ON ETHNOLOGY. 
235 
Griqua Hottonlots near the Cape of Good Hope, facts which are now well 
established, are calculated to remove all doubts that can arise on this head, 
«far as human races are concerned. 
Physical geography is another study connected with natural science, 
which has important relations with ethnolopy. Physical geography com- 
prelietids the localization of those agencies of climate which are supposed 
to modify the organization of living tribes, or which oppo^o limits to the 
sphere of their existence. With respect to Ijutnan beings who are cosmo¬ 
polites, it is the modifying eflect of these agencies that we have to tibserve. 
One series of facts connected witii physical geography comprises the clfects 
produced upon climates by elevation of Uie surface, uf the earth. It is well 
known that in the ascent of mountain* changes of climate and vegetation 
perceived, analogous- to those observed in parsing from a lower to a 
higher latitude. Plants of the frigid zone reappear in equatorial countries 
neu the aummite of .■\lpine mountains. An hniuiry is suggested bow far 
lliij may tend to account for the nhaenomenon that the xanthous or very fair 
complexion, with red hair aud blue eyes, is often seen in the inhabitants of 
Alpiue regions. For example, if wc begin from the eastern parts of the 
world, we find xanthous people «)n the Himalaya, in the Iliudii families 
who re*i(le near the sources nf the sacred rivers at Jumnotri and Gangotri. 
Even the Rajpoots in Rajast'hau arc known to be much fairer than the 
people of the lower plains in Bengal and elKCw licrc. Passing the Indus, we 
hud the Yusuftsyi of the high tracts of Aflglmiiislan a fair xanthou-s people, 
whilfi the Ghilji of the lower country are dark and the Jante of the plain 
die Indus nearly black. Then, again, we find a xanthous tribe on the 
kigh mountains of the llindu-Klifi,—I allude to that curious pcoplo the 
iiab-Posh, M ho speak a dialect allied to the .Sanskrit, and are aujiposijd by 
dupp and Ritter and other learned men, to be descendants of the ancient 
Amn race who coii<|uercd India some thmusand years *ago, and probably 
IdtthMe people behind them in Central Asia, far westward, iu Arabia, 
SMordiiig to Bruce, a similar plia-noincnon is displayed among the inha¬ 
bitants of the cold mountains of Iludtlhua; and tu Africa among tho Kabyles, 
die nadves of Mount Aurasins, behind Tunis and Algiers, arc so fair and 
wti-haired, that they have been conjectured, without a sliadow of proof, to 
M liescendants of the ancient Vanilals, as if it were poswiblo for Vandals 
have made their way to the tops of all the mountains in the world. Even 
^ America, among the tribes inhabiting the Rocky Mountains, similar facts 
been observed. The rationale of this plnenomnnon is plainly connected 
’^ilh ilie physical conditions of so many numiitainous regions. It admits of 
* comparison with the changes of complexion diRCovci-ed, a* wc proceed 
Jrom the country of black races tinder the equator to that of the fair people 
®' Northcni Europe. 
*^^cther observation to which I shall briefly advert wHI seyve to indicate 
hearing wliicli researches in physical geography may hnveon ethnology, 
nc phffinomeuu of vegetation doubtless Indicate conditioua of climate which 
mappreciablo by uicnns of tliormonieters, hygrometers and all our in- 
»<niments; and w hen wc consider the fact, pointed out by the great botanist, 
•Ir. llohcrt Brown, that the disiribution of the great lamilies of plants in 
I'^nous couutrics in the southern heinispherc approaches to that which pre¬ 
vails under the equator much more nearly than in ilie northern vegetation 
Corresponding latitudes, wc are at liberty to infer that the sum total of 
tho^ agencies of climate whirii affect organized beings ia much more 
S'luitar to that of equatorial conniru* to the southward than to the north- 
ward of the line. This conclusion may be considered iu relation to the 
