BOOK but, if we carefully distinguish the various species, we shall perceive that there are none of them common to both. XXI. Countries apes. There is a very distinct line of demarcation between the of different country occupied by the Monkey, the Baboon, the Mandrill, the Jocko, and the other apes of Africa, and that inhabited by the real Ourang-outang, the Gibbon, and the Wourou, animals which most nearly resemble the human figure, and which, as they are met with in the islands of Borneo and Java, may have come at first from New Holland or New Guinea. Even in the tribe of Makis, there are limits marked to each species: the Loris belong to the East Indies; the Gallagos to Senegambia; and the Makis, properly so called, to Madagascar.* Giraffa. Zebra. Rhinoce one and The Giraffa, or the camel leopard, so remarkable for its height, its swan-like neck, and its gentle manners, seems to belong only to one region of Africa, namely that which extends in length from Cape Guardafui to the Cape of Good Hope, and to which should be joined the mountainous plains, which probably occupy all the interior of southern Africa, between the sources of the Nile and those of the rivers of Congo, Benguela, and Monomotapa. This region, which is almost unknown, with the exception of the maritime parts, seems to be very prolific in different kinds of animals. Here, two sorts of asses, the Zebra and the Quagga, are to be met with, and the wild boar in his greatest strength; and here also we shall probably find many of our domestic animals in a wild state, as well as on the central plains of Asia. As this region of Africa enjoys but a moderate degree of warmth, the camel leopard appears to be confined to it, less by the climate than by its own extreme timidity. It is seen as far as the twentyeighth degree south, but only on the eastern coast. The two varieties of the Rhinoceros have, each of them, ros's with its own country. That with two horns inhabits only South Africa, beginning at Congo and Abyssinia. The other, with one horn, is found in the East Indies, and in China; with two horns. * Cuvier, Tableau Element. p. 94. sqq. in this latter country the rhinoceros lives to the thirtieth degree north. They have on the other side of the line spread as far as the islands of Sunda. Some accounts would persuade us that the rhinoceros with one horn exists in Monomotapa ;* but this is probably a distinct species. BOOK XXI. tamus. The Hippopotamus is now confined to Africa; it lives in Hippopoall the great rivers of that quarter of the world, and is seen in great numbers near the Cape of Good Hope. of Asia and The Elephants of Africa and Asia are of two different ra- Elephants ces, which have probably not intermixed; for the Asiatic Africa. elephant inhabits only India, China, as far as thirty degrees, and some islands to the south-east of Asia, to which he has been transported by man. In Persia and in Arabia, we find no elephants but those which have been brought from other countries; and we know that the animal never propagates in the domestic state. The African elephants do not advance farther north than the 26th degree; from thence to the Cape of Good Hope they are every where met with in great numbers. The Lion, the powerful and formidable king of qua- The lion. drupeds, has been stript of a great portion of his dominions; for, in the age of Homer, and even in that of Aristotle, the inhabitants both of Greece and of Asia Minor, were accustomed to fly from his approach. From profaue and sacred history, we know that there were lions in Armenia, in Syria, in Palestine, and in Egypt. In none of these countries does the lion now appear. This dreadful animal has been taught to dread the arms of man; he has retired into those countries where there are fewest inhabitants; he roams in the deserts of Arabia, from whence he extends his ravages to the environs of Bagdad. The lion is to be met with, according to Zimmermann, in the mountains of Hindostan, and upon the coast of Malabar, upon the Gauts of India, and even in the islands of Thomann's Voyage and Biography, in German p. 118. + Herod. vii. c. 126. Arist. Hist. Anim. vi. c. 31. XXI. BOOK Sunda, and the kingdom of Siam. This appears to be extremely improbable. Africa always was, and still is, the country most celebrated for an abundant breed of lions, notwithstanding the numbers carried away by the Romans for their sanguinary sports. The lions which roam in the elevated but burning plains, beyond Mount Atlas, are the most distinguished for strength and courage. The tiger. Panther. The ounce. Inference respecting The Tiger, less extensively distributed than the lion, approaches nearer the pole, if it be true that Tournefort saw some of the species upon Mount Ararat. The Russian writers allege, that a stray tiger is occasionally observed roaming as far as Mongolia, and on the banks of the Ischym, in Siberia. They are found also in eastern Persia, and in China; but the climates in which they attain the greatest size, and display most ferocity, are those of Bengal, the Deccan, Malabar, Siam, Pegu, Ceylon, and Sumatra. It is in these countries that the royal tiger, a fit favourite of oriental despots, gets glutted with the blood of the slaves who are consigned to his fury. Africa contains no genuine tigers; but, by way of compensation, it has Panthers and Leopards, two species that are sensibly distinguished only by their spots, these being more beautiful and more perfectly rounded in the leopard, which chiefly inhabits Guinea and Senegambia. The Ounce, which differs from the panther in the grey colour of its hide, and the superior mildness of its nature, is more widely distributed, as it is found throughout the whole of Barbary, in Arabia, in Tartary, and China, and sometimes makes its appearance near Kutznesk in Siberia. From this sketch of the geographical distribution of anithe animals mals peculiar to the ancient continent, the following geneof the an- ral inference appears deducible, viz. that the interior of nent. Asia, and that of Africa, have been each of them the native region of a certain number of species of animals. The tiger, the Indian elephant, the camel with two humps, the cient conti * Georgi, Description de la Russie, iii. 1519. XXI. wild sheep, the Koulan or wild ass, the Dchiggetai or horse BOOK ass, the grunting ox, the elk, and the musk, are the animals. peculiar to the central upland plains of Asia. Those which are characteristic of the upland eastern plains of Africa, are the lion, the African elephant, the dromedary, the buffalo of Cafraria. the zebra, the quagga, and monkeys. We cannot help thinking, although on evidence which we admit to be weaker, that the northern upland-plain of Africa, or mount Atlas, the western upland plain of Asia, or Taurus, and the centre of Europe, or the Alps, have equally had their indigenous races of animals. If the two Quadru great masses of the old continent have produced each of peds of the them its own races of animals, why should not the new world have also races of its own? Why should the majestic chain of the Cordilleras of Mexico and of Peru, have been more excluded from the general action of vital energy than the central upland plains of Asia and Africa? Nothing can be more natural than to suppose that the vast and isolated continent of America had also its peculiar creation. The very few animals which were able to pass from the one continent to the other by the north, could scarcely have traversed the very hot climates in the interior of America: South America at least, then, would have remained wholly desert, had not nature, which leaves no spot unpeopled, furnished the new continent with species of animals entirely unknown to the ancient world. new world. North Amongst the animals which peculiarly belong to North Quadru America, we think, may be reckoned the great elk, named peds of the Moose-deer, as well as the great stag of those countries; America. species which, to the eye of the mere naturalist, would appear only as varieties of families found in the ancient continent, but which physical geography pronounces to be originally different, by shewing the extreme improbability of their supposed passage from Asia to the north-west coasts of America. The bears, the lynxes, the ounces of the United States, are probably as different from the animals of the same name in the old continent, as the squirrels and hares are upon which they feed. BOOK XXI. Bison. Musk ox. Quadrupeds indigenous to South America. The Bisons, or bumped bulls, are the largest quadrupeds in the new world: They roam in great herds from Hudson's bay through the whole of Canada, to the western territory of the United States, to Louisiana, to New Mexico, and as far as the shores of the Gulf of California; that is, from the 52° to the 33° of north latitude. They differ from the zebus cf India, and from the urus of Europe; but the thick wool which clothes their back and neck, as well as the beard that covers their chin, remind us, it must be confessed, of the bison, described by the ancients as an animal inhabiting Scythia.* Mention is made of a Musk ox, which inhabits the extremities of America, between the Welcome, Baffin's Bay, and the Copper River. According to other accounts, it wanders as far as towards the Pacific Ocean. It is alleged to be a species of buffalo, but the accounts are still very vague as to this point. The Mexican stag is to be met with in both Americas, so that we cannot ascertain its native country; but the animal resembling a large sheep, which has been observed to the north of California, appears to be different from the analogous species which browse in Peru. The Faguar, the tiger of the new world, resembles the ounce in strength, and the panther in skin. Zimmermann proves, from the narratives of modern travellers, that there are of the species of yaguars some which equal the tiger in size. The Puma, or the Couguar, which has been called the American lion, has a body more nearly resembling the wolf, and a head like that of the leopard of Guinea. These are two kinds quite unknown to the old world. The yaguars supposed to have been seen in Mexico, were probably either ounces or lynxes. It is equally doubtful whether this animal has advanced as far as the cold country of Villosi terga bisontes." Sen. Hippol. v. 64. + P. Marco de Niza, quoted by Zimmermann, Almanach de Voyages, 1806. p. 73. |