100 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



those immense tracts of country, these wandering 

 tribes left them only for the purpose of devastating 

 the inheritance, and subverting the establishments 

 of their more fortunate brethren. The Scythians, 

 who at so remote a period of antiquity, made irrup- 

 tions into upper Asia ; the Parthians, who there de- 

 stroyed the dominion of the Greeks and Romans ; 

 the Turks, who overturned the Saracen empire in 

 Asia, and subdued in Europe the unhappy remnant 

 of the Grecian people, — all sprang from this mighty 

 branch of the Caucasian race. 



The ^inlanders and the Hungarians are hordes 

 of the same division, seemingly strayed as it were 

 into the midst of the Sclavonian and Teutonic na- 

 tions. The north and the east of the Caspian Sea are 

 still inhabited by people of the same origin, and who 

 speak similar languages, but intermixed with a variety 

 of petty nations of different descent, and discordant 

 tongues. The Tartar people have remained un- 

 mixed longer than the rest, in the region extending 

 from the mouth of the Danube to the further branch 

 of the Irtisch, where they so long proved formidable 

 to the Russian empire, though at length subjected 

 to its sway. The Mongoles, however, in their con- 

 quests have mingled their blood with these nations, 

 and we discover many traces of this intermixture 

 more especially among the natives of lesser Tartary. 



To the east of this Tartar branch of the Caucasian 

 race, the Mongolian variety begins to be discovered, 

 from which boundary it extends to the eastern 

 ocean. Its branches the Calmucks, &c, are 



