CHAP. XL.] IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. 457 



giving full weight to tho.se resemblances. Geographical, 

 zoological, and ethnological considerations render it almost 

 certain, that if these two races ever had a common origin, 

 it could only have been at a period far more remote than 

 any which has yet been assigned to the antiquity of the 

 human race. And even if their unity could be proved, it 

 would in no way affect my argument for the close affinity 

 of the Papuan and Polynesian races, and the radical 

 distinctness of both from the Malay. 



Polynesia is pre-eminently an area of subsidence, and 

 its great wide-spread groups of coral-reefs mark out tlie 

 position of former continents and islands. The rich and 

 varied, yet strangely isolated productions of Australia and 

 New Guinea, also indicate an extensive continent where 

 such specialized forms were developed. The races of men 

 now inhabiting these countries are, therefore, most pro- 

 bably the descendants of the races which inhabited these 

 continents and islands. This is the most simple and 

 natural supposition to make. And if we find any signs 

 of direct affinity between the inhabitants of any other 

 part of the world and those of Polynesia, it by no means 

 follows that the latter were derived from the former. Por 

 as, when a Pacihc continent existed, the whole geograpliy 

 of the earth's surface would probably be very different 

 from what it now is, the present continents may not then 

 have risen above the ocean, and, when they were formed 



