Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 19.djvu/318

304 written record began, so that their formation is hidden far back in the prehistoric period. Nor are alterations of such amount known to have taken place in any people within the range of history.

That there is a real connection between the color of races and the climate they belong to, seems most likely from the so-called black peoples. Ancient writers were satisfied to account for the color of the Ethiopians by saying that the sun had burned them black, and, though modern anthropologists would not settle the question in this off-hand way, yet the map of the world shows that this darkest race-type is principally found in a tropical climate. The main line of black races



stretches along the hot and fertile regions of the equator, from Guinea in West Africa to that great island of the Eastern Archipelago, which has its name of New Guinea from its negro-like natives. The type of the African negro race perhaps shows itself most perfectly in the nations near the equator, as in Guinea, but it spreads far and wide over the continent, shading off by crossing with lighter-colored races on its borders, such as the Berbers in the north, and the Arabs on the east coast. As the race spreads southward into Congo and the Caffre regions, there is noticed a less full negro complexion and feature,