, The naturalists, who have overlooked this fauna, and connected it
with those of the temperate zone, have introduced much confusion in
the geographical distribution of animals, and have failed to recognize
the remarkable coincidence existing between the extensive range of
the arctic race of men, and the uniformity of the animal world around
the Northern Pole.
The first column of the accompanying-tableau represents the types
which characterize best this fauna; viz., the white or polar bear, the
walrus, the seal of Greenland, the reindeer, the right w’hale, and the
eider duck. The vegetation is represented by the so-called reindeer-
moss, a lichen which constitutes the chief food of the herbivorous
animals of the arctics and the high Alps, during winter.
To the glacial zone, which incloses a single fauna, succeeds the
temperate zone, included between the isothermes of 32°, and 74°
Eahr., characterised by its pine forests, its amentacea, its maples, its
walnuts, and its fruit trees, and from the midst of which arise like
islands, lofty mountain chains or high table-lands, clothed With a
vegetation which, in many respects, recalls that of the glacial regions.
The geographical distribution of animals in this zone, forms several
closely connected, but distinct combinations. It is the country of the
terrestrial bear, of the wolf, the fox, the weasel, the marten, the otter,
the lynx, the horse and the ass, the boar, and a great number of
stags, deer, elk, goats, sheep, bulls, hares, squirrels, rats, &c.'; to
which are added southward, a few representatives of the tropical
zone. . - • ; •
Wherever this zone is not modified by extensive and high tablelands
and mountain chains, we may distinguish in it four secondary
zones, approximating gradually to the character of the tropics, and
presenting therefore a greater diversity in the types of its southern
representation than we find among those of its northern boundaries.
We have first, adjoining the arctics, a sub-arctic zone, with an almost
uniform appearance in the old as well as the new world, in which
pine forests prevail, the home of the moose; next, a cold temperate
zone, in which amentaceous trees are combined with pines, the home
of the fur animals; next, a warm temperate zone, in which the pines
recede, whilst to the prevailing amentaceous trees a variety of evergreens
are added, the chief seat of the culture of our fruit trees, and
of the wheat; and a sub-tropical zone, in which a number of tropical
forms are combined with those characteristic of the warm temperate
zone. Yet there is throughout the whole of the temperate zone one
feature prevailing; the repetition, under corresponding latitudes, but
under different longitudes, of the same genera and families, represented
m each botanical or zoological province by distinct so-called
analogous or representative species, with a very few subordinate types,
peculiar to each province; for it is not until we reach the tropical
zone that we find distinct types prevailing in each fauna and flora.
Again, owing to the inequalities of the surface, the secondary zones
are more or iess blended into one another, as for instance, in the
table-lands of Central Asia, and Western bTorth America, where the
whole temperate zone preserves the features of a cold temperate region;
or the colder zones may appear like islands rising in the midst
of the warmer ones, as the Pyrenees, the Alps, &c., the summits of
which partake of the peculiarities of the arctic and sub-arctic zones,
whilst the valleys at their base are characterised by the flora and
fauna of the cold or warm temperate zones. It may be proper to
remark, in this connection, that the study of the laws regulating the
geographical distribution of natural families of animals and plants
upon the whole surface of our globe differs, entirely, from that of the
associations and combinations of. a variety of animals and plants
within definite regions, forming peculiar faunae and flora.
Considering the whole range of the temperate zone from east to
west, we may divide it in accordance with the prevailing physical
features into — 1st, an Asiatic realm, embracing Mantchuria, Japan,
China, Mongolia’, and passing through Turkestan into 2d, the European
realm, which includes Iran as well as Asia Minor, Mesopotamia,
northern Arabia and Barbary, as well as Europe, properly so called;
the western parts of Asia, and the northern parts of Africa being
intimately connected by their geological structure wuth the southern
parts of Europe; * and, 3d, the North American realm, which extends
as far south as the table-land of Mexico.
With these qualifications, we may proceed to consider the faunae
which characterize these three realms. But, before studying the organic
characters of this zone, let us glance at its physical constitution.
The most marked character of the temperate zone is found in the
inequality of the four seasons, which give to the earth a peculiar
aspect in different epochs of the year, and in the gradual, though
more or less rapid passage of these seasons into each other. The
vegetation particularly undergoes marked modifications; completely
arrested, or merely suspended, for a longer or shorter time, according
to the proximity of the arctic or the tropical zone, we find it by
turns in a prolonged lethargy, or in a state of energetic and sustained
development. But in this respect there 3S a decided contrast between
the cold and warm portions of the temperate zone. Though they
* For further evidence that Iran, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Northern Arabia and
Northern Africa, belong naturally to the European realm, see Guy of s Earth and Man.