604 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



divisions, the white or Caucasian, the yellow or Mongolian, and the Negro or Ethiopia; 



at the same time stating 

 that several tribes di 

 verge so remarkably, 

 that they can scarcely 

 be referred to any one 

 of these varieties. In 

 reality, the more ex 

 tended arrangement of 

 Blumenbach is but a 

 very imperfect classif 

 ication of mankind, for 

 not only individualsbut 

 whole tribes, incorpo 

 rated in each particular division, have distinctive characters which separate them from the 

 rest of the class, and some peculiarities of one division are frequently traceable in the others. 

 Dr. Prichard distinguishes seven principal groups : 



The Iranian or Indo-Atlantic nations, including almost all the Europeans, all the North 

 Africans, and the Asiatics within a line passing from the Euxine along the chain of the 

 Caucasus, cutting the Caspian, following the Oxus nearly to the source of that river, 

 thence turning ^=_ to tne south-east, and proceeding along the Himalaya 



mountain range ^^iflllk^ to tne Gulf of Bengal. This class corresponds to the 



Caucasian of 

 from the ancient 



Blumenbach, and is denominated Iranian 

 and proper appellation of the plateau of south 

 western Asia, and Indo-Atlantic, because 

 stretching from India to the Atlantic on both 

 sides of the Mediterranean. 



The Turanian nations form the next divi 

 sion, comprehending all the Asiatics beyond 

 the Oxus and Himalaya, denominated from 

 Turan, the Persian name applied to all Asia 

 apart from the table-land of Iran. The Ma- 

 layo-Polynesians are included in this group, 

 with the Finns, Lapps, Turks, and Magyars 

 Qs in Europe, and the Esquimaux in America. 



The aborigines of America, or those na 

 tions whose abode in that continent dates from a period antecedent to history, excluding 

 the Esquimaux, form the third class, a well-marked division of the human family. 



The Negros, extending from the Sahara to the borders of the Cape Colony, with their 

 transatlantic brethren, comprise the fourth class. 



The Hottentots and Bushmen compose the fifth group, occupying part of Southern 

 Africa, most resembling the North Asiatics. 



The Papuas, or woolly-haired nations of the isles in the Malayan seas, frequently styled 

 Oceanic Negros, are the sixth division. 



The last group includes the Alfourous mountaineers of New Guinea, and the native 

 tribes of Australia. 



Attending exclusively to the form of the human skull, Dr. Prichard discriminates 

 three leading varieties : The symmetrical or oval form, which is that of the European 

 and western Asiatic nations ; the narrow and elongated skull, of which the most strongly 

 marked example is perhaps the cranium of the Negro of the Gold Coast ; the broad and 



