinct races from 

 a very early period; these are the Malayo-Polynesiau race, and the Negritos 

 or Pelagian Negroes. The Malay o- Polynesian group is by far the more ex- 

 tensive of the two; and comprehends the inhabitants of the greater part of 

 the Indian and Polynesian Archipelagoes, with the peninsula of Malacca 

 (which is the centre of the Malays proper), and perhaps the inhabitants of 

 Madagascar. These are all closely united by affinities of language. The 

 proper Malays bear a strong general resemblance to the Mongolian races, 

 and this resemblance is shared, in a greater or less degree, by most of the 

 inhabitants of the Indian Archipelago. They are of a darker complexion, 

 as might be expected from their proximity to the equator ; but in this com- 

 plexion, yellow is still a large ingredient. The Polynesian branch of the 

 group presents a much wider diversity ; and if it were not for the commu- 

 nity of language, it might be thought to consist of several races, as distinct 

 from each other as from the Malayan branch. Thus the Tahitians and Mar- 

 quesans are tall and well made; their figures combine grace and vigor; their 

 skulls are usually remarkably symmetrical ; and their physiognomy presents 

 much of the European cast, with a very slight admixture of the features of 

 the Negro. The complexion, especially in the females of the higher classes 

 who are sheltered from the wind and sun, is of a clear olive or brunette, such 

 as is common among the natives of Central and Southern Europe ; and the 

 hair, though generally black, is sometimes brown, or auburn, or even red or 

 flaxen. Among other tribes, as the New Zealanders, and the Tonga and 

 Friendly Islanders, there are greater diversities of conformation and hue; 

 some being finely proportioned and vigorous, others comparatively small and 



