CRANI A AMERICANA.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
ON TH E V A R IE T IE S OF T H E HUMAN S PEC IES .
T he geographical distribution of the human race, is one of the most interesting
problems in history. The oldest records seldom allude to an uninhabited country.
The extremes of heat and cold, and the intervention of seas and mountains, have
presented hut trifling barriers to the peopling of the earth.
The condition of man, under these infinitely varied circumstances, is less
the effect of coercion than of choice. Thus the Eskimau, surrounded by an
atmosphere that freezes mercury, rejoices in his snowy deserts, and has pined in
unhappiness when removed to more genial climes. On the other hand, the native
of the torrid regions of Africa, oppressed by a vertical sun, and often delirious
with thirst, thinks no part of the world so desirable and delightful as his own.
The arid province of Chaco, in Paraguay, which the Spaniards stigmatise as a
desert, is crowded by forty Indian nations, who regard it as an earthly paradise.
It may he further remarked, in illustration of this subject, that extensive migrations
have been mostly confined to the temperate zones: it is rare, for example,
to find the Polar tribes wandering to the south, or the people of the torrid zones
attempting to establish themselves in a colder climate. The exceptions to this
rule are chiefly to he seen in the civilised communities of modern times, in
which the spirit of migratory enterprise is without a limit.
From remote ages the inhabitants of every extended,, locality have been
marked by certain physical and moral peculiarities, common among themselves,
and serving to distinguish them from all other people. The Arabians are at this
time precisely what they were in the days of the patriarchs: the Hindoos have
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