MAMMALIA. 



181 



being raised from the bottom of the sea by the action 

 of internal heat in the earth. 



We are not speaking of what actually did happen, 

 because such a scene as we are alluding to could 

 have no material eye, and no organised being present 

 at it, unless that organised being were so deeply 

 buried as that the pressure over it were capable of 

 restraining the tendency of its volatile parts to escape. 

 Still it is important to see that there is no violation 

 of observed fact, philosophic theory, or rational pro- 

 bability, in \\hat we have now been stating. On the 

 contrary, the facts are strongly in favour of it. There 

 has not been explored, upon the whole surface of the 

 globe, a single district of rugged surface in which 

 there has obviously been in the early time a wrestling 

 of some giant power with the rocks, in which there 

 are not numerous instances, almost innumerable ones, 

 of lakes which have been emptied of their contents 

 by the wearing away of their inclosing dams during 

 the lapse of time ; and the progress which the fall of 

 Niagara has made, and is still making, in cutting the 

 rocky barrier, points to a time within reasonable pro- 

 bability when the great lakes of America shall be 

 poured forth through the valley of the St. Lawrence, 

 and the character of the country totally changed. 

 The disintegrated beds of substance which have once 

 been rock point to changes produced upon a surface 

 which came ragged and uneven from the bottom of 

 the deep ; and as such a surface could not but remain 

 plantless for some length of time, in which way soever 

 we are to suppose vegetation to have been established 

 in it, the great influence of the sun in heating and 

 cooling the naked rock would vastly increase the 

 quantity of evaporation from the pools and lakes in 

 the hollows ; and thus the rains would beat, cascades 

 would dash, and streams would roll upon such a sur- 

 face, in a style of violence of which we of course can 

 have no idea, though we do know that when lakes 

 alternate with dry rocks the quantity of rain is in- 

 creased to an astonishing amount. No small portion 

 of the western coast of the Scotch highlands, and 

 many of the isles, are of this description ; and so 

 habitually does it rain, that visiters from the low 

 country are in the habit of saying that it sometimes 

 rains " eight days in the week " the eighth day con- 

 sisting, of course, of the weariness produced by the 

 continual pelting or dripping of the seven. 



We shall not pursue this investigation any further, 

 because, though it bears very closely upon a most 

 important point in the natural history of the human 

 race, it is in great part conjectural, and does not in 

 any part belong to the present natural history of any 

 race of organic beings, animal or vegetable. The 

 probability is, however, that there has been no violent 

 general change of the earth since it was the abode of 

 man ; and though we know not the period which 

 might be required to prepare it for the reception of 

 the single pair, physiology supplies us with no reason 

 for concluding that any more than a single pair of 

 human beings was necessary for peopling it. More 

 indeed would have been superfluous, and superfluity 

 is no attribute of nature's working, whether on the 

 great scale or on the small. 



The difference of races is another matter, but it is 

 one of minor importance ; and one of which we find 

 explanations, or at all events illustrations upon a small 

 scale, every where around us. Human beings of the 

 same country, of the same district, and even of the 

 same family, are more diversified than any other 



animals. There are also, notwithstanding this indi- 

 vidual diversity, likenesses which run through families, 

 through clans, through districts, and through all asso- 

 ciations of human beings which are much together, 

 following the same occupations, and having similar 

 opinions and habits. 



Such being the case where we cannot fix upon any 

 external cause for the difference, and in instance's 

 where the likeness extends only to two generations, 

 we may be prepared to look for much sreater differ- 

 ences when the differences of climate, habits, food, 

 occupation, and many other things are very strikingly 

 marked. Perhaps the best short account which we 

 have of the original races of mankind (for they are 

 not species, or even varieties, in the ordinary sense of 

 these terms as applied to the rest of the mammalia) 

 is that by Baron Cuvier, and therefore we shall give 

 it with as much condensation as the language of so 

 concentrating a writer admits of. 



" Though," says Cuvier, "the whole human species 

 are one, so that all the individuals can mingle toge- 

 ther and produce fertile progeny ; yet we can observe 

 among them certain hereditary conformations, which 

 constitute what are known by the name of races. 

 Three of these are eminently distinguished above the 

 others : the white, or Caucasian ; the yellow, or 

 Mongolian ; and the black, or Ethiopian. 



" The Caucasians, to whom we belong, are distin- 

 guished by the elegant oval form of the head ; and 

 they have given birth to the most civilised nations, 

 or to those who have most frequently ruled the others. 

 They vary much in the complexion and the colour 

 of the hair. 



" The Mongols are known by prominent cheek 

 bones, narrow and oblique eyes, a scanty beard, 

 straight black hair, and an olive complexion. They 

 have formed the great empires of China and Japan, 

 and often extended their conquests to the south side 

 of the great desert ; but in point of civilisation they 

 have remained nearly stationary. 



" The Ethiopian, or negro race, are confined to the 

 southward of Mount Atlas. Their complexion is 

 black, their hair crisp or woolly, their cranium com- 

 pressed, their nose flattened, their jaw bones pro- 

 jecting, and their lips large and thick. They have 

 remained in a state of comparative barbarism. 



" The Caucasian race are so named because tradi- 

 tion generally refers their origin to the mountains of 

 Caucasus, between the Black Sea and the Caspian ; 

 and the Circassians and Georgians are still accounted 

 the most handsome people in the world. The diffe- 

 rent branches are known by the analogy of their 

 language. The Armenian branch proceeded south- 

 wards, and gave origin to the Assyrians and the wild 

 Arabs, which, after Mahomet, remained for a time 

 nearly masters of the world. The Phoenicians, the 

 Jews, the Abyssinians, and the ancient Egyptians, 

 belong to the same source. This branch has been 

 always prone to mysticism, and has given origin to 

 some of the most widely extended and permanent 

 religions. They have often promoted science and litera- 

 ture, but the former always tinged with mysticism, 

 and the latter clothed in highly figurative language. 



" The Indian, German, and Pelasgic branch has 

 extended much further than the others, and separated 

 at an earlier period. Still there are numerous analo- 

 gies traceable between its four principal dialects the 

 Sanscrit of India ; Pelasgic, the parent of the Greek, 

 the Latin, and all the ancient tongues of the south of 



