TWtt ETtnfOI.OClT or THE IN'DTAtf AnC«IPKLAOO. 



much of the character of lakes, are so favourable to this, that, when 

 otlier natural advantage* are rot. wanting we naturally look to 

 them as the earliest cradles of civilisation m most regions. 



When at this early stage we direct our attention from particular 

 primary locations to wide regions of the law], we see that many raits, 

 although sufficiently separated to produce distinct tribes, are united 

 by the practicability of straggler-- And fugitive r;;itl v wander- 

 ing from one to another. These are theregionsof the dispersions and 

 migrations of the same family, and consist of plateaus, river basins, 

 sea shores, sea basins and oceanic or monsoon districts. Even 

 althongh there may, originally or successively, he more than 

 one stock in such a region, the constant operation of the dispersing 

 or migratory causes will, in a long jJeriod of time, give a general 

 rew ml "lance to the tribes which inhabit it, faint in some places and 

 more marked in others; until now tribes are poured into it and the 

 process of fwirailafion has to be recommenced. Well marked 

 and bounded as the great physical districts generally are, few of 

 them are so completely walled in as to prevent families occasionally 

 nmerirn-.i; from them." If the wanderers do not find their way Into 

 inhabited seats, where they will be changed, absorbed or destroyed 

 by the tribes in possession of then, they will sometimes found 

 new tribes, which, if the region he of a different character from the 

 one they Itave left, may acquire peculiarities strongly distinguishing 

 them from the parent stock. 



There are thus, even in this normal state of mankind, several 

 degrees of mutual influences, — that of families constituting the 

 same tribe or clan, — that of ojftVrent tribes or clans, which may be 

 friendly or hostile, — and the absorption of persons of one olan or 

 tribe by another. Some of the relations thus established are of a 

 permanent and regular kind. Others are- involuntary, accidental 

 and rare. Yet it is a necessity of the region, and the condition of 

 its races, that the latter shall from time to time take place. Their 

 frequency varies with thp character of the region and the habits of 

 the race! But everywhere they must exert a certain influence, 

 sufficient, in many districts, to preserve from age to age a degree of 

 mutual action of the intellectual development, languages and 

 customs of the different tribes, while, in others, so slipH m 

 to produce little appreciable results. Sometimes the influence, 

 whether regular or occasional, is reciprocal, or radiates and crosses 

 in many directions. Sometimes the structure of the land only 

 allows ft to have one direction. It flows from one tribe or region 

 of tribes to others, but no current ever brings u knowledge of the 

 latter to the former. 



With civilisation the physical geography of the region assumes 

 a new aspect. Features formerly ethnically inoperative, or having 

 only an indirect or general influence, now become of great import- 

 ance. A new series of districts arises of which the t < tent and 

 boundaries are determined, in great measure, by the uaturc of the 



