Page:The rising son, or, The antecedents and advancement of the colored race (IA risingsonthe00browrich).pdf/94

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we shall find that they coincide with those which prevail in the level or low parts of more northern tracts.

The Swiss, in the high mountains above the plains of Lombardy, have sandy or brown hair. What a contrast presents itself to the traveller who descends into the Milanese territory, where the peasants have black hair and eyes, with strongly-marked Italian, and almost Oriental features.

In the higher part of the Biscayan country, instead of the swarthy complexion and black hair of the Castilians, the natives have a fair complexion, with light blue eyes, and flaxen, or auburn hair.[1]

In the intertropical region, high elevations of surface, as they produce a cooler climate, occasion the appearance of light complexions. In the higher parts of Senegambia, which front the Atlantic, and are cooled by winds from the Western Ocean, where, in fact, the temperature is known to be moderate, and even cool at times, the light copper-colored Fulahs are found surrounded on every side by black Negro nations inhabiting lower districts; and nearly in the same parallel, but on the opposite coast of Africa, are the high plains of Enared and Kaffa, where the inhabitants are said to be fairer than the inhabitants of Southern Europe.[2]

Do we need any better evidence of the influence of climate on man, than to witness its effect on beasts and birds? Æolian informs us that the Eubaea was famous for producing white oxen.[3] Blumenbach remarks, that "all the swine of Piedmont are black, those of Normandy white, and those of Bavaria are

  1. Pritchard.
  2. Ibid.
  3. Æolian, lib. xii, cap. 36.