210 THE DESCENT OF MAN. [Paut I. 



an excellent observer, Dr. Lund," that the human skulls 

 found in the caves of Brazil, entombed with many extinct 

 mammals, belonged to the same type as that now prevail- 

 ing throughout the American Continent. 



Our naturalist would then, perhaps, turn to geograph- 

 ical distribution, and he would probably declare that 

 forms differing not only in appearance, but fitted for the 

 hottest and dampest or driest countries, as well as for the 

 Arctic regions, must be distinct species. He might appeal 

 to the fact that no one species in the group next to man, 

 namely, the Quadrumana, can resist a low temperature or 

 any considerable change of climate ; and that those species 

 which come nearest to man have never been reared to 

 maturity, even under the temperate climate of Europe. 

 He would be deeply impressed with the fact, first noticed 

 by Agassiz,^ that the diiFerent races of man are distributed 

 over the woi'ld in the same zoological provinces, as those 

 inhabited by undoubtedly distinct species and genera of 

 mammals. This is manifestly the case with the Australian, 

 Mongolian, and Negro races of man ; in a less M'ell-marked 

 manner with the Hottentots ; but plainly with the Papuans 

 and IMalays, who are sej^arated, as Mr. "Wallace has 

 shown, by nearly the same line which divides the great 

 Malayan and Australian zoological provinces. The ab- 

 origines of America range throughout the continent ; and 

 this at first appears opposed to the above rule, for most 

 of the productions of the Southern and Northern halves 

 differ widely ; yet some few living forms, as the opossum, 



strongly negro cast of features ; but Messrs. Nott and Gliddon (ibid. p. 

 146, fig. 53) describe him as "a hybrid, but not of negro intermixture." 



« As quoted by Kott and Gliddon, 'Types of Mankind,' 1854, p. 439. 

 They give also corroborative evidence ; but C. Vogt thinks that the sub- 

 ject requires further investigation. 



' " Diversity of Origin of the Human Races," in the ' Christian Ex- 

 aminer,' July, 1850. 



