128 SUPPLEMENTAL HISTORY OP MAN. 



opposite varieties of temperature : but it does not, 

 nor cannot do all. Were it not for the strength and. 

 flexibility of his corporeal frame, we should not find 

 his race so diffusively extended over the surface of 

 the whole earth. The majority of the savage na- 

 tions, who inhabit cold countries, are not very 

 fastidious in protecting their bodies against the 

 severity of winter. The Indian of Canada will 

 proceed fearlessly to the chase in the depth of 

 frost and snow with open breast and uncovered 

 limbs. Nay, he will sleep upon the snow, and. has 

 been known to do so with impunity, when the 

 thermometer at sunrise was 40° below 0. The 

 young Greenlander from his birth is accustomed to 

 dabble in the water, till he becomes almost an am- 

 phibious animal. On the other hand, the natives of 

 the torrid zone employ still less precaution against 

 the heat, than the northern savage does against the 

 cold. Bare-headed the negro braves unhurt the 

 vertical sun, and bare-footed treads upon the burn- 

 ing sands. Even the women and children on the 

 coast of Sierra Leone have their heads uncovered 

 both in rain and sunshine. 



The physical capacity which goes so far to assi- 

 milate man to his habitation, be it where it may, is 

 assisted wonderfully by that mental superiority 

 which constitutes him lord of this sublunary creation. 

 This it is which effectually fences him against the 

 rigours of winter, and screens him from the torrid 

 sun, which supplies him with the means of arti- 

 ficial heat, and empowers him, as it were, to create 



