The Descent of Man

ves differ widely: yet some few living forms, as
the opossum, range from the one into the other,
as did formerly some of the gigantic Edentata.
The Esquimaux, like other Arctic animals, extend
round the whole polar regions. It should
be observed that the amount of difference between
the mammals of the several zoological
provinces does not correspond with the degree
of separation between the latter; so that it can
hardly be considered as an anomaly that the
Negro differs more, and the American much
less from the other races of man, than do the
mammals of the African and American continents
from the mammals of the other provinces.
Man, it may be added, does not appear to
have aboriginally inhabited any oceanic island;
and in this respect, he resembles the other
members of his class.
In determining whether the supposed varieties
of the same kind of domestic animal should be
ranked as such, or as specifically distinct, that