2. The Tropical Zone-the zone of Tree-Ferns and Figs, Sugar-cane, Coffee, and Cocoa-78 to 73° F.

3. The Sub-tropical Zone-the zone of Myrtles and Laurels, Sugar-cane and Cottonplant-73° to 68° F.

4. The Warm-temperate Zone-the zone of Evergreens, Maize, Rice, Vine, Orange, Tea-plant, &c.-68° to 60° F.1

5. The Cold-temperate Zone-the zone of Deciduous Trees, Wheat, Barley, and other cereals, &c.-60' to 48 F.2

6. The Sub-arctic Zone-the zone of Conifers and Edible Berries, Barley, Rye, Oats, &c.-48° to 40° F.

7. The Arctic Zone-the zone of Lichens, Saxifrages, and Dwarf Shrubs—40° to 32° F.

8. The Polar Zone-the zone of Lichens and Mosses only-below the freezing point. The corresponding Vertical Belts of vegetation within the Tropics are (1) Belt of Palms, Bananas, and Spices—at sea-level.

(2) Belt of Tree-Ferns and Figs, sugar-cane, coffee, cocoa, &c.-from sea-level to 2,000

feet.

(3) Belt of Myrtles and Laurels, sugar-cane and cotton-plant, &c.-from 2,000 to 4,000

feet.

(4) Belt of Evergreens, maize, rice, vine, lemon, orange, tea-plant, &c.-from 4,000 to 6,000 feet.

(5) Belt of Deciduous Trees and Cereals, flax, hemp, &c.-from 6,000 to 8,000 feet. (6) Belt of Conifers and Edible Berries, barley, rye, oats, &c.-from 8,000 to 10,000 feet. (7) Belt of Lichens and Dwarf Shrubs-from 10,000 to 12,000 feet. (8) Belt of Lichens and Mosses-from 12,000 feet to 14,000 feet.

Botanical Regions: The plant-zones and belts, however, only show the distribution of vegetation according to latitude and elevation in general; each region of the earth has plants peculiar to itself, and countries north and south of the Equator with similar climates possess widely different forms of vegetation. In other words, each portion of the globe bas its own distinct flora, and each botanical region is distinguished by typical forms of vegetation.

The changes effected by man in the distribution of plants are many and great. Wheat, barley, rye, oats, and rice are native only to the Old World, but have been transplanted by man, and are now grown extensively in America and (with the exception of rice) in Australia. Maize and the potato, natives of the New World, are now grown in every continent; the latter is, probably, the most widely-distributed of all food-plants. In the same way, the orange, the vine, the fig, the peach, and other fruits of Southern and Western Europe, have become naturalized on the opposite side of the globe, and thrive luxuriantly in Australasia. Most of the fruits and flowers now common in our gardens and orchards have been originally derived from other lands—many of them from Western Asia.

Animal Life: Animals depend directly or indirectly on vegetable life for their support, and animal life is most abundant where vegetation is most luxuriant.

As a general rule, the hottest regions are the abodes of the largest, strongest, and fiercest beasts, the most venomous serpents, and the brightest-hued birds and insects. The largest water-animals-the whale, the walrus, and the sealfrequent the colder seas. Domestic animals thrive best in the Temperate Zones. Land animals, thus, like plants, decrease in size, number, and variety of species from the Equator towards the Poles. Still, each great region of the earth has its peculiar forms. The quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, and insects, that are native to the Old World, differ from those that are native to the New World; and the

animals, native to the various regions in the Northern Hemisphere, are not found in corresponding latitudes south of the Equator, while the indigenous animals of Australia are totally unlike those of any part of the globe.

The agency of man in modifying the natural distribution of animals has been. and is, most marked, especially in the case of domestic animals. The horse, ass, ox, and common sheep were all unknown in America until after the time of Columbus, and a century has not yet elapsed since they were introduced into Australia, where they have thriven equally well as in their own habitat or natural abode.

Europe has derived most of its forms of animal life from Asia. A dense population bas necessitated the rearing of domestic animals in vast numbers, and the extermination, or, at least, a great reduction in the number, of wild animals. The birds of Europe are more numerous and varied than the land animals. Reptiles are few in number-the only venomous serpents are three species of viper, found in the south. The waters of Europe swarm with a rich variety of fish, a vast number of them being edible.

Asia is rich in variety of animal life-both domestic and wild. The camel, ox, goat, sheep, horse, ass, and elephant are natives of Asia, and among Asiatic carnivora, or beasts of prey, are the lion, tiger, leopard, panther, wolf, hyena, jackal, bear, &c. Fur-bearing animals abound in Siberia, and the quadrumana are numerous in the south and southeast. Our domestic poultry all came originally from Asia, in which continent vast numbers of birds of prey (eagles, vultures, &c.), reptiles (python, cobra, &c.), and insects are also found, especially in the warmer regions. The locust is the scourge of Western Asia

Africa is richer in mammalia than any other continent, and the lion, panther, leopard, hyena, jackal, elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, camel, giraffe, buffalo, antelope, and other animals abound. Africa is also richer in birds and reptiles of every description, and insects of all kinds swarm everywhere.

America has no beasts of prey comparable to the lion and tiger of the Old World, and neither the horse, the ox, the sheep, nor the hog, are indigenous to it. Among its characteristic or peculiar animals are the grizzly and polar bear, puma, jaguar, bison, elk, musk ox, beaver, and other fur-bearing animals (racoons, squirrels, &c.) in North America, and the puma, jaguar, tapir, peccary, sloth, llama, vicuna, alpaca, armadillo, monkeys, and bats in South America. The birds of tropical America rival in splendour those of any other region of the globe. The condor of South America, and the eagle of the United States, are the largest birds of prey. Other peculiar birds are the emu, or American ostrich, the toucan and the humming-bird. Reptiles and insects abound, and venemous serpents, which include the huge boa-constrictor and the deadly rattlesnake, are numerous. Huge caymans, iguanas, and numberless alligators, also abound in the rivers and lagoons of South America.

Australasia: The native insects, reptiles, birds, and land animals are all strikingly different from those of other regions. Two-thirds of the mammalia are marsupials, of which kind the kangaroo is the largest. The most remarkable animal is the duck-billed platypus (or ornithorynchus), and the largest bird is the cassowary. Parrots of brilliant plumage and honey-suckers abound. The native fauna of New Zealand is scanty; the birds include one peculiar species-the apteryx, or wingless bird.

IV.

Man is the highest and most perfectly developed form of organi life on the earth.

The world contains, at the present time, not less than 1,500 millions of inhabitants, and the total number is increasing steadily, in spite of disease, war, famine, and other causes which tend to check the more rapid numerical growth of the human family.

Geographical Distribution: This vast number of human beings is most irregularly distributed, some parts of the earth, generally of limited

extent, being thickly peopled, while other vastly greater portions have scarcely any inhabitants.

Of the total number of people on the earth more than one-hal is in Asia, one fourth in Europe, one-eleventh in Africa, one-sixteenth in North America, one-fortieth in South America, and one-three-hund ed-and-sixtieth in Australasia.

The following is Mr. Ravenstein's estimate of

THE WORLD'S POPULATION,1

The Density of Population is determined by the proportion between the area of a country and the number of its inhabitants, and is generally stated as the average number of inhabitants in each square mile of area. The actual number of inhabitants is, in most civilized countries, ascertained at regular intervals, a

Census of the population being taken in Great Britain and Ireland every 10 years, and in other countries at various intervals.

The Census Reports of most countries show not only the number, but also the social condition and industrial pursuits of the people. It is only in Europe, America, Austral. asia, and parts of Asia and Africa, that we have the means of thus enumerating the people with any approach to accuracy; the population of semi-civilized and barbarous countries can only be inore or less roughly estimated. Such estimates are, of course, merely approximate, and in many cases scarcely more than a guess, as often below, as in excess of, the truth.

Classification: Although all the peoples of the world are members of one and the same family, there are certain differences according to which they may be classified.

We may thus classify mankind according to differences in

1. Physical Characteristics, which distinguish the various types, races and peoples. 2. Language, which broadly marks out the nations of the world.

3. Religious Beliefs, varying from the monotheism of civilized peoples to the poly. theism of heathen races.

4. Degree of Civilization, which characterizes savage, barbarous, semi-civilised and civilized peoples.

5. Political Organization, or association for mutual protection and intercourse. Zoologically, man forms a single species, and the division into types and races implies 44 variety" only, not species. The difference between the intelligence of a naked savage and a Ruskin is undoubtedly very great; still, the lowest and most degraded savages are no less distinctly human beings than the most advanced and progressive of civilized peoples. The Scriptures proclaim the truth that "all men are brothers," and modern scientific research has established beyond the possibility of a doubt the essential identity of the human family. In physical structure, man closely resembles the higher animals, but in mental capabilities man stands alone, and, as we have said, immeasurably above the highest animal. The grand distinctive characteristic of man is the possession of articu late speech, and language is an attribute of man alone, and of all men alike.

1. See further Mr. Ravenstein's paper on "Lands | ment," in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographi

of the Globe still available for European Settle cal Society, for J maary, 1891.

Physical Characteristics form the first and most obvious basis for classifying mankind.

"Certain superficial differences in physical features are found to distinguish men who for long periods have lived in separated regions. Because these differences are superficial they are often quite conspicuous; but when the deeperseated and more essential structural features are compared, they are found to be so wonderfully similar in men from every region as to warrant the belief that all mankind is descended from a single race." The superficial differences, however, enable us to group the peoples of the world in three great classes or types.

Types of Mankind: The three great types, to which all the peoples of the world may be referred, are distinguished by the prevalent colour of the skin and the formation of the hair.

There are, however, many and considerable variations in both these and other characteristics from the three standard types, and even the races referred, and rightly referred, to the same type present considerable differences in colour and appearance. No hard and fast line can thus be drawn between the different types, races and peoples, the intermediate "links" merging into each other indefinitely, and indeed "no instance is known of an absolutely pure and unmixed race."

The White or Wavy-haired Type (also called the Caucasian or Indo-European) embraces the most civilized and progressive of the peoples of the world.

The epithet white is used only in a general and comparative sense-the type embrac ing several fair or light races, and numerous dark or swarthy peoples. The face is eval in form, and the facial angle and average capacity of brain are generally greater than in the black or yellow type. The section of the hair is elliptical.

(1.) The Light Races are the Teutonic or Germanic, Caucasian, Afghan, and Berber peoples.

(2.) The Dark Races are the Romanic peoples of Southern Europe; the Semitic peoples of Arabia, Asia Minor, &c.; the Hamitic Copts, Nubians, Somali and Gallas; the great Aryan nations of Asia, including the Hindus, Armenians, Persians, Baluchis and Kards; and we may perhaps also refer to this type the Miao-tze and other Non-Chinese tribes of Inner China, and the Ainos of Japan and the Kurile Islands.

64

The Aryan Peoples, supposed to have originally sprung from a pastoral people in Central Asia, form the dominant element in this type. From the cradle of this race, in pre-historic times, great bodies of Aryans successively migrated in different directions, ultimately making permanent settlements in Persia, Northern India, and various parts of the European Continent." These emigrants were the progenitors of the Aryan and Teutonic nations, the various branches of whose descendants have covered almost the whole of Europe, most of North America and Australasia, and large sections of Southern Africa, South America, and Northern Asia. There seems, indeed, to be no limit to the expansion of the Indo-Germanic race, which is, and ever will be, the dominant race in the world.

The Yellow or Straight-haired Type is the most varied and widely distributed of the three great types of mankind.

The principal characteristics of this type are a yellowish colour of the skin and straight black hair. The section of each hair is cylindrical or circular.

The typical people of the yellow type are the Chinese-the most numerous and ful of all the Mongolian nations, which include the Japanese, the Coreans, the IndoChinese peoples of Anam, Siam, and Burma, and the inhabitants of Tibet. are also referred the nomads of North-East Siberia and Kamtchatka, the Aleuts, and

power

To this type

the Eskimos of Greenland and the Arctic shores of America and Asia. The descendants of the ancient Mongolian invaders still occupy portions of Europe-the Lapps and Finns of Northern Europe, the Magyars of Hungary, and the Turks of the Balkan peninsula, all belong to the Mongolian stock of nations. Of these, the Magyars alone may be said to have truly imbibed the spirit of modern European civilization, and the Hungarians may be, and for all practical purposes are, in spite of their Mongolian origin, regarded as a European people.

The so-called Red Indians of America have long been classed as a separate race, but it seems more in accordance with scientific accuracy to regard them as a variety of the yellow type, and closely related to the Mongol and the Eskimo. The highest type of the Indian race is found in the reinnants of the once numerous and warlike tribes of North America; in Central and South America, and especially in the dense forests of Brazil and the barren wastes of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, the Indian sinks far below the standard type in appearance and intelligence. In Canada and the United States, the Indians are comparatively very few in number; in Mexico and Central and South America, they are much more numerous, both relatively and absolutely.

The Malay family of nations has also been generally regarded as a separate race; we may, however, class the Malays of South-Eastern Asia, the Hovas of Madagascar, the Maories of New Zealand, the Hawaiians, Fijians, and other Polynesian races as subvarieties of the yellow type. The Papuans, or Austral-Negroes, exhibit many characteristics of the negro type, and seem, indeed, to form a connecting link between the yellow type and the black.

The Black or Woolly-haired Type is, generally speaking, the lowest in intelligence and the least advanced in civilization of the three great types of mankind.

The black skin, woolly hair, thick lips, and elongated skull, are the most striking char. acteristics of this division of mankind. The Negroes of Central Africa form the standard type, and physically resemble the Bantu peoples-Zulus, Basutos, Bechuanas, Matabelis, &c. of Southern Africa, but these Kaffir tribes are in every respect superior to the true Negroes. To this type we may refer the Negritos of the Andaman Islands, the aboriginal Australians, and perhaps the woolly-haired Papuans. The Hottentots and the Bushmen of South Africa are inferior races, the latter, especially, are of an extremely low type.

The Negro population of the United States has advanced considerably in character and civilization, and, as in Brazil and other South American countries, and also in Central America, and notably in the West Indies, the negro element is important and so far progressive. The civilized American negro is a very different being from the untravelled African, and it is certain that the civilization and development of negro Africa would be most powerfully aided and advanced by the repatriation of civilized and educated negroes from the United States, Brazil, and the West Indies. Resident in, or a native of, the hottest and most unhealthy part in the world, the negro thrives where other nations would perish, and many industries of world-wide importance, such as the cultivation of cotton, tobacco, and the sugar-cane, could scarcely have been developed without negro labour.

Distribution of Races: The following is a rough estimate of the numbers belonging to each type :

1. The White or Aryan Race-the dominant race of the world-occupying nearly the whole of Europe and Australasia, and the greater part of North America, and rapidly spreading over the north of Asia, the north and south of Africa, and Central and South America, numbers probably upwards of 570,000,000.

2. The Yellow Type of mankind includes not less than 645,000,000 people of the Mon golian race, 40,000,000 Malays, and about 20,000,000 American Indians.

3. Of the Black or Negro Race, about 130,000,000 inhabit Africa, while there are several millions in America.

Besides the physical differences in colour and feature which distinguish the races of men, there is also the important distinction of language.