Aug. 1833.
other side, two tapirs, the guanaco, three deer, the vicuna,
peccari, capybara (after which we must choose from the
monkeys to complete the number), and then place these two
groups alongside each other, it is not easy to conceive
ranks more disproportionate. After the above facts, we are
compelled to conclude, against anterior probability,* that
among the mammalia there exists no close relation between
the hulk of the species, and the quantity of the vegetation,
in the countries they inhabit.
With regard to the number of large quadrupeds, there
certainly exists no quarter of the globe which will bear comparison
with Southern Africa. After the different statements
which have been given, the extremely desert character of that
region will not be disputed. In the European division of the
world, we must look back to the tertiary epochs, to find a
condition of things among the mammalia resembling that
which is now found at the Cape of Good Hope. That
tertiary epoch, which we are apt to consider as abounding to
an astonishing degree with large animals, because we find the
remains of many ages accumulated at certain spots, could
boast of but few more of the large quadrupeds, than Southern
Africa does at present. If we speculate on the condition of
the vegetation during that epoch, we are at least bound so far
to consider existing analogies, as not to urge as absolutely
necessary a luxuriant vegetation, when we see a state of
things so totally different in the region to which we refer.
We know! that the extreme regions of North America,
* I f w e s u p p o s e th e c ase o f th e disco v e ry o f a sk e le to n o f a G re e n la n d
w h a le in a fossil s ta te , n o t a s in g le c e ta c e o u s a n im a l b e in g k n ow n to ex is t,
w h a t n a tu r a lis t w o u ld ev en c o n je c tu re o n th e p o s s ib ility o f a carcass
so g ig an tic , b e in g s u p p o r te d o n th e m in u te Crusta cea a n d m o llu sc a ,
liv in g in th e fro z e n se as o f th e e x tr em e N o r th ?
t S e e Z o o lo g ic a l R em a rk s to C a p t. B a ck ’s E x p e d itio n , b y D r . R ic h a rd son.
H e says, “ T h e su b so il n o r th o f l a t i tu d e 5 6 ° is p e rp e tu a lly fro z en ,
th e th aw o n th e c o a st n o t p e n e tr a tin g a b o v e th r e e fe e t, a n d a t B e a r L a k e ,
in l a titu d e 6 4 °, n o t m o re th a n tw e n ty In d ie s . T h e fro z e n s u b s tr a tum
d o e s n o t o f its e lf d e s tro y v e g e ta tio n , fo r fo re sts flo u rish o n th e su rface, a t
a d ista n c e from th e co a st.”
many degrees beyond the limit wliere the ground at the
depth of a few feet remains perpetually congealed, are
covered by forests of large and tall trees. In a like
manner, in Siberia, we have woods of birch, fir, aspen, and
larch, growing in a latitude* (64°), where the mean temperature
of the air falls below the freezing point, and where
the earth is so completely frozen, that the carcass of an
animal embedded in it is perfectly preserved. With these
facts we must grant, as far as quantity alone of vegetation is
concerned, that the great quadrupeds of the later tertiary
epochs might, in most parts of Northern Europe and Asia,
have lived on the spots where their remains are now found.
I do not here speak of the kind of vegetation necessary for
their support ; because, as there is evidence of physical
changes, and as the animals have become extinct, so may
we suppose that the species of plants have likewise been
changed.
These remarks directly bear on the case of the Siberian
animals preserved in ice. The firm conviction of the
necessity of a vegetation, possessing a character of tropical
luxuriance, to support such large animals, and the impossibility
of reconciling this with the proximity of perpetual
congelation, was one chief cause of the several theories of
sudden revolutions of climate, and of overwhelming catastrophes,
which were invented to account for their entombment.
I am far from supposing that the climate has not
changed since the period when those animals lived, which now
lie buried in the ice. At present I only wish to show, that
as far as quantity of food alone is concerned, the ancient rhinoceroses
might have roamed over the steppes of central
Siberia (the northern parts probably being under water)
even in their present condition, as well as the living rhi-
* S e e H um b o ld t F r a gm e n s A s ia tiq u e s , p . 3 8 6 ; B a r to n ’s G c o g ra p liy
o f P l a n ts ; a n d M a lte B ru n . I n th e l a t t e r w o rk i t is s a id , t h a t th e lim it
o f tlie g row tli o f tre e s in S ib e ria m ay b e d raw n u n d e r th e p a ra lle l
o f 70°.