Zimmerman has justly remarked, that, in consider ing the question of the cause of the different varieties in the human complexion, we should pay no attention to mere geographical latitude ; since climate depends upon so many other circumstances, besides the distance of the country from the equator. This observation ought to be kept in mind in considering the following facts, which still farther prove, that in a comparatively cold climate dark complexioned people are found. In the narrative of a route from Chunargur to Ragamundry, in the Ellore Sircar, by Mr Blunt, he met with several tribcs of mountaineers, whom he describes as having dark skins, lips thick and prominent, with high cheek bones. Although the country which they inhabited is in the latitude of 23° 28' N. yet the climate must be very cold, from the following circumstances : At Shaw poor, on the Ilth of February, the frost was very severe, and the trees had lost all their foliage. Mr Blunt in forms us, that he ascended more than 300 yards, in per pendicular height, after he left Shawpoor, before he ar rived at the mountaineers whom he describes ; and when he requested of them information respecting the climate of their country, they told him, that they never experienced any hot wind ; on the contrary, the frequent rains throughout the year rendered the air so cool, that during the night a covering was necessary, (Asiatic An nual Register for 1800, Miscellaneous Tracts, pp. 136, 148, &c.) Thus we perceive, that, in a comparatively cold climate, the complexion and features of the in habitants greatly resembled those of the warmer coun tries of this pact of Asia.
Humboldt's observations on the South American In dians illustrate and confirm the same fact. If climate rendered the complexion of such of these Indians as live under the torrid zone, in the warm and sheltered vallies, of a dark hue, it ought also to render, or pre serve fair, the complexion of such as inhabit the moun tainous part of that country ; for certainly, in point of climate, there must be as much difference between the heat of the valleys and of the mountains in South Ame rica, as there is between the temperature of southern and northern Europe ; and yet this author expressly as sures us, " that the Indians of the torrid zone, who in habit the most elevated plains of the Cordillera of the Andes, and those who, under the 45° of south latitude, live by fishing among the islands of the Archipelago of Chonos, have as coppery a complexion as those who, under a burning climate, cultivate bananas in the nar rowest and deepest vallies of the equinoctial region." ( Political Essay on the Kingdom of Sew Shiarn, i. 14, &c.) Ile adds, indeed, that the Indians of the mountains are clothed ; but he never could observe, that those parts xvhich were covered were less dark than those which were exposed to the air. The inhabitants, also, of Terra del Fuego, one of the coldest climates in the world, have dark complexions and hair.
2. Fair-complexioned races are found in hot climates. Ulloa informs us, that the heat of Guayaquil is greater than at Carthagcna ; and by experiment he ascertained the heat of the latter place to be greater than the heat of the hottest day at Paris ; and yet in Guayaquil, " not withstanding the heat of the climate, its natives are not tawny :" indeed, they are " so fresh coloured, and so finely featured, as justly to be styled the handsomest, both in the province of Quito, and even in all Peru."
(Ulloa, i. 171.) " In the forests of Guiana, especially near the sources of the Orinoco, are several tribes of a whitish complexion, the Guiacas, the Guagaribs, and Arigues, of whom several robust individuals, exhibiting no symp tom of the asthenical malady which characterises Albi nos, have the appearance of true Mastigoes. Yet these tribes have never mingled with Europeans, and arc sur rounded with other tribes of a dark brown hue."• The inhabitants of Boroa, a tribe in the heart of Araucania, are white, and in their features and complexion very like Europeans.
Even in Africa, darkness of complexion does not in crease with the heat of the climate in all instances: the existence of comparatively fair races in this quarter of the globe is noticed by Ebn Ilankal, an Arabian traveller of the tenth century, and has been confirmed by subse quent travellers. The following notices are from this author : In Bajeh, immediately bordering on the land of Abyssinia, is a race of people who have the same com plexion as the Arabians. In Zingbar (Ethiopia) there is a race of white people, who bring from other places articles of food and clothing. But the most striking fact mentioned by this Arabian traveller, relates to a district which he calls Zonialah : This, he says, abounds in black slaves, but the inhabitants are of a brown complexion. In the eastern parts they are darker, and have light coloured eyes ; while some more remote have fair complexions, with blue eyes and reddish hair. One race of them has black eyes and black hair : These are said to be derived from the Arabs of the tribe of Ghirzaz. The Oriental Geography of Eby! Hanka!, translated by Sir William Ouscley, 1800, pp. 13, 14, 27.
Banal, an English traveller, observed, in south lat. 12°, a numerous camp of Negroes, of the Giagas or Gallas tribe, whom he describes as of a complexion much fairer than that of most other Negroes ; and the com plexion of the Foulahs, who live in 9° north latitude, is so fair, that some writers imagine them to be the Lcucxthiopes of Ptolemy and Pliny. On the south west, south, and south-east, Darfur, according to Browne, is bounded by two distinct races ; one of which woolly hair, and exhibit the true features of the Guinea Negro, while the other are of a reddish colour. Toe same author describes the people who inhabit the island near Assuan as black, but the people of the town are red coloured, like Nubians. The mountaineers of I lar raza, and the inhabitants of Shulla, to the south of Dar fur, arc also red, (Browne's Travels, p. 165.) Lt some of these instances, the difference of complexion may have risen from the intermixture of races ; but this observa tion will certainly not apply to all the cases. It may also be said, that there are two distinct races near Dar fur, the Moors or Arabians, and Negroes, and that the fair complexion is entirely confined to the former. This observation will be considered, when we come to inves tigate the effects of a change of climate on the human complexion, when it will probably appear, that the diffi culty in the way of the hypothesis we are combating is equally great, whether such marked differences of com plexion are found among the aborigines, or among two distinct races, one of whom has been subjected for cen turies to the operation of the same climate, which is said to have produced the darker complexion of the other.