THE DISTRIBUTION OF MANKIND. 155 
suggested certain changes of physical geography which would 
account for the necessary naigrations, and pointed out the fact 
that to the northward the Himalayas and other natural bounda- 
ries formed a line beyond which no traces of the Melanochroic 
Group were met with. He then referred to the distribution of 
certain animals, particularly of the old-world monkeys, as sup- 
porting the view^ of the continuity and isolation of the region 
assigned to the Melanochroic races, and finally suggested that 
the Negroes of Africa, and the Negritos of the Southern Islands 
probably represented two tolerably pure developments of the 
group, while he supposed that the Australians had been 
influenced both in language, and to some extent in blood, by 
contact with the Malays. 
To the Leucochroic Group were referred the Aino of Yesso, 
certain white races inhabiting the neighbourhood of the Amour 
in Eastern China, and other Chinese races, as well as the 
ordinarily accepted Caucasian nations. The author suggested 
that the great central plateau of Asia had probably been the 
original seat of the Leucochroic peoples, whence they had spread 
westward as far as the British Isles. He described briefly the 
natural boundaries of the region under consideration, and 
pointed to the distribution of certain animals, and particularly 
of the true wolves, as indicating a natural continuity of the 
region. 
The recognized Mongol, the American Indian, the Eskimo, 
and their allies, were regarded as forming the Mesochroic group ; 
but the writer also suggested that there was strong evidence in 
favour of including the Basks of Western Europe in this group, 
and drew attention to the curious afiinity which had been 
traced between the Basks and certain mixed races of North 
Africa. No opinion was hazarded as to the original seat of the 
Mesochroic group of peoples, but they were supposed at one 
time to have occupied the whole of America, and to have had in 
