Nevertheless, a different and more artificial arrangement will be adopted here, and the portion of the Atlantidæ, which will be dealt with first, will not be those who are most closely allied to the Mongolidæ or the Iapetidæ, but those who least resemble either; in other words, those who exhibit the Atlantidean type in its most remarkable form. Hence, it is its typical character rather than its affiliation and descent, which places the Negro division at the head of the Atlantidæ.
A.
NEGRO ATLANTIDÆ.
Physical conformation.—Skin black, unctuous, and soft. Hair woolly, lips thick, maxillary profile prognathic, frontal retiring, nasal depressed.
Distribution.—Low-lands, sea-coasts, and the delta and courses of rivers, chiefly of the rivers Senegal, Gambia, Niger, and Upper Nile. Nearly limited to the Tropic of Cancer.
Area.—Western Africa from the Senegal to the Gaboon, Sudan. The alluvial portions of the system of the Upper Nile.
Divisions.—1. Western Negroes. 2. Central Negroes. 3. Eastern Negroes.
No fact is more necessary to be remembered than the difference between the Negro and African; a fact which is well verified by reference to the map. Here the true Negro area, the area occupied by men of the black skin, thick lip, depressed nose, and woolly hair, is exceedingly small; as small in proportion to the rest of the continent as the area of the district of the stunted Hyperboreans is in Asia, or that of the Laps in Europe. Without going so far as to maintain that a dark complexion is the exception rather than the rule in Africa, it may safely be said that the hue of the Arab, the Indian, and the Australian is the prevalent colour. To realize this we may ask, what are the true Negro districts of Africa? and what those other than Negro? To the latter belong the valleys of the Senegal, the Gambia, the Niger, and the intermediate rivers of the coast, parts of Sudania, and parts about Sennaar, Kordofan, and Darfúr; to the former, the whole coast of the Mediterranean, the Desert, the whole of the Kaffre and Hottentot areas south of the line, Abyssinia, and the middle and lower Nile. This leaves but little for the typical Negroes. Such, however, as it is, it will be dealt with—taking the Senegal as a starting-point.
Again, sub-typical deviations from the true Negro type will be found within the group in question; since the Sudanian Blacks have the characters of their class in a less degree than the more extreme Negroes of the Niger and the Gambia.