602 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



arched ; the mouth small, with the lips a little turned out, especially the lower one ; and 

 the chin full and rounded. This ._ is the most elegant variety of the human 



form, and the most perfect 

 of Western Asia, bordering 

 the vast chain of 

 derives its name, 

 posed to be the 



amples of it are found in the regions 

 Europe, which skirt the southern foot of 

 the Caucasus, from whence the class 

 and which is near what is sup- 

 parent spot of the human race. 

 Here are the Circassians and 

 Georgians, the most exquisite 

 models of female beauty. But 

 the Caucasian class includes na- 

 tions very dissimilar apart from 

 the form of the head. Its members are of all 

 complexions, from the Hindoos and Arabs, some 

 of whom are as black as the Negros, to the 

 Danes, Swedes, and Norsemen, who are fair, 

 with flaxen hair and light blue eyes. The class 

 comprises the ancient and modern inhabitants 

 of Europe, except the Laplanders and Finns. It 

 comprises also the ancient and modern inhabit- 

 ants of Western Asia, as far as the Oby, the Belurtagh, 

 and the Ganges such as the Assyrians, Babylonians, 

 Medes and Persians, Sarmatians, Scythians, Parthians, Jews, 

 Arabs, and Syrians, the Turks and Tartars proper, the 

 tribes of Caucasus, the Armenians, Affghans, and Hindoos. 

 It includes likewise the Africans who live on the shores of 

 the Mediterranean, and throughout the Sahara, the Egyptians 

 and Copts, the Abyssinians, and the Guanches, or ancient 

 inhabitants of the Canary Islands, with those Europeans who 

 have colonised America and other parts of the world. The 

 colour of the Caucasian class seems mainly to depend on climate, 

 on the degree of solar heat to which there is exposure, for they are all born with light 

 complexions, and become dark only as they grow up, and are more freely acted on by the 

 sun. Their hue is found to deepen by a regular gradation from the farthest north, where 

 the members of this class are very fair, through the olive coloured inhabitants of Southern 

 Europe, and the swarthy Moors of Northern Africa, till the gradation ends with the 

 deep black natives of the African and Arabian deserts, and of inter- tropical India. The 

 lighter shades of colour, however, prevail among the Caucasians, and hence they are 

 correctly styled the white race, though some of them are jet black. Their hair is variously 

 melanic and xanthous, always long, and never woolly like that of the Negros. 



In the Mongolian class, that of the brown man of Gmelin, the head, instead of being 

 round, is almost square ; the face is broad and flat, with the parts imperfectly distinguished ; 

 the arches of the eye-brows are scarcely to be perceived. The complexion is generally 

 olive, sometimes very slight, and approaching to yellow ; but none of this class are 

 known to be fair. The eyes are small and black; the hair, dark and strong, but 

 seldom curled, or in great abundance ; and there is little or no beard. This division 

 embraces the tribes that occupy the central, east, north, and south-east parts of Asia ; the 

 people of China and Japan, of Thibet, Bootan, and Indo-China, the Finns and Laplanders 

 of Northern Europe, and the Esquimaux on the shores of the Arctic ocean. Climate 

 influences the colour of many of this class, those parts of the body protected from the sun 



