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100 NATURAL SELECTION vWhen once a particular mode of building has been adopted,and has become confirmed by habit and by hereditary custom,it will be long retained, even when its utility has been lostthrough changed conditions, or through migration into a verydifferent region. As a general rule, throughout the wholecontinent of America, native houses, when permanent, arebuilt directly upon the ground strength and security beinggiven by thickening the low walls and the roof. In almostthe whole of the Malay Islands, on the contrary, the housesare raised on posts, often to a great height, with an openbamboo floor ;and the whole structure is exceedingly slightand thin. Now, what can be the reason of this remarkabledifference between countries, many partsof which arestrikingly similar in physical conditions, natural productions,and the state of civilisation of their inhabitants ? We appearto have some clue to it in the supposed origin and migrationsof their respective populations. The indigenes of tropicalAmerica are believed to have immigrated from the northfrom a country where the winters are severe, and raisedhouses with open floors would be hardly habitable. Theymoved southwards by land along the mountain ranges anduplands, and in an altered climate continued the mode ofconstruction of their forefathers, modified only by the newmaterials they met with. By minute observations of theIndians of the Amazon Valley, Mr. Bates arrived at theconclusion that they were comparatively recent immigrantsfrom a colder climate. He says:" No one could live longamong the Indians of the Upper Amazon without beingstruck with their constitutional dislike to the heat. . . . Theirskin is hot to the touch, and they perspire little. . . .Theyare restless and discontented in hot, dry weather, but cheerfulon cool days, when the rain is pouring down their nakedbacks." And, after giving many other details, he concludes,"How different all this is with the Negro, the true child oftropical climes The impression gradually forced itself on!my mind that the Red Indian lives as an immigrant orstranger in these hot regions, and that his constitution wasnot originally adapted, and has not since become perfectlyadapted, to the climate."The Malay races, on the other hand, are no doubt very

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