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EAST ASIA.
representing the tropical world, occur in small numbers in the thickets and rocky
caverns as far north as the neighbourhood of Peking. At least nine simian species
are found in China and Tibet, and as many as a dozen of the feline order, including
the tiger and panther, infest the less populous districts of China proper. Of two
hundred mammalians not more than ten are common to China and Europe, and
even these present certain differences sufficient to constitute, according
to some
naturalists, distinct varieties. Relatively more numerous are the European birds,
of which as many as 146 species in a total of 764 are found in China, which has also
about 60 in common with America. The numerous Chinese varieties of the lizard,
snake, salamander, and turtle are altogether unrepresented in Europe, and, with the
single exception of the eel, all the fresh-water fish differ from those of the West,
betraying, on the whole, a more general resemblance to those of North America.
INHABITANTS THE CHINESE RACE.
The Chinese people constitute one of the most distinct varieties of mankind.
They are commonly regarded as a branch of the sb-called Mongol type, although
presenting a marked contrast to the nomad tribes of this name. The very expres-
sion Mongol, to which a more precise meaning was formerly assigned, denotes at
present little more than the relationship of contact or proximity
between the East
Asiatic nations. The Chinese are evidently a very mixed race, presenting a great
variety of types in the vast region stretching from Canton to the Great Wall, from
the Pacific seaboard to Tibet. But of these types the Mongol is perhaps the least
common amongst the " Children of Han." The average Chinaman, considered as
belonging to this assumed Mongolic type, is represented as of low stature, somewhat
symmetrical form, although occasionally inclined to obesity, especially in the north,
with round face, high cheek bones, broad flat features, small nose, small oblique
and black eyes, coarse black' hair, scant beard, yellow, brown, or even light
complexion, according to the climate. The head is mostly long
or sub-dolicho-
cephalous, whereas that of the Mongolians is rather round or brachycephalous.
The old Chinese writings, including those of Confucius, already speak of the
contrasts presented by the physical traits and moral character of the different
peoples in the empire. Those of the north are spoken of as brave, the southerners
as endowed with wisdom, the men of the east as kind and friendly, those of the
west as more upright and honest. But however this be, it is certain that the
natives of the various provinces present the sharpest contrasts with each other.
The .true national link is their common culture rather than any common racial
type.
For the aboriginal elements have been diversely modified by mixture with
Tibetans, Tatars, Mongols, Manchus, Burmese, Shans, Malays, besides the Si-fan,
Miaotze, and other still half-savage hill tribes, which have no collective ethnical desig-
nation. For thousands of years the agricultural populations of diverse origin settled
in the Hoang-ho and Yang-tze-kiang basins have had the same historic destinies,
speak dialects of the same language, and Lave become one nation. Many differences
between the primitive stocks have been gradually effaced ; but the differences are