602 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



arched ; the mouth small, with the lips a little turned out, especially the lower one ; and 



the chin full and rounded. This 

 form, and the most perfect ex- 

 of Western Asia, bordering on 

 the vast chain of 

 derives its name, 



posed to be the 



is the most elegant variety of the human 

 amples of it are found in the regions 

 Europe, which skirt the southern foot of 

 the Caucasus, from whence the class 

 and which is near what is sup- 

 parent spot of the human race. 

 Here are the Circassians and 

 Georgians, the most exquisite 

 models of female beauty. But 

 the Caucasian class includes na 

 tions very dissimilar apart from 

 the form of the head. Its members are of all 

 complexions, from the Hindoos and Arabs, some 

 of whom are as black as the Negros, to the 

 Danes, Swedes, and Norsemen, who are fair, 

 with flaxen hair and light blue eyes. The class 

 comprises the ancient and modern inhabitants 

 of Europe, except the Laplanders and Finns, the 

 Turks and Magyars. It comprises also the 

 ancient and modern inhabitants of Western Asia, as 

 far as the Oxus, the Belurtagh, and the Ganges 

 such as the Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, 

 Sarmatians, Scythians, Parthians, Jews, Arabs, and Syrians, 

 the tribes of Caucasus, the Armenians, Affghans, and Hin 

 doos. It includes likewise the Africans who live on the 

 shores of the Mediterranean, and throughout the Sahara, 

 the Egyptians and Copts, the Abyssinians, and the Guan- 

 ches, or ancient inhabitants of the Canary Islands, with those 

 Europeans who have colonised America and other parts of 

 the world. The colour of the Caucasian class seems mainly to depend 

 on climate, on the degree of solar heat to which there is exposure, for they are all born 

 with light complexions, and become dark only as they grow up, and are more freely acted 

 on by the sun. Their hue is found to deepen by a regular gradation from the farthest 

 north, where the members of this class are very fair, through the olive coloured inhabit 

 ants of Southern Europe, and the swarthy Moors of Northern Africa, till the gradation 

 ends with the deep black natives of the African and Arabian deserts, and of inter-tropical 

 India. The lighter shades of colour, however, prevail among the Caucasians, and hence 

 they are correctly styled the white race, though some of them are jet black. Their hair 

 is variously melanic and xanthous, always long, and never woolly like that of the Negros. 

 In the Mongolian class, that of the brown man of Gmelin, the head, instead of being 

 round, is almost square ; the face is broad and flat, with the parts imperfectly distinguished ; 

 the arches of the eye -brows are scarcely to be perceived. The complexion is generally 

 olive, sometimes very slight, and approaching to yellow ; but none of this class are 

 known to be fair. The eyes are small and black ; the hair, dark and strong, but 

 seldom curled, or in great abundance ; and there is little or no beard. This division 

 embraces the tribes that occupy the central, east, north, and south-east parts of Asia ; the 

 people of China and Japan, of Thibet, Bootan, and Indo-China, the Finns and Laplanders 

 of Northern Europe, and the Esquimaux on the shores of the Arctic ocean. Climate 

 influences the colour of many of this class, those parts of the body protected from the sun 



