The story of the universe. Volume 4 (of 4) : $b The earth's creatures : fauna
History
The story of the universe. Volume 4 (of 4) : $b The earth's creatures : fauna
Astronomy; Earth (Planet); Natural history
We need hardly say that animals, like plants, are attached to various
localities which they rarely quit with impunity, since they have not
the faculty of acclimatizing themselves at will. The elephant lives
only in India and in certain parts of Africa; the hippopotamus and
giraffe in other countries of the same continent; monkeys exist in
very few portions of the globe, and if we consider their different
species, we shall find that the place of abode of each species is
very limited. For instance, of the larger apes the orang-outang is
found only in Borneo and Sumatra, and the gorilla in a small corner
of Western Africa. Had man originated in all those places where now
his different races are found, he would stand alone as an exception
among organized beings.
Reasoning then by induction, that is, applying to man all that we
observe to obtain generally among beings living on the surface of
the globe, we come to the conclusion that the human species, in
common with every vegetable or animal species, had but one centre of
creation.
Around the central tableland of Asia are found the three organic and
fundamental types of man, that is to say, the white, the yellow,
and the black. The black type has been somewhat scattered, although
it is still found in the south of Japan, in the Malay Peninsula, in
the Andaman Isles, and in the Philippines, at Formosa. The yellow
type forms a large portion of the actual population of Asia, and it
is well known whence came those white hordes that invaded Europe at
times prehistoric and in more recent ages; those conquerors belonged
to the Aryan or Persian race, and they came from Central Asia.
Around the central tableland of Asia, we find not only the three
fundamental types of the human species, but the three types of human
speech. Does not this, therefore, afford ground for presumption, if
not actual proof, that man first appeared in this very region which
Scripture assigns as the birthplace of the human race?
It is from this central tableland of Asia, radiating so to say around
this point of origin, that man has progressively occupied every part
of the earth.
Migration commenced at a very early period; the facility with which
our species becomes habituated to every climate and accommodates
itself to variations of temperature, taken in connection with the
nomadic character which distinguished primitive populations, explains
to us the displacement of the earlier inhabitants of the earth.
Soon, means of navigation, although rude, were added to the power
of traveling by land, and man passed from the continent to distant
islands, and thus peopled the archipelagoes as well as the mainland.
By means of transport, effected in canoes formed from the trunks of
trees barely hollowed out, the archipelagoes of the Indian Ocean, and
finally Australia, were gradually peopled.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account