1838.] Animal productions of Tenasserim Provinces. 855 



III. — Note on the Animal productions of the Tenasserim Provinces ; 

 read at the meeting of the 10th October, 1838. By J. W. Helfer, 

 Esq. M. D. 



Eighteen months have elapsed, since I last had the honor to ad- 

 dress personally the Society. Since that time, I have wandered over 

 many hundreds of miles, never trodden by Europeans, in countries left 

 to the unbounded operations of nature, in a latitude, which produces all 

 that is created, and, of the vegetable world, mostly in perfection and 

 exuberance, and in tracts, where, in the recesses of the interior wilds, 

 many productions await yet the ardour of naturalists, to bring them 

 forth to everlasting knowledge. 



Having to-day the honor to submit the ornithological part of my 

 collections to the Society's inspection, I avail myself of the opportu- 

 nity, to take a cursory view of the animal productions of the Tenasserim 

 Provinces ; and as man occupies the highest rank in that series, I 

 may be allowed to begin with the different races inhabiting these regions 

 — speaking of man however, only as a naturalist, who describes the 

 habits and manners of the human species, and considering the varieties 

 of it in the different nations and tribes, and the striking peculiarities 

 that are found, with reference to the geographical distribution of each. 



The inhabitants may be subdivided into the Burmese, the Siamese, 

 and the Kareans. All three belong, generally speaking, to the Mongo- 

 lian race, but are so changed, and specifically distinguished, that they 

 form separate races. 



The Siamese approach nearest to the Chinese, possessing a flat 

 forehead, a small nose, prominent cheek-bones, black hair, very 

 thin beards, small oblique eyes, thick lips, and a colour more or less 

 yellow. The Burmese are half Malays half Chinese ; the Kareans half 

 Malays half Caucasian, indeed the features of the latter approach so 

 much the Caucasian form, that many of them have even aquiline noses, 

 a high forehead, and the European facial angle. Consequently the idea, 

 latterly followed up by the American Baptist Missionaries with great 

 zeal, sometimes with ridiculous obstinacy, namely, that they are the 

 true lost tribes of the Jews, merits, as far as regards their physiogno- 

 my at least, an excuse. 



The Kareans are in civilisation the lowest of the inhabitants, and 



exhibit an anomaly, which is perhaps no where else found. They are 



an agricultural people without any fixed habitations, but migrating 



every second or third year ; and so great is their innate love of the 



5 p 



