Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/762

696 and the scabbard fishes, Trichuridae, aro distributed through the seas of South Asia. Mackerels of various genera abound, as well as gobies, blennies, and mullets.

106. Among the Anacanthini, the cod family so well known in Europe shows but one or two species in the seas of South Asia, though the soles and allied fishes are numer ous along the coasts. Of the Physostomi, the siluroids are abundant in the estuaries and muddy waters ; the habits of some of these fishes are remarkable, such as that of the males carrying the ova in their mouths till the young are hatched. The small family of Scopelidoe affords the gela tinous Harpodon, or bumalo. The gar-fish and flying- fishes are numerous, extending into the seas of Europe. The Clupeidce, or herrings, .are most abundant ; and an chovies, or sardines, are found in shoals, but at irregular and uncertain intervals. The marine eels, Murcetudjp, are more numerous towards the Malay Archipelago than in the Indian seas. Forms of sea-horses (Hippocampus), pipe fishes (Syngnathus), fife-fishes (Sclerodermus), and sun-fish, globe-fish, and other allied forms of Gymnodontes, are not uncommon.

107. Of the cartilaginous fishes, Chondropterygii, the true sharks and hammer-headed sharks, are numerous. The dog-fish also is found, one species extending from the Indian seas to the Cape of Good Hope. The saw-fishes, Pristidce, the electrical rays, Torpedince, and ordinary rays and skates, are also found in considerable numbers.

108. The fresh waters of Southern Asia are deficient in the typical forms of the Acanthopterygii, and are chiefly inhabited by carp, siluroids, simple or spined eels, and the walking and climbing fishes. The Siluridce attain their chief development in tropical regions. Only one Silurus is found in Europe, and the same species extends to Southern Asia and Africa. The Salmonidce are entirely absent from the waters of Southern Asia, though they exist in the rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean and the neighbouring parts of the Northern Pacific, extending perhaps to Formosa ; and trout, though un known in Indian rivers, are found beyond the watershed of the Indus, in the streams flowing into the Caspian. The Cyprinidce, or carp, are largely represented in Southern Asia, and there grow to a size unknown in Europe ; a Barbus in the Tigris has been taken of the weight of 300 fi&amp;gt;. The chief development of this family, both as to size and number of forms, is in the mountain regions with a temperate climate ; the smaller species are found in the hotter regions and in the low-lying rivers. Of the Clupeidce, or herrings, numerous forms occur in Asiatic waters, ascend ing the rivers many hundred miles ; one of the best known of Indian fishes, the hilsa, is of this family. The sturgeons, which abound in the Black Sea and Caspian, and ascend the rivers that fall into them, are also found in Asiatic Russia, and an allied form extends to Southern China. The walking or climbing fishes, which are peculiar to South-eastern Asia and Africa, are organised so as to be able to breathe when out of the water, and they are thus fitted to exist under conditions which would be fatal to other fishes, being suited to live in the regions of periodi cal drought and rain in which they are found.

109. The insects of all Southern Asia, including India south of the Himalaya, China, Siam, and the Malayan Islands, belong to one group ; not only the genera, but even the species, are often the same on the opposite sides of the Bay of Bengal. The connection with Africa is marked by the occurrence of many genera common to Africa and India, and confined to those two regions, and similarities of form are not uncommon there in cases in which the genera are not peculiar. Of Coleopterous insects known to inhabit East Siberia, nearly one-third are found in Western Europe. The European forms seem to extend to about the 30th parallel of N. lat., south of which the Indo- Malayan types are met with, Japan being of the Europeo- Asiatic group. The northern forms extend generally along the south coast of the Mediterranean up to the border of the great desert, and from the Levant to the Caspian.

110. Of the domesticated animals of Asia may first be mentioned the elephant. It does not breed in captivity, and is not found wild west of the Jumna river in Northern India. The horse is produced in the highest perfection in Arabia, and the hot and dry countries of Western Asia. Ponies are most esteemed from the wetter regions of the east, and the hilly tracts. Asses are abundant in most places, and two wild species occur. The horned cattle include the humped oxen and buffaloes of India, and the yak of Tibet. A hybrid between the yak and Indian cittle, called zo, is commonly reared in Tibet and the Himalaya. Sheep abound in the more temperate regions, and goats are universally met with ; both of these animals are used as beasts of burden in the mountains of Tibet. The rein deer of Northern Siberia call also for special notice ; they are used for the saddle as well as for draught.

111. Among the later results of scientific research, the demonstration of man s existence on the earth at a period vastly anterior to any of which we have any knowledge through existing records, is one of the most important in giving a solid foundation to the study of ethnology. We have learned that man was the contemporary of many extinct animals, at a time when the main outlines of the land within the area of the present continent of Europe were wholly different from what they now are ; and that human societies have been advancing towards their present condition during a series of ages for the extent of which our ordinary conceptions of time afford no adequate measure. Such facts have given an altogether different direction to the current of opinion as to the manner in which the great groups of mankind have become distributed over the areas where they are now found. So, too, the knowledge of the want of stability of forms of human speech has had an important bearing on these same subjects; for the evidence of the modifications which the chief spoken languages have undergone during the historic period shows that there is probably no country in which the tongue in use a thousand years ago would now be intelligible, and leads to the conclusion that even a radical diversity of language need not imply difference of race. In short, the science of ethnology being, like all others, built up on facts only to be obtained by actual observation, requires that these shall be interpreted by an intelligent and constantly repeated review of the whole series of available data as precise knowledge advances.

112. Asia, including its outlying islands, has become the dwelling-place of all the great families into which the races of men have been divided. By far the largest area : is occupied by the Mongolian group. These have yellow-brown skins, black eyes and hair, flat noses, and oblique eyes. They are short in stature, with little hair on the body and face. In general terms they extend, with modifications of character probably due to admixture with other types and to varying conditions of life, over the whole of Northern Asia as far south as the plains bordering the Caspian Sea, including Tibet and China, and also over the Indo-Malayan peninsula and Archipelago, excepting Papua and some of the more eastern islands.

113. Next in numerical importance to the Mongolians are the races which have been called by Professor Huxley Melanochroic and Xanthochroic. The former includes the dark-haired people of Southern Europe, and extends over North Africa, Asia Minor, Syria to South-western Asia, and through Arabia and Persia to India. The latter race includes the fair-haired people of Northern Europe, and 