to other Branches of Knowledge. 315 



xaiitlious, or very fair complexion, with red hair and blue 

 eyes, is often seen in the inhabitants of alpine regions. For 

 example, if we begin from the eastern parts of the world, we 

 find xanthous people on the Himalaya, in the Hindu fami- 

 lies who reside near the sources of the sacred rivers at Jum- 

 notri and Gangotri. Even the Rajpoots in Rajast'han, are 

 known to be much fairer than the people of lower plains in 

 Bengal and elsewhere. Passing the Indus, we find the Euso- 

 fzyes in the high tracts of Afghanistan, a fair xanthous peo- 

 ple, while the Ghiljis of the lower country are dark, and the 

 Jauts of the plain of the Indus nearly black. Then, again, we 

 find on the high mountains of Hindu-Khu that curious people 

 the Siah Posh, who speak a dialect allied to the Sanskrit, 

 and are supposed by Bopp and Ritter, and other learned men, 

 to be descendants from the ancient Brahman race who con- 

 quered India some thousands of years ago, and probably left 

 these people behind them in Central Asia. Far westward in 

 Arabia, according to Bruce, a similar phenomenon is display- 

 ed among the inhabitants of the cold mountains of Raddhua ; 

 and in Africa, the Kabyles, the natives of Mount Aurasius, 

 behind Tunis and Algiers, are so fair, and red-haired, that 

 they have been conjectured, without a shadow of proof, to be 

 descendants of the ancient Vandals, as if it were possible for 

 Vandals to have made their way to the tops of all the moun- 

 tains in the world. Even in America, among the loways, 

 and other tribes inhabiting the Rocky Mountains, similar facts 

 have been observed. The rationale of this phenomenon is 

 plainly connected with the physical conditions of so many 

 mountainous regions. It admits a comparison with changes 

 of complexion, discovered as we proceed from the country of 

 black races under the equator, to that of the fair people of 

 Northern Europe. 



Another observation to which I shall briefly advert, will 

 serve to indicate the bearing which researches in physical 

 geography may possibly have upon the studies of the ethno- 

 logist. The phenomena of vegetation probably indicate con- 

 ditions of climate which are inappreciable by thermometers, 

 hygrometers, and all our instruments ; and when we advert 

 to the fact illustrated by that great botanist Mr Robert 



