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Esquisse Générale de l'Afrique, Aspect et Constitution Physique, Histoire Naturelle, Ethnologie, Linguistique, Etat Social, Histoire, Explorations, et Géographie. Par M. D'AVEZAC, des Sociétés Géographiques de Paris et de Londres, etc. etc. etc. Paris: Dondey-Dupré. 1837. 12mo. pp. 132.

THIS is a carefully-digested summary of African Geography, drawn from the principal authorities, ancient and modern. It begins with a description of the natural features of this quarter of the globe; its boundaries, seas, capes, rivers, mountains, winds, and climate. Then follows a sketch of its natural history, both vegetable and animal. This last-named branch of the subject presents many facts which are curious and interesting, and they are accompanied in this sketch with ingenious remarks and speculations.

It is stated, that of quadrupeds Africa possesses more than a quarter of the whole number of known species. Of the monkeys, the genus cynocephalus is represented by various species, almost all large, strong, and mischievous. The varieties of the monkey are very numerous; and of the remarkable genus of ourangs, Africa affords the most remarkable of its species, the chimpanze, of which the arms are less long, the stature higher, the intelligence less limited, than that of the ourang-outang of Borneo, and which therefore approaches to man in a more striking manner. In no part of the globe, the author remarks, can this resemblance appear so striking as in Africa; for there nature, as a proof of the uninterrupted chain by which all beings are united, has placed this monkey, so similar to men, by the side of the man who bears the nearest resemblance to the monkey, the stunted Bosjeman, who, upon the other side, is bound, on the same soil, through a series of intermediate varieties, with those who are regarded as the most perfect type of the human species.

In entering upon a description of the varieties of the human species which are to be found in Africa, the author discusses at some length the question, whether man constitutes a single order, genus, and species, preserving all the fundamental characters of the order, genus, and species, and presenting no diversity, except in those accessory and accidental characters of form and color, which science habitually considers as the signs of simple varieties; or whether he must be admitted to be a genus, subdivided into several species, distinguished from one another by decided, permanent, and ineffaceable characters; in other words, whether the European, the Mongol, and

the Negro, which present the three most divergent types, can be traced back to a common stock, or whether they have each special characters, among which crossings in different degrees may, it is true, have produced numerous varieties, but which besides are fundamental in each type, and not susceptible of being changed into one another.

We cannot at present follow the author through this discussion, but we proceed to notice his classification of the African races, all the varieties of which he reduces into the following ten general classes, viz.

"1. The European races, who here formed the colonies disseminated along the borders and in the islands, including the Turkish race, which is thinly scattered in the countries along the Northwest

coast.

"2. The Arabian races, which spread over the eastern borders to Sofalah and Madagascar, throughout Egypt, over the northern provinces the whole length of the Mediterranean, over the Atlantic shore to Senegal, and extend to a very great depth into the desert, of which they occupy the southeastern portions.

"3. The Coptic race, of a deep yellow complexion, a short and straight nose, large lips, and swelled face. This race shows a daily tendency to disappear from the soil of Egypt, and seems, as has been previously remarked, to preserve traces of the ancient infusion of a Mongol or Chinese element.

"4. The Kouschyte races, having a complexion approaching to black, an aquiline nose, middle-sized mouth, an oval face. They people Abyssinia and a part of the borders of the Red Sea, under the names of Khabeschyn, Danâqyl, Schihou, Ababdeh. The majority of these nations, perhaps all, call themselves Aga'zyan or Shepherds. Perhaps different Asiatic and African elements combine, in different proportions, to form this race. The traces of negro mixture are easily detected, and on the other hand, the essential form seems to show great analogy with the inferior castes of India. Whether the origin of this race be foreign or indigenous, Africa is the only country which possesses it at the present day. Some detached branches of it are found on the coast of Zanguebar, and among the Berber population.

"5. This last forms one of the most remarkable groups on the continent, of which it occupies the mountainous regions at the north, and the central parts of Tsahhra, from Egypt to the Atlantic Ocean and to the Canaries, and from the Mediterranean to Ten-Boktoue and Kasynah, perhaps even beyond Lake Tchâd, under the different denominations of Schelouhh, Berêber, Qabâyl, Touârek, Sourqâ, and others, given them by their Arabian or Negro neighbours, and under the general appellation of Amazygh, that is, nobles, or Amazerqt, which means free, which they bestow upon themselves. They form a union of very different elements, some white, others tawny, the greater number olive, some almost black. A narrow forehead, an oval face, rounded features, sunken and cruel eyes, black and rough hair, with the olive complexion, these peculiarities, in the midst of this confused conglomeration, characterizes an original stock, which some traditions

designate as of Canaan, but which has been nourished on one side by a sap derived from the negro races, and into which, on the other hand, have entered strong branches of the Japhet race.

"6. From the midst of the Negro races a mongrel population is detached, of a tanned or copper color, projecting nose, middling mouth, an oval face, who consider themselves as descended from Arabian fathers united to Tauridian women. Under the names of Foulahs, Fellânys, Fellâtahs, or rather under that of Peuls, which they give to themselves. These people occupy a large and undulating zone, from the shores of the Senegal to the mountains of Mandharah, and perhaps inuch further. Their crisped, and even woolly, though long hair, justifies their being classed among the oulotrique population; but the features of their countenance, and the color of the skin, which has gained them among travellers the denomination of red Peuls, forbid that they should be confounded with the negroes, however intimate, in other respects, may be the mingling of the two types on the common border.

"7. The Negro races, properly so called, with a black skin of a more or less deep dye, a nose generally flat and broad, large and projecting lips, short face, and woolly hair, are spread over the larger part of the African soil, from Senegal and Upper Nile, beyond the southern tropic. The specific characters are differently combined among the different races which form this division; thus the Ouolof, the blackest of all the negroes, is that of which the nose is less flattened, and the lips are smallest. The Moutchicongo, on the contrary, whose complexion is much lighter, has a nose almost flat and enormous lips, and the women, especially, resemble the Hottentots. Among these extreme types, the Aschanty, the Mondingo, the Arada, the Ibo, the Monjou, the Makoua, offer a series of intermediate types.

"8. The Hottentot races, with a skin brown as soot, nose entirely flattened, large and projecting lips, a triangular face, forming a profile like that of a monkey, inhabit the southwest extremity of Africa.

"9. The Kaffre races, with a blackish grey or lead-colored complexion, arched nose, large lips, and upper part of the cheek prominent, occupy, on the northeast of the Hottentots, a vast portion of eastern Africa, as well as the south point of Madagascar. With these must be probably classed the Gallas, who from Melinda have advanced to the heart of Abyssinia.

"10. Lastly, the Malay race has spread several colonies on the African coast, after having peopled the eastern shores of Madagascar.

"It is hardly necessary to remark, that on the mutual limits of the respective geographical divisions, the races which we have just enumerated are more or less mingled together, and that the precise line of demarkation is not always easy to discover." - pp. 52–57.

This classification is followed by a notice of the different languages of Africa; the forms of religion and of government; its historical epochs; and the progress of modern discovery on its coasts, and in the interior of the continent. These topics, it will be perceived, embrace a wide field, and the author has brought together upon them, from a vast number of sources, a great variety of information, which is skilfully con

densed into a very narrow space. As it is distinguished rather for the merit of elaborate selection and condensation than for novelty, we forbear to make any further extracts. The character of the work may be best gathered from the following recapitulation of his labor by the author himself.

"We have exhibited, under its various aspects, that great whole, which is called Africa; we have spoken of its exterior characters, its internal constitution, and its attire of animated beings; then considering man, upon whom the possession of it is devolved, we have made researches into his race, studied his language, his manners, his social habits, criticized his origin, and taken a hasty survey of his annals; and passing from the subject itself, to its relations with our own pursuits, we have made an inquiry into the explorations which have revealed it to us, and into the correlativeness which must be established between the notions acquired, and the theatre upon which they were obtained. Such is the cycle which we have attempted to form from the scattered fragments which no one before has attempted to combine; however small may be their separate value, they swell into importance by reason of the place which they occupy in the entire picture. It is upon this that must depend the whole interest of this feeble sketch." - pp. 131, 132.

13. An Inquiry into the Origin of the Antiquities of America. By JOHN DELAFIELD, Jr. With an Appendix, containing Notes, and a View of the Causes of the Superiority of the Men of the Northern over those of the Southern Hemisphere; by JAMES LAKEY, M. D. Cincinnati : Published by N. G. Burgess & Co. 1839. 4to.

A QUARTO Volume from what, when we studied geography, used to be known by the instructive name of the " Territory Northwest of the Ohio," is something to attract attention. And when we open it, and find it printed in a style which emulates the London press, and is seldom even attempted in America, we turn to the title-page again, to see if we did not mistake its birth-place. But there it stands, printed in good Roman characters, that none can mistake, Published by N. G. Burgess & Co., No. 27, Pearl Street, Cincinnati, 1839." We have heard something of the book-trade of that western city, and have seen some dingy volumes from her presses. But these broad margins, these wide lines, this clear, black letter, these plates, so well drawn and lithographed, we hardly expected to see such things come so soon from beyond the mountains; we little imagined, that the veteran brethren of the type would have so soon to be guarding their VOL. XLVIII.NO. 103.

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laurels against the rivalry of these frontier-men, as we have scarcely yet taught ourselves not to call them.

But since they have come to the competition, we bid them welcome. We love good printing almost as one of the Fine Arts. A clear, black type does indeed give a force, a definite meaning, a piercing point, to good matter. Open lines and wide margins in like manner expand our capacities, and enlarge our views; so that we may say, most truly, that good printing is one of the creative arts. While we have, therefore, cheap books and cheap engravings for general use, let us have too some works and some paintings, upon which much mechanical labor has been bestowed. Let us now and then make a reach toward ideal beauty in printing, as in every thing else.

But the book before us is, upon its face, not only remarkable for beauty; it is equally so as the production of a Western man of business. That one of the commercial community in that great pork-mart, where such as know no better might naturally suppose, that business men are mere business men, should write a work upon a subject requiring long study and deep thought, is to us a very pleasing fact. If we had more men resembling Mr. Delafield in this respect, we should soon see their influence in promoting the only principle that can oppose the prevalent one of our day and land; we mean Disinterestedness. Let a man love Study, Science, and Art, and he is on the way to Philanthropy and Christian Brotherhood.

With much, therefore, to prepossess us in favor of this volume, we open it, and are struck at once by a characteristic rare in our day, condensation. No words are used, that could have been dispensed with; in truth, had the author used more words, and supplied the connecting links in his argument more fully, he would have found more readers. He states his facts so briefly, draws his inferences so directly, and avoids not only fine writing, but all explanation and detail, so entirely, that, unless we think, and weigh, and compare, and connect, we shall have a very imperfect view of his course of reasoning. Of the matter contained in this volume, a judicious manager would have made four such; nay, a true literary French cook would have made four such from a tithe of what is here.

The work professes to be "An Inquiry into the Origin of the Antiquities of America." And by this is not meant merely an inquiry as to which of the American races originated those antiquities, but also a discussion of the origin of those races themselves.. In other words, an answer is sought to two questions;