clur. I. J 



PUrSICAL GEOGRAPHY, 



19 



ralizatbiis wlikli add so mucli to tlieir interest. Having 

 given this general slcetcb of the subject, I shall he able to 

 show how the same principles can he applied to the 

 individual islands of a group as to the whole Archipelago ; 

 and make my account of the many new and curious 

 animals which inhabit them both more interesting ami 

 more instructive than if treated as mere isolated facts, 



CoidrcLsts f/iiaces.— Defore I had arrived at the conviction 

 that the eastern and western halves of the Archi])oiago 

 belonged to distinct primary regions of the earth, I had 

 been led to group the natives of the Arcliipelago under 

 two radically distinct races. lu this I differed from moat 

 ethnologists who had before written on the subject; for 

 it had been the almost nnivei-sal custom to follow Wdliain 

 von Humboldt and Fritchard, in classing all the Oceanic 

 mces as modifications cjf one type. Observation soon 

 showed me, however, that Malays and Papuans diifered 

 mdically in every physical, mental, and moral character; 

 and more detailed research, continued for eight years, 

 satisfied nie that under tlicse two forms, as tj^pes, the whole 

 of the peoples of the JIalay Archipelago and Polynesia 

 could be classified On dmwivig tlie line which separates 

 these itLces, it is found to come neur to that whiclj divides 

 the zoological regions, but somewhat eastward of it; a 

 circumstance which appears to me very significant of 

 the same causes having influenced the distribution of 

 mankind that have determined the range of other animal 

 forms. 



The reason why exactly the same line does not linnt 

 both is sutficiently intclbgible. Man has means of tni- 

 versing the sea "wliich animals do not possess; and a 

 Buperior race has po\\'er to press out or assimilate an 

 inferior one. The maritime enterprise and higher civili- 

 zation of the Malay mcus have enabled them to overrun 

 a portion of the adjacent region, in wldch they have 

 entirely supplanted the indigenous inliabitants if it ever 

 possessed any ; and to spread much of their langiiage, 

 their domestic animals, and their customs fiir over the 

 Pacific, into islands where they have but slightly, or not 

 at all, modified the physical or moral characteristics of 

 the people. 



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