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nents and oceans did not greatly differ from their present form, and the former, back to the time of the Devonian formation, were never so completely submerged as to be replaced by oceans comparable in depth with our Atlantic and Pacific." "This curious fact," he says again, "of the almost perfect continuity of all the great masses of land, notwithstanding their extremely irregular shape and distribution, is no doubt dependent on the [geological] circumstances just alluded to; that the great depth of the oceans and the slowness of the process of upheaval, has almost always produced the new lands close to, or actually connected with, pre-existing lands; and this has necessarily led to a much greater uniformity in the distribution of organic forms, than would have prevailed had the continents been more completely isolated from each other. . the whole land is almost continuous. It consists essentially of only three masses: the American, the Asia-African, and the Australian. The two former are only separated by thirty-six miles of shallow sea at Behring's Straits, so that it is possible to go from Cape Horn to Singapore or the Cape of Good Hope without ever being out of sight of land; and owing to the intervention of the numerous islands of the Malay Archipelago the journey might be continued under the same conditions as far as Melbourne and Hobart Town." The close proximity of the great land-masses in the Arctic regions is a fact to be kept in mind in any discussion of the distribution of life in the northern hemisphere, and also the fact that in Tertiary times the connection was almost indisputably more intimate than it is now.

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and even mammals and birds are greatly affected, and even some are mainly controlled, in their range by the presence or absence of forests, the distribution of which is so intimately connected with climate. The reptiles, unlike mammals and birds, are quickly influenced by changes of temperature, and are unable to exist in the colder parts of the earth. Amphibians also require a moderately warm, or at least temperate, climate, and though ranging beyond the true reptiles become reduced to a few types in the coldtemperate latitudes, beyond which they wholly disappear. Fluviatile and terrestrial mollusks are also exceedingly susceptible to changes in the conditions of life that affect but slightly either insects or vertebrates, especially the two higher classes of the latter, even the geological character of a country having a powerful influence upon their distribution, as well as affecting their size and the thickness of their calcareous covering. While the mammalia are able to survive changes that would exterminate reptiles and amphibians, and are somewhat independent of the influences that govern the existence of many insects and mollusks, their fossil remains must give, for this reason, a less minute record of past geological and climatic changes than either the lower classes of vertebrates, the mollusca, or the insects, and afford a far less detailed record than plants. Among mammals sometimes the same species, and often the same genus, has a range extending from the Arctic regions to the warm-temperate or subtropical latitudes, thus showing an adaptability to varied conditions of existence not exhibited by the lower vertebrates, or by mollusks or plants. While their lack of exceptional means of dispersal and their superiority to forces of restriction that limit many groups of animals render them highly useful as a standard of reference in respect to present life-regions, the latter necessarily detracts from their importance as a medium of geological record, so far at least as regards the minuter details.

* Report of a Lecture before the Royal Geographical Society, in Geogr. Mag., vol. iv, August, 1877, p. 221.

+ Geogr. Dist. Anim., vol. i, p. 37.

As is well known, and almost universally admitted, the animal and plant life of the Arctic lands is nearly everywhere the same, many of the species having a circumpolar range, while the genera are mainly, and the families almost entirely, the same throughout. Especially is this the case with mammals. To show how gradual is the change from almost absolute uniformity in the Arctic regions to the ultimate diversity met with in the intertropical latitudes it is only necessary to divide latitudinally the so-called "Nearctic" and "Palearctic" regions into several minor areas, and to tabulate and compare the genera found in each. Adopting as our first division the region approximately bounded southward by the isotherm of 36° F., and hence embracing the Arctic, SubArctic, and Cold Temperate lands of the northern hemisphere, we find that of the fifty-four commonly recognized genera of non-pelagic mammals occurring north of this boundary, five are subcosmopolitan; twentyseven, or more than one half, are strictly circumpolar, being represented throughout the greater part of the region north of this boundary; that five more are found on both shores of the Atlantic, and that five others are common to both shores of the Pacific. This leaves only twelveless than one-fourth-that are peculiar to either the northern portion of North America or to the corresponding portion of the Old World, of which eight are restricted to America and four to the Europæo-Asiatic continent. These genera and their distribution are approximately shown in the subjoined table.

Genera of mammals of the Arctic and Cold Temperate portions of the northern hemisphere (the region north of the mean annual of 36° F.).

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The above-given statistics show most clearly that the mammals of the northern third of the northern hemisphere present few generic or subgeneric forms that are peculiar to either North America or to the Europæo-Asiatic continent. In many cases, these are closely representative forms; in other cases, the peculiar genera extend but a short distance into the region, being temperate forms rather than hyperboreal. The close relationship of the mammalian life of the northern lands, as compared with the diversity met with between that of the northern and southern portions of the two northern continents, is further shown by a tabulation of the genera met with in the region intervening between the cold-temperate and sub-tropical zones of life, the northern and southern boundaries of which may be considered respectively as the isotherms of 360 and 680 to 70° F. Rather more than one-half of the above-enumerated genera extend also over a large portion of this more southern belt, and impart thereby a general similarity to the facies of the mammalian fauna of the two regions. In addition to these, however, we find in North America thirty-one genera and seven subgenera that are not found much, if any, to the northward of the isotherm of 360 F., and about the same proportion of new generic and subgeneric types make their appearance in the corresponding region of the Old World. Turuing first to North America, we find that of these added forms one has so wide a distribution that it may be properly considered as subcosmopolitan, being found in the corresponding region of the EuropæoAsiatic continent as well as far to the southward of the region under notice. One other occurs also in Eastern Asia and six more belong rather to Tropical America than to Temperate North America. Excluding these, leaves about thirty as strictly American and twenty-two that are almost wholly restricted to Temperate North America; there is, hence, twice as great a difference between the mammalian fauna of the middle temperate region of North America and the colder portion of the same continent as there is between those of the colder parts of the two northerm continents, or the northern portions of the so-called "Nearctic" and "Palearctic Regions". But we get in Temperate North America not only twenty-two generic and subgeneric forms peculiar to this region, but a differentiation of this region into three well-marked faunal areas, differing more from each other than do the boreal parts of the New World ("Nearctic Region") from the boreal parts of the Old World ("Palearctic Region"). While thirteen of the genera, or about one

third, have a general distribution throughout Temperate North America, there are four genera and one subgenus peculiar to the so-called Eastern Province, five genera and one subgenus mainly restricted to the Middle Province, and five genera and two subgenera almost wholly limited to the geographically much smaller Western Province. In addition to this, there are five other genera and one subgenus common to the greater part of the Middle and Western Provinces that are not found in the Eastern.* The genera that may be regarded as characterizing the middle temperate region of North America and their relative distribution is shown in the subjoined table.

Terrestrial genera and subgenera of Middle North America (between the mean annuals of 36° and 68° F.), not found in the Arctic and Cold Temperate latitudes. [NOTE-Subgenera are enclosed in parentheses.]

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Common to the Western and Middle Provinces, but not found in the Eastern....
Mainly tropical or subtropical..........

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* Mr. Wallace, in his late work (Geogr. Dist. Anim., vol. i, p. 6), refers to the Rocky Mountains as forming a barrier to species, "almost all the mammals, birds, and insects" belonging to different species on the two sides of the Rocky Mountains. Nothing, so far as mammals and birds are concerned (and I am informed by good authorities that the same is true of insects), could well be further from the truth. Only in rare instances do the Rocky Mountains form such a barrier, the division between the Eastern and Middle Provinces being more than six hundred miles to the eastward of this range, while the boundary between the Middle and Western Provinces is formed by the Sierra Nevada chain. The same species, as a rule, range over the greater part of the great elevated interior plateau, of which the Rocky Mountains constitute the axis. So far as the distribution of both birds and mammals is concerned, the presence or absence of forests, and the accompanying diverse climatic conditions, have far more to do with the limitation of habitat than the commonly so-called "Rocky Mountain barrier". This is obviously due to the longitudinal direction of this supposed barrier, which, if trending in a latitudinal direction, would certainly form an impassable obstacle to very many species.

Between the warm-temperate belt we have been considering and the zone next to the southward-the subtropical-the faunal differences are far greater than between the warm-temperate and colder zones. Aside from the few subcosmopolitan genera still present, and the few essentially tropical genera that range northward into the warmer temperate zone, there is little in common to the mammalian fauna of these two regions. At or near this boundary (the isotherm of about 68° F.-say 68° to 70° F.) several strictly tropical families first make their appearance, and tropical genera begin largely to replace those of the colder region to the northward.

In respect to the Europæo-Asiatic continent, we have already seen how small a proportion of the genera of mammals met with north of the thirty-sixth isotherm are really peculiar to this region, the number being less than twelve per cent., the remainder being circumpolar. Passing, however, to the warm-temperate division of this Europao-Asiatic continent, or that portion between the isotherms of 360 and 68° to 70° F., and we meet with many genera not found to the northward. While many circumpolar genera still prevail, at least three-fourths of the whole number are here first met with. A considerable proportion (about one-fifth) are properly southern or subtropical, and extend far to the southward of the warm-temperate zone. About one-half, however, are peculiar to this zone, and belong to groups (families of subfamilies) especially characteristic of the North Temperate Realm. In adopting the isotherm of 70° F. as its southern boundary, we include not only the Mediterranean Province (and hence Northern Africa), but all of Asia north of the great Himalayan chain, together with Northern China and the Persian Peninsula. Hence quite a number of such southern forms occur as Macacus, Herpestes, Genetta, Hyana, Hystrix, etc., that are more properly members of the intertropical fauna. Owing to the great extent of this region, we meet with many genera peculiar to special districts, giving a higher proportion of peculiar forms than is met with in the corresponding portion (but far more limited in area) of North America. Of about fifty genera met with here that do not occur to the northward, about one-fourth may be thrown out as more properly tropical, since they in most cases barely enter the southern border.

Of the remainder, fully one-half are restricted in their range wholly or almost wholly to this region, the rest extending far into or throughout the Old World tropics. There is thus more than thrice as great a difference between the mammalian fauna of the boreal parts of the Europæo-Asiatic continent and that of the warmer parts of the same continent as between the fauna of the boreal parts of the Europæo-Asiatic continent and the corresponding region of North America. The differentiation is here again, as in North America, from the north southward, not through the rapid increase of land-area and diversity of physical structure, but purely from climatic conditions,-through the multiplication of life in consequence of increase of temperature and means of

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