DIVISIONS OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. li 



ditions of food, temperature, and habits. The Negro has all 

 his grosser features softened as he recedes from the burning 

 regions of swamp and jungle, where his most typical form is 

 developed ; the Kalmuk loses much of his harsher features, 

 as he becomes naturalized towards the confines of Europe, and 

 even assumes a new aspect, when forced to inhabit the glacial 

 regions of his own continent ; the Turcoman approaches 

 more to the squat and sturdy form of the Mongolian Tartar 

 as he extends eastward, while the Hindoo, acclimated in the 

 valley of the Ganges, differs so widely from the native of the 

 plains of Germany, that the aspect alone of the individuals 

 would not allow us to identify them as being of a common 

 lineage. These changes are the result of external agencies, 

 and may be regarded as the adaptation of the animal form 

 to new conditions. But the effect, as it may act on the or- 

 ganism of the Negro, the Mongolian, the Caucasian, the 

 Malay, must differ in each, and hence a great apparent mul- 

 tiplication of races throughout the world may take place, 

 although it may be the effect of the same agents acting on a 

 few distinct primary forms. 



If, from the human species we turn to the inferior animals, 

 we shall find the like evidences of the power of external 

 agents to modify the animal form, and adapt it to new con- 

 ditions of life. Certain animals, in the state of nature, have 

 a limited habitat, and so present characters nearly uniform 

 throughout ; others have a very wide range of place, in 

 which case we never fail to find them more or less modified 

 in their form and habits. The Common Wolf, the most 

 bold and savage of the canine family, stretched over the 

 greater part of the Old Continent, and is found in the New, 

 from Behring's 'Straits to near the Isthmus of Panama. 

 Under these immense limits he often seems so changed that 

 he can scarcely be referred to the same specific type. The 

 Bear extends from Norway along the limits of the Arctic 

 Regions, and thence to the Caucasus and all eastward, 

 wherever woods suited to his habitudes exist, but so changed 



