We have here au instance of evident adaptation in th é
structure of animals to the nature of the districts in which
they are destined to dwell.
The hoofed animals found in South America are of different
structure from those of southern Africa. The organization of
the former renders them fit inhabitants of - the precipitous!
Cordilleras, while the form and structure of the gnous and
springbocks, and other antelopes, and of quaggas and ze->
bras, are adapted to the .vast and dry plains of Caffraria.
In the lower departments of animated nature, the observa-
tion which I have cited from Buffon seems to be reversed.
The reptiles of America, display when compared with those !of
the old continent, the greatest bulk and more powerful structure.
. This is remarkable in the batracian, but still more in
the saurian ancTophidian tribes. _
Paragraph 3.—Intertropical Africa and the temperate countries
to the southward form another insulated region; We find
the animalcreation assuming here a character almost as peeu-
liar as that which is displayed by the vegetation of the same
countries. In the inferior departments of animated nature this
peculiarity is apparent. À prodigious number of insects are
found near the Cape of Good Hope, which are unknown in
other countries. Lichtenstein collected there between six and
Seven hundred species, of which, Professor Iliiger found th a t
three hundred and forty were entirely new.* In mammalia,
southern Africa contains several peculiar genera, which? are
spread over various spaces towards the north, according to
their capability of enduring the heat of tropical countries.
In many instances this region contains the same genera which
are found in temperate climates to the northward of the line ;
but then the southern are different from the northern species;
Thus we find the quagga, the zebra, and some other species
of the horse kind, corresponding with the ass and the jig-
getai of Asia. The south of Africa is spread out into fine
level plains from the tropic to the Cape. In this region, says
Pennant, Africa opens at once a vast treasure of hoofed
quadrupeds. Besides the horse genus, of which five spedes
* Lichtenstein’s Travels in Africa, vol. i.
have been founds there are also peculiar species of rhinoceros,
of the hog and the hyrax among pachydermatous races, and
among ruminating animals the giraffe, the Cape buffalo, and
a variety of remarkable antelopes, as the springbock,: the
oryx, the gnou, the leucophoe, and the pygarga.*
Paragraph 4. Indian Archipelago.
The Indian Archipelago, forms a third intertropical (region,
which may be imagined to connect*Asia and Terra Australis,
and which bears to these countries the same (geographical relation,
a | Baiienrjjafidf the Gulf of Me$icç$tof< the two
Americas. TlWfC “are many facts jj which, itt^the, opinion of
M, Lessonj.prove that this central* pèrtion,iâs!haitërms> 'it, of
eastern Asia; Opce formed part of a great *'c®tn|menk. ; He^rejr
marks,* that these-islands contain great living“S p e p ie s of quadruped
s^which^ are, in sonie instances;*' common , to t several
differentcisles^and that the channels by* which they are separated,
a*r’e/shallow, and-intersected by-banks* apparently
the remains of ground submerged.f Yet it mus;t :(aif q ||^ o b -
served, that several of these equatorial islands have particular
species which they seem alone*-to have* preserved^. It is<re*
markable, though, not contrary to - general analogy^ that the
isles o f this archipelago reproduce? gênera, though! n^s,p e-
cies, found in-«the Kew World*, and hitherto regarded asypecu-1
liar to- it,*' ^§uéh are the tapir, the^p’bUrbuGous-, *and a green
rupicola. In the seas of this region; >is, found the dugong^sb
long believed to be the.-creature of dmaginatiom ((Sumatra
and Borneo are supposed to*contain some Sp®Cibs!?which are
identical, ^uch as the Indian elephants and the orange The
former which haye received- the names -of Ja^ n ip u s ahd ’Su-
* Pennant’s Hist, of Quadrupeds.—Burchell's Travels,—Gmelfai, ^System, Nat.
--.Cuvier, Règne Animal.
*t The momentum with which the waters ' of the equatorial ocean are borne
against the eastern side of America, though it has hollowed otâ thé Gulf of Mexico,
has not been sufficient to break through the ridge of thé Cp^dilleras. In the
eastern seas no similar mountain-chain existed to support the connexion between
Asia and Terra Australis. A comparison of the geographical facts 'which discover
themselves-in other equatorial regions, goes far to confirm (the opinion of
M. Lesson.
Gr