This term is explained by the geological structure of the island. It is bisected from north to south by a line of mountains, upon which snow lies during November and December. This range is a line of demarcation in ethnology as well as politics. West of it we have the district that pays tribute to the Chinese, and in which there is a standing Chinese army, and a number of Chinese immigrants--chiefly employed in the rice cultivation. In the mountains themselves, and to the east of them, are the Aborigines. These are said to approach the Negro type, and to differ from one another in language--a fact that we are now prepared to expect rather than to discredit. Their arms are the dart and bow; and their swiftness of foot is described by the Chinese as being equal to that of the swiftest dogs. They are Malayan in stock, and apparently but little mixed. The Japanese, and the Lúchú on the northern part of the island, and the Dutch on the present Chinese locality seem to have been their chief visitors. Neither held their ground permanently. That an island so near as Formosa should have been so long unknown to the Chinese, surprises Klaproth; who reasonably thinks that it was known at an earlier period, but known under a different name. The more so, as the Pescadores islands, half-way between, are within sight of the mainland. It is safe to consider that the population of Formosa is a continuance of the population of Luçon, and the Bashi islands. Of the island Lang-khiao, at the southernmost end of Formosa, I find, in Klaproth, an express statement that it is inhabited, and that its inhabitants are great breeders of sheep. Of the Pescadores the original population is unknown. From what I collect from Klaproth, the natives were removed in 1387, A.D., by the Chinese, and transplanted elsewhere. How far this was, partial or complete, is uncertain. At present they are inhabited--probably by the Chinese, who replaced the exiles of 1387. * * * * * There can be but little doubt that Formosa was peopled from the northern part of Luçonia; in which case its inhabitants represent the stock of the Igorots, Busiks, &c., as modified by a more northern position, and by Chinese rather than Malay elements. With Formosa we reach the northernmost limits of the Malays in this direction. The Lúchú islands, north of Formosa, have their affinities with Japan, and Japan has its affinities with the North and West, rather than with the South and East. THE POLYNESIANS. _Area._--From the small islands to the west of the Pelews to Easter Island, west and east. From the Mariannes and the Sandwich Islands north, to New Zealand south. _Physical Conformation._--Modified Protonesian. Stature, perhaps, taller; tendency to corpulence more common; colour oftener approaching that of the European; hair often waved or curling; nose frequently aquiline. _Nutrition._--But little azotized; saccharine and amylaceous.