remote as the origin of a very distinct race—a race as
different from the Malay in mental and moral, as it is in
physical characters.
As bearing upon this question it is important to point
out the harmony which exists, between the line of separation
of the human races of the Archipelago and that of
the animal productions of the same country, which I have
already so fully explained and illustrated. The dividing
lines do not, it is true, exactly agree; hut I think it is a
remarkable fact, aiid something more than a mere coincidence,
that they should traverse the same district and
approach each other so closely as they do. If, however,
I am right in my supposition that the region where the
dividing line of the Indo-Malayan and Aust'ro-Malayan
regions of zoology can now he drawn, was formerly occupied
by a much wider sea than at present, and if man
existed on the earth at that period, we shall see good
reason why the races inhabiting the Asiatic and Pacific
areas should now meet' and partially intermingle in the
vicinity of that dividing line.
I t has recently been maintained by Professor Huxley,
that the Papuans are more closely allied to the negroes of
Africa than to any other race. The resemblance both
in physical and mental characteristics had often struck
myself, but the difficulties in the way of accepting it as
probable or possible, have hitherto prevented "me from
o-iving full weight to those resemblances. Geographical,
zoological, and ethnological considerations render it almost
certain, that if these two races ever had a common origin,
it could only have been at a period far more remote than
any which has yet been assigned to. the antiquity of the
human race. And even if their unity could be proved, it
would in no way affect my argument for the close affinity
of the Papuan and Polynesian races, and the radieal
distinctness of both from the Malay.
Polynesia is pre-eminently an area of subsidence, and
1 1 its great wide-spread groups of coral-reefs mark out the
position of former continents and islands. The rich and
varied, yet strangely isolated productions of Australia and
New Guinea, also indicate an extensive continent where
such specialized forms were developed. The races of men
now inhabiting these countries are, therefore, most probably
the descendants of the races which inhabited these
continents and islands. This is the most simple and
natural supposition to make.' And if we find any signs
of direct affinity between the inhabitants of any othei-
part of the world and those- of Polynesia, it by no means
follows that the latter were derived from the former. For
as, when a Pacific continent existed, the whole geography
of the earth’s surface would probably be very different
from what it now is, the present continents , may not then
have ; risen above the ocean, and, when they were formed