304 



PHYSICAL HISTORY OF MAN. 



many respects the requirements of Zoology. But there are certain 

 coincidences, which point in a different direction. 



Of all parts of the globe, save only the very Poles, the Equatorial 

 COUNTRIES, continue the least knovv^n. Owing in some measure, to 

 the forests with which they are generally invested, to the rains, to 

 ferocious beasts of prey, and to the unhealthiness of the coasts. The 

 portions which I have myself visited, have not offered any striking 

 variation in natural productions from the adjoining countries: and I 

 only remarked, a cooler climate than in the vicinity of the northern 

 Tropic. It appears, however, that some of the most remarkable 

 objects in the vegetable and animal creation, have their home pre- 

 cisely under the Equator. 



In the vast area of the Pacific, the Equator, for two-fifths of the 

 circumference of the globe, intersects only coral islets; the Galapagos 

 Group, being excepted ; and this is provided with remarkable reptiles 

 and other productions, having no parallel on the neighbouring conti- 

 nent, or on the numerous and extensive archipelagoes of the same 

 ocean. A distinct correspondence, however, may be traced in the 

 Indian Ocean; in the instance, of the near approach of the Equator 

 to the Seychelles. 



In the East Indies: we have the Clove, "originally confined to five 

 islets near the coast of Gilolo;" the Nutmeg, from the same quarter, 

 and in its native state not much more widely diffused; and these two 

 plants, are not even cultivated to advantage at a distance from the 

 Equator : we have further, the Dryobalanops (or precious camphor 

 tree), limited " to a belt of three degrees in width across Sumatra and 

 Borneo"; also, the gigantic RafHesias; and various other remarkable 

 vegetable productions. 



Among animals: we have the Paradise Birds, of New Guinea; 

 the Argus Pheasant, and other showy birds, of Sumatra and the 

 Malay Peninsula; the Galeopithecus ; the Tarsier, of the Moluccas; 

 the Babyrussa, and the Anoa Antelope, of Celebes; the long-nosed 

 Ape, of Borneo; the Sumatran Tapir and Rhinoceros. And of the 

 three Orangs; which of all animals, in physical conformation and 

 even in moral temperament, make the nearest approach to humanity; 

 one has been allotted to Borneo; another, to Sumatra; and the third, 

 to a far distant region, but equally under the Equator, in Western 

 Africa. Precisely in these countries, physical man, seems most in 

 unison with the beings around him. 



