1672 THE STORY OF THE UNIVERSE 



The geographical distribution of the Caucasian 

 family in the present day is nearly co-extensive with 

 the land area of the globe ; but this family of nations 

 is most numerously developed within the temperate 

 latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Western 

 Asia, the European continent (with the exception of 

 a portion in the extreme north), and the northern 

 belt of Africa, are the proper home of the Caucasian 

 tribes. Thence they have colonized nearly every part 

 of the New World, as well as Southern Africa and 

 the more distant regions of Australia and New Zea- 

 land, at the opposite side of the globe. Nine-tenths 

 of the population of Europe belong to the Caucasian 

 family of man, the small minority who constitute the 

 exception consisting of the Turks, the Magyars, the 

 Finns, the Laplanders, and the Samoiedes. In Asia, 

 the Caucasian nations form but a minority of its vast 

 population ; they include, however, the natives of the 

 Arabian or Semitic stock, the Persians, the Afghans, 

 and perhaps also (such, at least, is the generally re- 

 ceived theory) the Hindoos that is, all the peo- 

 ple dwelling to the south of the Himalaya and to 

 the west of the Bay of Bengal. In Africa, the pro- 

 portion of Caucasians to its population is probably 

 small, though they are spread over the whole of 

 Northern Africa, from the Mediterranean to the 

 southern border of the desert, and the furthest limit 

 of Abyssinia. 



In America, the Caucasian family settling in that 

 part of the world as colonists only within the last 

 three centuries and a half is fast supplanting the 

 indigenous races, and comprehends two-thirds of the 



