SECT. I.] CLIMATE. 41 



doubts whether, under similar circumstances, the North or the 

 South is more favourable to fecundity. The greatest fecundity 

 known, combined at the same time with great demoralization, 

 is that of Guanaxuato in Mexico, in the year 1825, it exhibits 

 the proportion = 1 : 16*08. 



Macauley 1 speaks of a Negress at Santiago, in Haiti, who 

 produced seven children in three years, and thirteen in six de- 

 liveries. Twice she gave birth to triplets, and three times to 

 twins. Another Negress was surrounded by two hundred de- 

 scendants. To have one hundred grandchildren is not con- 

 sidered extraordinary. 



The influence of climate upon the colour of the skin is not 

 contested, but in many respects is yet unexplained. That it 

 does not alone depend on geographical latitude and the mean 

 temperature, has been often observed and proved by Humboldt 

 as regards the population of America; nor are the blackest 

 people of that continent found under the equator. 2 This holds 

 equally good with regard to the Polynesians, of whom Beechey 

 says, that the blackest people inhabit the Vulcan, and the 

 lighter the Coral Islands. The inhabitants of the Marquesas, 

 Navigation, Friendly, and Society Islands form a series, 

 varying from light to dark shades. The inhabitants of New 

 Zealand and the Sandwich Islands are still darker; 3 also the 

 inhabitants of Easter Island. 4 But in the same latitude with 

 the Polynesians as well as at a little distance from them, there 

 live large numbers of tawny dark-brown peoples, among whom, 

 again, the natives of Van Diemen's Land are darker than the 

 New Hollanders, who live nearer the equator (Peron) . The in- 

 habitants of the East and West coast of South Africa are very 

 dark. Three hundred English miles in the interior, there are on 

 both sides of this part of the world two regions inhabited by 

 lighter coloured peoples. The natives of the central part are, 



1 " Haiti, ou, Renseignements authentiques sur 1'abol. de 1'esclavage," pp. 

 167, 171, 176, Paris, 1835. 



2 This had already been noticed by Columbus, who was surprised to find 

 the colour of the native Americans under the equator lighter, than in the 

 northern regions. Herrera, Hist. General, xiii, p. 12, 1730. 



8 Hale, " Ethnography and Philol. of the United States Expl. Expedition," 

 p. 9, Philadelphia, 1846. 

 4 Forster, " Bemerk. auf seiner Keise urn die Welt," p. 211, 1783. 



