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MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



together the whole of the evidence bearing upon the question, 

 and adduced a completely new argument for this mode of 

 origin of the valley lakes of glaciated countries. This is 

 founded on their surface and bottom contours, both of which 

 are shown to be such as would necessarily arise from ice- 

 action, while they would not arise from the other alleged 

 mode of origin — unequal elevation or subsidence. 



12. In a new edition of "Stanford's Compendium, Austra- 

 lasia," vol. i., when describing the physical and mental 

 characteristics of the Australian aborigines, I stated my 

 belief that they were really a low and perhaps primitive type 

 of the Caucasian race. I further developed the subject in my 

 " Studies," and illustrated it by photographs of Australians 

 and Ainos, of the Veddahs of Ceylon, and of the Khmers of 

 Cambodia — all outlying members of the same great human 

 race. This, I think, is an important simplification in the 

 classification of the races of man. 



Bees' cells, — But besides these more important scientific 

 principles or ideas, there are a few minor ones which are of 

 sufficient interest to be briefly mentioned. In the article on 

 the "Bees' Cell" (referred to in Chapter XXVIII.), I called 

 attention to a circumstance that had been, I think, unnoticed 

 by all previous writers. An immense deal of ingenuity and 

 of mathematical skill had been expended in showing that the 

 two layers of hexagonal cells, with basal dividing-plates 

 inclined at a particular angle, gave the greatest economy of 

 space and of material possible ; and the instinct of the bees in 

 building such a comb to contain their store of honey was 

 held to show that it was a divinely bestowed special faculty. 

 But all these writers omitted to take into account one fact, 

 which shows their whole argument to be fallacious. This is, 

 that the combs are suspended vertically, and that when full of 

 honey the upper rows of cells have to support at least ten 

 times as much weight as the lowest rows. But there is no 

 corresponding difference in the thickness of the walls of the 

 cells ; so that, as the upper rows are strong enough, the lower 



