HABITS OF NATIONS. 569 



plexion is yellow ; in the second, upon the shore of the Mediterranean 

 and throughout Europe, there are others whose complexion is white ; in 

 the third, in America, others whose complexion is red; and though 

 these three widely-extended races touch, upon their north boundary, the 

 homogenous Arctic inhabitants, in every respect they may be distin- 

 guished from them. The temperature of the zone in which they live 

 ranges from 32 to 74 ; it permits the growth of pines, nut and fruit 

 trees, and among its animals might be mentioned the bear, the wolf, the 

 otter, the deer, the squirrel, and the rat; these animals, however, respect- 

 ively exhibiting striking differences characteristic of their three focal cen- 

 tres : the black bear belongs to North America, the brown bear to Europe, 

 and the bear of Thibet to Asia. The European stag finds its American 

 analogue in the wapiti, and in Asia in the musk deer. The wild ox of 

 Lithuania differs from the North American buffalo, and this, again, from 

 the Mongolian yak. Even among plants the same differences may be 

 traced ; the pines of Europe are not the same as the pines of America, 

 and thus it would appear that each of the three great organic circles be- 

 longing to the temperate zone has a flora, a fauna, and a human species 

 of its own. 



The same general result might be established for the tropical regions, 

 and special centres assigned for Africa, Malaya, and Polynesia. 



In view of this distribution as connected with habits, Dr. Prichard thus 

 expresses himself in his Natural History of Man : " Let us Habits of na- 

 imagine, for a moment, a stranger from another planet to visit tions - 

 our globe, and to contemplate and compare the manners of its inhabit- 

 ants, and let him first witness some brilliant spectacle in- one of the high- 

 ly-civilized countries of Europe : the coronation of a monarch, the in- 

 stallation of St. Louis on the throne of his ancestors, surrounded by an 

 august assembly of peers, and barons, and mitred abbots, anointed from 

 the cruise of sacred oil brought by an angel to ratify the divine privilege 

 of kings ; let the same person be carried into a hamlet in Negroland, in 

 the hour when -the sable race recreate themselves with dancing and bar- 

 barous music; let him then be transported to the saline plains over 

 which bald and tawny Mongols roam, differing but little in hue from the 

 yellow soil of their steppes, brightened by the saffron flowers of the iris 

 and tulip ; let him be placed near the solitary den of the Bushman, where 

 the lean and hungry savage crouches in silence like a beast of prey, watch- 

 ing with fixed eyes the creatures which enter his pitfall, or the insects 

 and reptiles which chance brings within his grasp ; let the traveler be 

 carried into the midst of an Australian forest, where the squalid con> 

 panions of kangaroos may be seen crawling in procession in imitation of 

 quadrupeds ; can it be supposed that such a person would conclude the 

 various groups of beings whom he had surveyed to be of one nature, one 



