CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 1. BIMANA. 
45 
Mies, molluscs, Crustacea, and zoopliytes peculiar to each of these parts of the sea. This localiza- 
tion of species, Avhether aquatic or terrestrial, is so well marked, that a naturalist a little experi- 
enced cannot mistake, even at first sight, the origin of zoological collections made in one or 
other of the great geographical divisions of the globe which may be submitted to his examination. 
The fauna of each of these divisions presents a peculiar aspect, and may be easily characterized by 
the presence of certain species, more or less remarkable. 
" Naturalists have imagined several hypotheses to explain this mode of distribution of animals 
on the surface of the globe ; but in the actual state of science it is impossible to give a satisfactory 
explanation, unless we admit that from the beginning of the actual geological period, the various 
species have been distributed in the different regions, and that by degrees they have afterward 
spread to a distance, so as to occupy a more or less considerable portion of the surface of the 
globe. In the actual condition of the earth, it is impossible for us to discover all the zoological 
focuses; for one may imagine the possibility of exchange so multiplied between two regions, 
the faunae of which were primitively distinct, that they can only offer at the present moment 
species common to both, and thus nothing can reveal to the eyes of the naturalist their original 
separation ; but when a country is found to be peopled with a considerable number of species not 
to be found elsewhere, even when the local circumstances are most similar, we shall be authorized 
to think that such a portion of the globe has always been a distinct zoological region," 
In respect, then, to vegetable and animal products of the earth, there appear to be certain 
centers or circles in which the different kinds originated. In other words, as these species are 
originally found in these circles ; as history places them here in the very earliest periods to which 
it carries us ; and as we see them age after age confining themselves to their several localities as 
by a controlling law, it is deemed a logical inference that these were created in the places which 
they thus severally inhabit. 
It is maintained that in the various races of the human family, a close analogy is found with 
these facts in the vegetable and animal world. It is remarked that in the polar regions, associated 
with the white bear, the walrus, and the rein-deer, we find the Esquimaux, the Lapps, and the 
Samoiedes, all of one race, and all from time immemorial inhabiting- these Arctic realms.- Here 
they remain as by some necessity, and here they have remained with little change since history 
first introduced them to our notice. So in Africa, we find the negroes pf Congo in their places 
as truly as the hippopotamus and the chimpanzee : in the South, we find the Plottentot ; in the 
Southeast, the Caffre ; in the North, the Berber ; in Madagascar, the Madecasses ; in the valley 
of the Nile, the Egyptian ; in Ethiopia, the Nubia-n, — and all these races confined to, or per- 
manently associated with, their localities frop the earliest records of time. 1 
In a sittiilar manner we find the Mongols in Central and Eastern Asia, the Hindoos in India, 
the Malays in the islands of the Pacific, the Papuans in New Guinea and New Holland, and finally 
the Indians in America, and all, so f^r as history furnishes us with any light on the subject, the 
primeval races of the several countries they inhabit, and all continuing from age to age in these 
their original dornains^ The Caucasian, or European race, as it is generally calletl, is held to con- 
sist of several mixed tribes or nations, originating in remote periods anterior to historical records, 
in the temperate portions of the eastern continent ; and which, being of superior endowments, have 
broken from their original limits, and, like many animals and plants of a hardy and prolific nature, 
have spread themselves over various portions of the globe. 
While it is thus assumed that a striking analogy exists between the tribes of men and the tribes 
of the vegetable and animal Idngdom, as viewed in their geographical position and distribution, it 
is still further said that archaeology enforces in a remarkable manner the same vicAvs. It is now 
known that the monuments of Egypt contain inscriptions which carry back the history of that 
remarkable people to a period at least four thousand years before the Christian era, and that at 
that time the nation was far advanced in civilization,*^ The sculptures and pictures upon the tem- 
* The recent careful and profound study of the monuments of Egypt by Lepsins, Eossellini, and others, has 
established beyond a reasonable doubt the historical validity of Manetho's chronolos'ical list of the kings of 
Ancient Egypt,"from Menes, the ibunder of the first 'dynasty. ' The date assigned to this monarch by late learned 
