68 MAMMALS. 



says that their domestic habits aud institutions have a strong affinity to those of the great Tartar 

 family ; they may serve as a specimen of the whole race. In some parts both men and women 

 bore their ears, and wear heavy rings to extend the lower lobe. Captain Newbold, of the Madi-as 

 army, who has written on the Chcnchies of the Nalla Malla, or Black Mountains, represents those 

 he saw as having long bushy liair, thick lijDs, high cheek-bones, and small piercing eyes.* Sir 

 Richard Jenkins and Colonel Agnew confirm this description in speaking of the Gouds ; and I 

 believe no instance will bo found of those residing entirely on the hills having the aquiline nose 

 or the delicacy of feature of the Caucasian family. General Briggs thinks that they partake rather 

 of the Tartar or Thibetan physiognomy, than of the Hindu. He adds, however, a sort of apolo- 

 getic explanation which does not show great faith in their Tartar parentage : " The remote period 

 of their settlement in India, and the possibility of an occasional intermixture with the Hindus, 

 may, in some cases, have somewhat changed their physiognomy from that of their ancestors, so as 

 to render it doubtful whether or not they are derived from that branch of the human family, though 

 in theii' habits and institutions they certainly bear a strong afiinity to the Tartar branch. "f The 

 ■view which has occurred to me as most reconcilable with facts is, that, like the Andamaners, these 

 tribes are remnants of the iuliabitants of the great submerged continent above alluded to by Pro- 

 fessor Owen. 



This continent at some time or other, not all at one time, or in the same direction, but from time 

 to time, and with breaches of continuity which interrupted commimication between various parts of it, 

 lorobabljr included all the oceanic Archijoelagoes, Papua, Australia, ilfrica south of the Sahara, East 

 India south of the Himmalaj^ahs, the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, Burmah, Siam, the Malay 

 Peninsula, Cochin China, part of China, and the whole of the Philippine Islands, Borneo, Java, and 

 Sumatra. That all this vast space was at any one time a united continent I do not suppose nor 

 maintain ; on the contrary, there is everj'thing to lead to a different conclusion ; there appear to 

 have been at least two continents ; as now we see the very same area of the southern hemisphere 

 rising in some parts and falling in others, no doubt this happened in former times also, and its size 

 and configuration would constanth^ vary. Opportunity of access might thus be given for one 

 tj'pe to traverse and penetrate every part of this vast area ; but by long interruptions and suspension 

 of commimication, many might never be able to avail themselves of it, and these long lapses of 

 time might give ojjportunity for the develoj^meut of new sj)ecies or varieties from others which had 

 only reached half way, as it were, on their journey, and who, while the way was still open to them 

 to ijenetrate deeper and spread themselves further in one direction, had perhaps their retreat 

 cut off by a subsidence of the continent behind them, and no opportunity of spreading their off- 

 spring of newly developed forms in the direction from which they came. 



Lastly, I assume that these continents were peojDled by a black race of many tribes, of which 

 the Negritans arc the descendants ; that as the Chagos Bank, the Laccadive Islands aud Maldive 

 Islands have sunk, so did Ceylon and India ; so did the land in the Bay of Bengal ; so did the other 

 lands in which Hill tribes are found ; in fact, that the whole or certain parts of the supposed land 

 sunk more or less gradually ; we know that almost the whole of Africa and Madagascar, and a 



* Can the clucking sound in the language of tlie Ne- without difficulty by any but a native of the province in 



groes liave anything to do with a palalal peculiarity in which the language containing them is spolien." He adds, 



the speech of these aboriginal tribes ? Di-. Reinhold Host "These sounds are unknown in Sanscrit." 



of Berhii, remarks, " that llic palatal sounds of the letters t Biuocis, o[k cit. pp. 172, 173. 

 r, d, j, t, arc confiued to India, aud cannot be pronounced 



