﻿2 4 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



gave way and died out. Yet eacli leading division had great geographical 

 barriers to separate them ; thus, the black and white divisions were separated 

 in a great measure by the Deserts of Zahara and Arabia, and the red and 

 white by the Himalaya Mountains and the arid steppes of Tartary ; and it is 

 a remarkable fact that upon one point of the surface of the earth all three 

 divisions had easy convergence — this point is the peninsula of Hindostan. This 

 notable fact has intimate bearing on the enquiry before us, so will be referred 

 to hereafter. In the meantime I must point out how mvich the physical 

 geography of the world has to do with the spread and currents (if I may so 

 express myself) of the divisions of humanity. It is a fact well known to 

 physiologists that the pure offspring of the white man, when confined to the 

 tropics, dies out in the third generation, and again, much beyond the same 

 limit, we know of no purely black race existing ; the red man alone appears 

 to have a constitution fitted to endure in all regions habitable by the other two. 

 Hence, he extends across the Equator, from Cape Horn to North Siberia. 



In that dim chaos of pre-historic times, into which reason has enabled us 

 but partially to penetrate, it will appear to have been one of the arrangements 

 of nature that the Negro should have at one era populated the plains of 

 Hindostan, as well as Africa and Papuanesia, and which plains are in the 

 middle distance of his extreme range East and West. Abutting closely on 

 this middle area were energetic hordes of white and red men settled in the 

 moimtain valleys of Aria and Thibet, These valleys were situated on the flanks 

 of the highest region in the world. Ethnographical enquiiy, while proving 

 the above fact, also traces the descent of these hordes on the fertile plains of 

 India, the former by the valley of the Indus, the other by those of the 

 Bahrumputra and Ganges, driving out or enslaving the simple and unwarlilce 

 black inhabitants. 



In scanning an ethnographical map of the woi-ld, it will at once strike the 

 observer that the Negro division has extended itself only either by the sea 

 coasts or from island to island in close contiguity, thus indicating a rude, primi- 

 tive, and unskilful knowledge of navigation, and which required vessels little 

 superior to the canoe. The red race, on the contrary, has evinced sui-prising 

 powers of locomotion both by sea and land, a proof of their superiority. 

 Again, until these latter ages, the white man has been confined to a limited 

 area, and as his skill, boldness, and intelligence, must be acknowledged to be 

 superior to the other two divisions, may we not accept this as one of the 

 proofs of his later development or increase 1 Otherwise, how are we to account 

 for his tardy intrusiveness on the habitats of the other divisions, and which 

 within the last three centuries have had such mighty exposition. 



The relative superiority of intellect, as evidenced by the capacity of the 

 skull, may hex'e be shortly noticed. In a paper that I furnished to the 



