834 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 



liglit-complexioaed race in the world. Of course it has been explained that the 

 change in pigmentation, as we advance from south to north, is due to the Tarying 

 proportions in the admixture of the blonde race of the north with the melan- 

 ochrous of the south. But it is difficult to believe that the movements up or down 

 of the people from the southern side of the Alps, or of those from the shores of 

 the Baltic, have been so nicely proportioned as to give the general steady change 

 from north to south in coloration without the aid of some other force. The case 

 of America, which i have just cited, is in itself enough to raise a suspicion that 

 climatic influences are at work all the time, and that environment is in reality the 

 chief factor in the variation of both stature and pigmentation from the Mediter- 

 ranean to the Baltic. The white race of the north is of the same proximate 

 ancestry as the dark-complexioned peoples of the northern shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean. I have already argued elsewhere that, as the ice-sheet receded, mankind 

 kept pressing further north, and gradually under changed climatic conditions the 

 type changed from area to area, and they all still continued to speak the same 

 Indo-European tongue, but with dialectic variations, these also being no doubt 

 due to the physical changes in the vocal organs produced by environment. 



If we turn from man to the other animals we hud a complete demonstration 

 of this doctrine. l"'or instance, the conditions which have produced a blonde 

 race on the Baltic have probably produced the white hare, white bears, and 

 the tendency in the stoat and the ptarmigan to turn white in winter, whilst in 

 the same regions of Europe and Asia the indigenous horses were of a dun colour, 

 who not only turned white in winter but had a great tendency to turn white 

 altogether, it may be objected that the Lapps and Eskimo are not tall and 

 blonde, but on the contrary short and dark ; but they live within the arctic circle 

 in regions where the sun does not shine at all for a great part of the year, and 

 consequently they are quite outside the conditions of environment under which 

 the tali blonde race ot JN'orth Germany has long dwelt. Of course, in dealing 

 with man we are always confronted with the difficulties arising from hia 

 migrations ; but if we can tind a family of lower animals who cannot be said 

 to have thus migrated, and who show the ed'ects of environment, we shall be able 

 to argue powerlully Irom analogy. 



The norse lamily supplies the example required. If we follow it from 

 Northern Asia to the Cape of Good Hope, we shall liud that every belt has it.% 

 own particular type, changes in osteology as well as in coloration taking place 

 from region to region, i-irst we meet ihe old dua horse, with its tendency to 

 become white, the best European examples of which were probably the now 

 extinct ponies of the Lofoden isles. In Asia, Prejvalsky's horse is the best living 

 instance — a duu-colouied animal with little trace of stripes. Bordering on the 

 Prejvalsky horse or true tarpau come the Asiatic asses: first the dzeggetai of 

 Mongolia, a fawn-coloured animal, the under-parts being Jsabella-coloured ; then 

 comes tue kiaug oi the Upper Indus valley, seldom touud at a lower altitude 

 than 10,OuO leet, rufous brown with white under parts, whilst, as might be 

 expected from its mountain habitat, its hind-quarters are much more developed 

 in length and strength than in the asses of the plains. The Oiiayer indicus, 

 onay<:r and hemijtpics are found in all the gr^'at plains of the Punjab, Af- 

 ghanistan, Western India, Balucliistan, Persia, and iSyria, whilst a few are said to 

 survive in South Arabia. All these are lignter in colour than the kiang, the 

 typical onager being a white animal wiih yellow blolciies on the side, necK, and 

 head. All the Asiatic asses are distiuguistied by the absence of any shoulder 

 stripe, though they occasionally show traces of stripes on the lower parts of the 

 legs. The southern Asiatic asses just described in tlieir greyer colour and smaller 

 hoofs approximate to the wild asses ot Alrica, especially to those of !Somahland, 

 whilst it is maintaiijed that in their cry, as well as in their colour, the kiang and 

 dzeggeiai come closer to the norse, wliose next neighbours they are. 



1 assing to Atrica, we uud the ass ol JNubia ana Abyssinia showing a shoulder 

 stripe, anu IrequentJy with very btrongl_y defined narrow stripes on ihe legs, the 

 ears being longer than those ol the onager. But in closer proximity to bouth- 

 Western Asia comes the CJomali ass, which ditiers from those of Nubia aud 



