Dr Pritchard on the Extinction of Human Faces. 167 



subject to another vicissitude. The ti'ibes of which it con- 

 sists haA^e but a definite existence, determined by the condi- 

 tions of external nature. When these have changed, it would 

 appear that new organized tribes, adapted by their physical 

 constitution to the new state of external circumstances, replace 

 the old ones. It would be interesting to inquire, whether such 

 changes have had any influence on the destiny of the ancient 

 races of men ? Certain it is, that many vast regions of the 

 earth, if not the Avhole or the greater part of its surface, were 

 formerly the abode of tribes which have long ago perished ; and 

 many of these races were different in physical character from 

 those which at present exist in the same countries. Were the 

 old races swept away, by changes in climate and local circum- 

 stances which became incompatible with the conditions of 

 their existence ? This is a question, for the solution of which 

 no satisfactory data can be found. 



An opinion was entertained some time since in France, which, 

 if it had been well-founded, would perhaps have furnished an 

 example of this kind. A prize was offered by the Geographical 

 Society of Paris for an essay, which was to include the history 

 of ancient Negro races, supposed to have been the aboriginal 

 inhabitants of the region of Central Asia, of the great Hima- 

 laya and the mountains of Kuen-lun to the northward of that 

 chain. It was fancied, that the existence of such a people in 

 that quarter was satisfactorily attested by ancient Chinese his- 

 torians ; and if the fact had been established, that the highest 

 and coldest region in the Old World was the aboriginal abode 

 of black, woolly-haired tribes, it might safely have been in- 

 ferred, that some great physical change must have taken place, 

 since Negroes now exist scarcely, in their wild and native state, 

 except in the hottest part of the intertropical clime. But it 

 turned out, that this notion was entirely founded on mistake, 

 and that the Kuen-lun, recorded in ancient Chinese books to 

 have been the abode of Negroes, was not the mountainous 

 country bearing that name, which is to the eastward of China 

 and northward of Tibet, but certain islands, bearing the same 

 de.signation, in the Indo-Chinese seas. It is uncex'tain to what 

 causes the ancient depopulation of great regions of the earth 

 may be attributed ; such catastrophes appear, however, to have 



