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PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



Peruvian Indians," says Humboldt, " who in the middle of the night distinguish the 

 different races by their quick sense of smell, have formed three words to express the 



odour of the Europeans, the Indian 

 Americans, and the Negro." The 

 diversities are great and obvious 

 in the character of the hair, from 

 that of the Negro, which is short 

 and crisp, and has acquired the 

 name of wool, to the long, flowing, 

 and glossy locks of the Esquimaux, 

 between which there are many 

 gradations. 



Precisely parallel varieties are 

 ascertained to arise in the same 

 race of animals. Those of the 

 domestic kind " vary from each 

 other in size much more than in 

 dividuals the most different in 

 stature among mankind. The 

 small Welsh cattle, compared with 

 the large flocks of the southern 



counties in England, or the Shetland ponies with the tall-backed mares of Flanders ; 

 the bantam breed with the large English fowls, are well-known examples. More 

 striking instances are mentioned by naturalists. In the isles of the Celebes, a 

 race of buffaloes is said to exist, which is of the size of a common sheep ; and Pennant 

 has described a variety of the horse in Ceylon not more than thirty inches in height." 

 The swine of Cuba, imported into that island from Europe, have become double the height 

 and magnitude of the stock from which they were derived. The disproportionate arm of 

 the Negro and leg of the Hindoo meet an exact parallel in the swine of Normandy, the 

 hind-quarters of which are so out of keeping with the fore, that the back forms an inclined 

 plane to the head ; and as the head itself partakes of the same direction, the snout is but 

 a little removed from the ground. Among domesticated animals, no species afford more 

 striking specimens of modification in structure than the hog tribe. The external forms 

 which the race has assumed surpass in monstrosity the most extraordinary diversities of 

 the human frame. " Swine," observes Blumenbach, "in some countries have degenerated 

 into races which, in singularity, far exceed every thing that has been found strange in 

 bodily variety among the human race. Swine with solid hoofs were known to the 

 ancients, and large breeds of them are found in Hungary and Sweden. In like manner 

 the European swine first carried by the Spaniards in 1509 to the island of Cuba, at that 

 time celebrated for its pearl-fishery, degenerated into a monstrous race, with toes that 

 were half a span in length." The texture of the skin of several species of animals is 

 different in a wild and in a domesticated condition ; and the character of the hair exhibits 

 analogous variations to that of the tribes of mankind. In the instance of a neglected 

 flock of sheep, the fine wool is soon succeeded by a coarser kind, and the breed approxi 

 mates to the argali, or wild sheep of Siberia, the original stock, which are covered with 

 hair. The covering of the goat and dog displays the same variety. Thus, the several 

 external distinctions from each other which the nations of men develop, must be admitted 

 to be plainly compatible with their forming a single species, when distinctions of a 

 parallel nature, but more numerous and singular, have arisen within the limits of a species 

 in the inferior animal creation. It may be difficult, nay impossible, to explain the phe- 



