924 report— 1884. 



2. An Account of small Flint Instruments found beneath Peat on the 

 Pennine Chain. By R. Law and James Hoesfall. 



The authors believed that these were the smallest flint implements ever dis- 

 covered in England. They were probably carving-implements, some of them being 

 not more than one inch in length and a quarter of an inch in breadth, and bearing 

 a strong resemblance to the graving-tools now used. 



3. On the Primary Divisions and Geographical Distribution of Mankind. 



By James Dallas, F.L.S. 



The views brought forward in this paper originated in an attempt to appreciate 

 the divisions and distribution of man suggested by Professor Huxley. It is pro- 

 posed to separate the various races of mankind into three primary groups, the 

 Leucochroi, represented by the white European, &c. ; the Mesochroi, represented 

 by the Mongolian and American races, &c. ; and the Melanochroi, of which the 

 negroes and negritos are regarded as typical. 



With reference to the last, there exist certain facts tending to prove the former 

 presence of negro-like races in north-eastern Africa and in Arabia, and with these 

 it appears probable that the Dekkan tribes of India may be genetically connected. 

 Many of the points of agreement between the Papuans, the Negritos, and the 

 Australians and the African negroes, are very striking, and it might, from the 

 evidence before us, be assumed that these and then allies formed branches of one 

 great family. No very great changes of physical geography would be required to 

 account satisfactorily for the necessary migrations, while to the northward of the 

 assumed region of the Melanochroi the Himalayas and other natural boundaries 

 form a line beyond which the group is not to be met with. The distribution of 

 certain mammals, and particularly of the old-world monkeys, supports the view as. 

 to the continuity and isolation of the region assigned to the Melanochroic races, of 

 which the negroes of Africa and the negritos of the Southern Islands probably 

 present two tolerably pure developments, while the Australians appear to have 

 been influenced in language, and to some extent in blood, by contact with the 

 Malays. 



To the Leucochroie group may be referred the Aino of Yesso, certain fair races 

 inhabiting the neighbourhood of the Amour in Eastern China, and other Chinese 

 races, a9 well as the ordinarily accepted Caucasian nations. Perhaps the great 

 central plateau of Asia, so ably described to the Association two years ago by 

 Sir R. Temple, had been the original seat of the Leucochroie peoples, whence they 

 had spread westward as far as the British Isles. Geographical considerations were 

 in favour of this view, while the distribution of existing mammals, and particularly 

 of the true wolves, seems to indicate a natural continuity of the region. 



The recognised Mongol, the American Indian, the Eskimo and their allies, are 

 regarded as forming the Mesochroic group, but there appears also to be strong 

 evidence in favour of including the Basks of "Western Europe in the group, while 

 a curious and hitherto unexplained affinity has been traced between the Basks and 

 certain mixed races of North Africa. As to the original seat of the Mesochroic 

 group of peoples, it would be difficult to hazard a suggestion, but it may be sup- 

 posed that at one time or another they occupied the whole of America. In 

 Europe and Asia they appear to have had an extension corresponding to that of 

 the extinct rhinoceros, while the agreements between the Bask and the North 

 American Indian, and the existence of a rhinoceros in America, east of the Pocky 

 Mountains, might be regarded as evidence (though doubtless insufficient evidence) 

 of the former existence of the much-disputed Atlantis. 



4.* Notes on some Tribes of New South Wales. By A. L. P. Cameron. 



