PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. nia, for the supposed Southern continent. Finally, geographers have agreed to consider the Island World of the Pacific Ocean as a third continent, under the name of Oceania. Adopting this classification, we divide the land area of the globe into three great continents, called worlds, which are completely separated from each other by the circumfluent ocean: 1st. Old World, subdivided into Europe, Asia, and Africa. 2d. New World, subdivided into North America and South America. 3d. Maritime World, or Oceania, subdivided into Malaysia, Australia, and Polynesia. The whole land area of the globe has been differently estimated; the most recent and accurate calculations make it 50,200,000 square miles, distributed as follows: Divisions. Old World, or Eastern Continent, Europe, Square Miles. 3,724,000 16,152,000 11,354,000 South America, 8,000,000 6,800,000 45 The ocean forms in fact a single mass of fluid, surrounding the land, and penetrating the continents with numerous indentures. But geographers generally divide it into five great basins: The Pacific Ocean, 11,000 miles in length from east to west, and 8,000 in breadth, covers an area of 50,000,000 square miles. The Atlantic, 8,600 miles in length from north to south, and from 1,800 to 5,400 in breadth, covers about 25,000,000 square miles. The Indian Ocean, lying between 40 degrees S. and 25 degrees N. latitude, is about 4,500 miles in length and as many in breadth, covering a surface of 17,000,000 square miles. The Antarctic Ocean, lying round the South Pole, and joining the Indian Ocean in the latitude of 40 degrees S., and the Pacific in 50 degrees, embraces an area of about 30,000,000 square miles, including the Antarctic continent. The Arctic Ocean surrounds the North Pole, lying to the north of Asia and America, and having a circuit of about 8,400 miles. Including the land it may con14,800,000 tain, the extent of which is unknown, it may embrace 8,000,000 of square miles. Maritime World, or Oceania, 4,170,000 The recently discovered Antarctic Continent is of unknown extent. Climate. This term expresses the particular combination of temperature and moisture which characterizes the atmosphere of any particular place. We Although the ocean presents the appearance of a may distinguish, in general, six different combinations barren waste, and in the infancy of human art seems or climates, which, however, are infinitely diversified to interpose an impassable barrier to the intercourse in degree; thus we have warm and moist, warm and of nations whom it separates, yet in the eye of philos-dry, temperate and moist, temperate and dry, cold and ophy it is the great reservoir of the vapors which feed moist, and cold and dry, climates. the rivers and fertilize the earth; and to civilized There are nine prominent circumstances which deman, it becomes a highway connecting the most dis- termine the character of climate: 1. The sun's action tant parts of the globe. Its bosom contains an inex- upon the atmosphere. 2. The temperature of the earth. haustible supply of food, and its comparatively equable 3. The elevation of the ground above the level of the temperature renders it a source of refreshing coolness ocean. 4. The general slope of the ground, and its in the burning climates of the tropics, and of kindly particular exposure. 5. The position and direction warmth in the more inclement regions, remote from of mountains. 6. The neighborhood and relative the equator. situation of great bodies of water. 7. The nature of the, soil. 8. The degree of cultivation and density of population. 9. The prevailing winds. Seasons.-There are only two seasons in the torrid zone; the dry, and the rainy or wet. The latter prevails in the tropical regions, over which the sun is vertical, and is succeeded by the dry season, when the sun retires to the other side of the equator. The rains are produced by the powerful action of a vertical sun, rapidly accumulating vapors by evaporation, which then descend in rains; this arrangement is wisely adapted to afford a shelter from the perpendicular rays of the sun. In some regions there are two rainy seasons, one of which is much shorter than the other. The four seasons which we distinguish in this country are known only in the temperate zones, which alone are blessed with the varied charms of spring and autumn, the tempered heats of summer, and the salutary rigors of winter. In the part of the temperate zone bordering on the tropics the climate resembles that of the intertropical regions; and it is between 40° and 60° of latitude, that the succession of seasons is most regular and perceptible. The ocean, with all its inland bays and seas, covers an area of nearly 147,800,000 square miles, or about three fourths of the surface of the globe. Laplace has calculated, from the influence of the sun and moon Beyond the 60th degree of latitude only two seasons upon our planet, that the depth of the sea cannot take place; a long and severe winter is there suddenly exceed 26,500 feet. If we suppose its mean depth succeeded by insupportable heats. The rays of the to be about two miles, its contents will be nearly sun, notwithstanding the obliquity of their direction, 300,000,000 cubic miles. produce powerful effects, because the great length of 46 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. the days favors the accumulation of heat; in three days | different elevations of soil the torrid zone exhibits, in the snow is dissolved, and flowers at once begin to blow. addition to its peculiar forms, all the productions of the other regions of the earth. Mosses. The most simply organized plants, such as mosses, lichens, grasses, &c., which form the lowest order of the vegetable creation, are the most widely diffused; the more perfect tribes are in general limited to particular regions, and, in some cases-as, for example, the cedar of Lebanon-to a particular mountain or district. There are properly no plants which are peculiar to the frigid zone, because the mountains of the torrid zone, embracing every variety of climate between their base and summit, are capable of producing all the vegetables of the temperate and frigid regions. The number of vegetable species in the frigid zone is small; the trees are few and dwarfish, and as we advance towards the poles, finally disappear. But mosses, lichens, ferns, creeping plants, and some berrybearing shrubs, thrive during the short summer. In high latitudes are the pine and the fir, which retain their verdure during the rigors of winter. To these, on approaching the equator, succeed the oak, elm, beech, lime, and other forest trees. Several fruit-trees, among which are the apple, the pear, the cherry, and the plum, grow better in the higher latitudes; while to the regions nearer the tropics belong the olive, lemon, orange and fig, the cedar, cypress, and cork tree. Between 30° and 50° is the country of the vine and the mulberry; wheat grows in 60°, and oats and barley a few degrees further. Maize and rice are the grains more commonly cultivated in lower latitudes. CHAPTER XXVI. Geographical Distribution of Animals: Varieties of the Human Race. The vegetation of the torrid zone, where nature supplies most abundantly moisture and heat, is the most remarkable for its luxuriance and the variety of its species. The most juicy fruits and the most powerful aromatics, with the most magnificent and gigantic productions of the vegetable creation, are found in the intertropical regions. There the earth yields the sugar-cane, the coffee-tree, the palm, the bread-tree, the immense baobab, the date, the cocoa, the cinnamon, the nutmeg, the pepper, the camphor-tree, &c., THE limitation of groups of distinct species of aniwith numerous dye-woods and medicinal plants. At mals to regions separated from the rest of the globe by Comparative Size of the Principal Quadrupeds. VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN RACE. certain natural barriers, has long been recognized by naturalists as a general law in the geographical distribution of organic beings. The discovery of America revealed a race of indigenous quadrupeds, all dissimilar from those previously known in the Old World; the elephant, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the cameleopard, the dromedary, the buffalo, the horse, the ass, the lion, the tiger, the apes, the baboons, and numerous other species of mammalia, were nowhere met with on the new continent; while in the old continent, the American species of the same great class, such as the tapir, the lama, the pecari, the jaguar, the cougar, the agouti, the paca, the coati, and the sloth, had never been seen. In examining the crust of the earth, as already 47 stated, it has been found to be full of different organic substances, animal and vegetable, which have remained as the memorials of the revolutions that have taken place on its surface, and the only monuments of races of beings long passed away. Naturalists have studied and classified these interesting relics, and have shown that while many belong to extinct species of still existing genera, many others belong to distinct genera of which no type now survives. Their relative positions in the different formations recognized by geologists, have also enabled scientific inquirers to determine the relative periods at which they acted their part upon the changing stage we now occupy-hereafter, perhaps, to be trod by an indefinite succession of new creations. Man, at birth the most helpless of animals, and seemingly the most exposed to the accidents of nature, is yet the most universal and independent of the animal creation. Gifted with the divine powers of reason and speech, he is separated by a wide gulf from the mere animal nature; yet physically considered he stands at the head of the animal kingdom. The human race forms but one species; yet exhibits those physical diversities which constitute varieties. CLASSIFIFICATION OF HUMAN VARIETIES.-In attempting to form a classification of the human race according to its physical varieties, the most eminent philosophers agree in considering man as forming a single species of the genus, and differ only as to the number of varieties into which it is to be sub-divided. The celebrated Cuvier includes all these varieties under three primary divisions, which he terms, 1. The Fair, or Caucasian variety. 2. The Yellow, or Mongolian. 3. The Black, or Ethiopian. Blumenbach extends these primary divisions to five, of which we shall here give a brief survey. I. THE CAUCASIAN VARIETY, characterized by a white skin; red cheeks; copious, soft, flowing hair, generally curled or waving; ample beard; small, oval, and straight face, with features distinct; expanded forehead; large and elevated cranium; narrow nose; and small mouth. This race has given birth to the most civilized nations of ancient and modern times, 48 VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN RACE. It embraces several branches, distinguished by anal- the wandering life, appears to have had its origin in ogies of language, viz: 2. The Indo-Pelasgic branch, comprising Hindoos, Persians, Romans, Celtic Nations, (Ancient Gauls, Celtibe- Sclavonic Nations, (Russians, Poles, Romanic Nations, (French, Spaniards, The nations which compose this branch have carried philosophy, science, and the arts to the highest perfection, and for more than three thousand years have been the depositaries and guardians of knowledge. 3. The Scythian or Tartarian branch, comprising Scythians, Parthians, Turkish Nations, (Usbecks, Turk- vast steppes of Asia, these wandering tribes seem only the Altai Mountains, whence it has thrice carried the terror of its name, under Attila, Gengis, and Tamerlane, over half the Old World. The Chinese, belonging to this variety, are by some thought to have been the most early civilized of all the nations of the world. Chinese, or mass of the population of China, Coreans, III. THE AMERICAN VARIETY has the skin dark, and more or less red; the hair is black, straight, and strong, with the beard small; face and skull very similar to the Mongolian, but the former not so flattened; eyes sunk; forehead low; the nose and other features being somewhat projecting. The moral and intellectual qualities of this race II. THE MONGOLIAN VARIETY has these characteris-approach those of the Mongolian; like that, it has tics:-The skin, instead of being white or fair, is remained stationary, but it has stopped at a point olive yellow; the hair thin, coarse, and straight; little much below the Asiatic variety. The ancient and or no beard; broad, flattened face, with the features now extinct empires of Mexico and Peru may be conrunning together; small and low forehead; squaresidered analogous to those of China and India, exhibshaped cranium; wide and small nose; very oblique iting the highest point of civilization to which the two eyes; and thick lips. Stature inferior to the Cauca- races have reached; but arts, sciences, and all those In this race the moral and intellectual energies belong to the Asiatics, appear to have made little or intellectual endowments which, to a certain extent, have been developed in an inferior degree. no progress among the Americans. sian. This variety, which stretches eastwardly from the Scythian branch of the Caucasian race to the shores IV. IN THE ETHIOPIAN VARIETY, the skin is black; of the Pacific Ocean, and which has mostly retained hair short, black, and woolly; skull compressed on VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN RACE. 49 the sides, and elongated towards the front; forehead but it certainly includes races of very different physilow, narrow, and slanting; cheek bones very promi- cal and moral qualities. nent; jaws projecting, so as to render the upper front We may divide it into the Malayan race and the teeth oblique; eyes prominent; nose broad and flat; Melanesian or Papuan race. The former is of a lighter lips, especially the upper one, very thick. Different complexion, longer hair, and somewhat oval counbranches of this race spread over the whole of the tenance. Some of the nations of this race have long African continent, excepting those parts bordering on possessed alphabets, and made considerable advances the north and east of the Great Desert, which are in civilization, while others are in a low state. occupied by Caucasian Syrians, and in which all traces of the Negro formation disappear. The extension given to this variety seems to be rather arbitrary, and a more correct division of the African races will probably be the result of a better acquaintance with that continent. There is, indeed, little in common between the Negro and the Berber, and the Hottentot and the Caffre. The Ethiopian variety comprises the following leading branches, viz: 1. The Hottentots, (Coronas, Namaquas, Bushmen, and other tribes within the Cape Colony and the basin of the river Orange.) 2. The Caffres, (Coosas, Tambookis, Betshuanas, &c., extending from Port Natal to an uncertain distance north.) 3. The Negroes, occupying the whole continent from about 20° N. to the southern tropic, with the exception of some regions on the eastern coast, and including numerous families of nations. 4. The Gallas, (comprising numerous wandering tribes, who have conquered a great part of Abyssinia and the neighboring countries.) 5. The Barabras or Berbers, (including the native tribes of Northern Africa; Berbers Proper, Tuaricks, Tibboos, Shelluhs, &c., of the Atlas region; and the Nubians, Kenoos, Shangalls, Shillooks, Darfurians, Somaulis, &c., to the east.) The Ethiopian variety has ever remained in a rude and comparatively barbarous state; their cities are but collections of huts; their laws, the despotic whim of the reigning chief. Incessantly occupied in war and the chase, they do not seek to perpetuate their ideas; they have no written language, the Arabic being the only character used in Africa; and although abundantly supplied with the necessaries of life, they have retained their condition unchanged, after centuries of intercourse with enlightened nations. Let us hope that a better destiny awaits them. V. THE MALAY RACE varies in the color of the skin from a light tawny to a deep brown, approaching to black; hair black, more or less curled, and abundant; head rather narrow; bones of the face large and prominent; nose full and broad towards the lips. Such is the account given by many writers of this variety, which is spread all over Oceania, and is found in Malacca, in Asia, and on Madagascar, in Africa; The latter have the black complexion and woolly hair of the Negroes, and are in the most degraded social condition, living by fishing or on the spontaneous productions of the earth, without clothing, without huts, and even without arms, except of the rudest construction. They form the only inhabitants of the great islands of Australia, and are found in the interior of the other principal islands of Oceania, in which the Malayan races are generally the ruling people. The origin of the different races of men has been a subject of much inquiry. The Bible traces them all to one source, and this view is confirmed by scientific investigation. If we resort to the supposition that the diversities of color, form, and character, which we discover in mankind, proceed from so many different creations, then we shall be driven to the conclusion, that there were, at least, many thousands of these. In Hindostan, for instance, where the people for many centuries have been regarded as one race, there are groups of every shade of complexion, and every variety of stature, form, and character, both mental and physical. Now, had each of these groups original parents- an Adam and Eve, -created by the direct act of God? Such a supposition finds no support in history; on the contrary, all history, both written and traditional, is against it. On the other hand, the variety of races in the human family may be accounted for from facts within our own observation. True whites have been born among negroes and Arabs, remote from all contact with white population. The style of living, the food, the climate, are well known to produce complete transformations in the whole physical and mental aspect of families and tribes. We come to the conclusion, then, that nature herself has made provision for the varieties of the human race, thus adapting them to every zone and every clime, and displaying in the Author of nature that wisdom which "sees the end from the beginning." |