As Bearing Upon This Question It Is Important To Point Out The
Harmony Which Exists, Between The Line Of Separation Of The Human
Races Of The Archipelago And That Of The Animal Productions Of
The Same Country, Which I Have Already So Fully Explained And
Illustrated.
The dividing lines do not, it is true, exactly
agree; but I think it is a remarkable fact, and something more
than a mere coincidence, that they should traverse the same
district and approach each other so closely as they do.
If,
however, I am right in my supposition that the region where the
dividing line of the Indo-Malayan and Austro-Malayan regions of
zoology can now be drawn, was formerly occupied by a much wider
sea than at present, and if man existed on the earth at that
period, we shall see good reason why the races inhabiting the
Asiatic and Pacific areas should now meet and partially
intermingle in the vicinity of that dividing line.
It has recently been maintained by Professor Huxley, that the
Papuans are more closely allied to the negroes of Africa than to
any other race. The resemblance both in physical and mental
characteristics had often struck myself, but the difficulties in
the way of accepting it as probable or possible, have hitherto
prevented me front giving full weight to those resemblances.
Geographical, zoological, and ethnological considerations render
it almost certain, that if these two races ever had a common
origin, it could only have been at a period far more remote than
any which has yet been assigned to the antiquity of the human
race.
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