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A. MARSUPIAL. Antechinus miimiisslmus. B. PLACENTAL. Mus. delicalulus.
'72SZ9
7 11 ^"^''^
THE
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
OF
MAMMALS.
BY
ANDREW MURRAY
LONDON.
DAY AND SON, LIMITED,
LITHOGRAPHEHS AND PUBLISHERS, GATE STREET, LINt'iH.N'S INN FIELDS.
1866.
L
LONDON
STfiANOKWAYS AND WaLDEN. 2S fuStlc SUeCl,
Leicester Square.
MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
TO PACE PAGE
Frontispiece — Figures of Antechinus minutissimus and Mus delicatulus.
„ Diagram of Geological Formations ....... x
Map
1. Showing approximately the 100-Fathom Hne of Soundings . . . . . 1
2. Showing the approximate effect of a Depression of the Land, 600 feet ... 1
3. Showing apf)roximately what is known of the Tertiary and Quaternary formations,
and generally the Land, including Mountain-ranges, which was probahly under
Water diu'ing the Tertiary, or not long before the Glacial Epoch ... 1
4. Showing the portions of the Earth where marks of Glacial action have been observed
or are on strong groujads, believed to occur ....... 1
5. Showing approximately the rising and falling Land at the present day ... 28
5*. Sargassum Seas ............. .3-4
6. Distribution of Man ............. 56
7. Monkeys .............. 72
8. Anthropoid Apesi
9. Baboons . |
10. Prehensile-tailed Monkeys i
. . i 80
11. Lemiiridse and Galeopithecidaj )
12. Places where remains of Carnivora have been observed in formations prior to Glacial
Epoch 86
13. Lion
92
14. Tiger'
15. Leopards and Jaguars )
16. Pimia . . ! ^
17. Fossil Hj'cenas i
18. Existing Hyaenas f
Vlll
MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
Map
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
28*.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
40.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
Viverridaj — Civet Cats, Ichneumons, Paradoxuri
Wolves .......
Canidfe . . . . . .
Canis fulvus. Bed Fox i
Otters . . . )
MustelidfE — Weasels, &c. . . )
Skunks — Mephitis — Mydaus and Helictis )
Bears ........
Eacoons — Coati-Mundis — Kinkajou and Binturong
Seals .....
Wali-us and Rhytina
Hippopotamus — Fossil and Living
Swine .....
Tragididac and Moschidae )
Deer — Reindeer '
Antelopes j
Goats '
Sheep ....
Musk Ox — Living and Fossil
Bovidse i
Buffaloes ]
Camelopards i
Camels \
Horses and Asses . . . i
Do. Living and Extinct j
Anoplotherium 1
Tapir and Pala3otherium '
Hyrax . . . . .1
Rhinoceros — Living and Extinct I
Mastodons and Elephants in Lower Miocene Epoch i
Do. Upper Miocene Epoch |
Do. Pliocene Epoch
Elephants — Existing
Siren ia ....
Right and Sperm Whales
7
To FACE Pi QE
104
106
108
114
118
122
128
164
150
146
142
140
136
134
168
172
178
182
198
206
CONTENTS.
Classification adopted in this volume, and Dates of Appearance of Families of
Mammals in Geological Time ........
CHAPTEB
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
XII.
XIII.
XIV.
XV.
XVI.
XVII.
Introduction .........
Preliminary Inquiries — Origin of Species — Specific Centres
Preliminary Inquii-ies continued — Modes of Dispersal of Species
Geography of the Globe since the Secondary Epoch — Subsidence in Southern
and Elevation in Northern Hemispheres — Coral Reefs — Bands of Elevation
and Depression ..........
Past Geographj' of the Globe continued — Miocene Atlantis — Glacial Epoch
Glacial Epoch continued .....
Majimals — Classification and Mutual Aifiuities
Distribution of Man — Black and White Races .
Distribution of Man continued — Hill Tribes of India — Rank and Prior
Black and White Races ....
Monkej's — Extinct and Living
LemuridaB — Famia of Madagascar
Carnivora — Aifinities — Extinct Feline Species — Origin and Distribution —
Bone-caves in Brazil — Mauvaises Torres ......
Carnivora continued — Existing Feline Species — Their Distribution in Borneo
ity of
Carnivora continued — Dogs and Foxes
Carnivora continued — Weasels — Polecats
Carnivora continued — Arctocyonidse .
Carnivora continued — Bears
Carnivora continued — Seals — Extinct Species
Caspian Sea and Lake Baikal — Walrus
Otters — Badgers
• Existing Species — Seals in
1
1
4
15
23
30
43
51
56
6C
73
82
85
93
105
113
117
118
123
IV
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
XVIII.
XIX.
XX.
XXI.
XXII.
XXIII.
XXIV.
XXV.
XXVI.
xx\ai.
XXVIII.
XXIX.
XXX.
XXXI.
XXXIT.
XXXIII.
XXXIV.
XXXV.
XXXVI.
XXXVII.
XXXVIII.
XXXIX.
XL.
XI.II.
XLII.
XLIII.
Iloofed-iiiaininals (TJngulata) — Classification ....
Hoofed-mammals continued — Horses .....
Hoofed-mammals contmted—'Rxnmnanis — Camels — Oxen .
Ruminants contiinted — Sheep and Goats — Antelopes — Camelopards
Ruminants continued — Deer — Reindeer — Inquiry into their Origin in North
America, Greenland, Spitzbergen
Ruminants continued — ]\Iusk-deer — Chevrotains — Anoplotheridae
Artiodactylian Non-Ruminants— Swine — Peccary — Hippopotamus
Multungida — Palajotheridoe — Nesodontidae — Macrauchenia — Tapirs
Multungula continued — Rhinoceros ........
Multungula continued — Extinct Elephants — Mastodon — Mammoth . . '
Multungula continued — Existing Elephants — Question as to Distinctness of Su
matran Species — Elephants in Borneo ......
Multungula continued — Sirenia — Dinotheriimi — Manatee — Dugong — Rhytina
Cetacea — Classification — "Whales and Dolphins — Zeuglodon — Platanista
Edentata — Classification — Extinct Species — -Date and Range of Megatheroid
Species in North America — Existing Species .....
Insectivora — Classification — Moles — Shrews — Tupaias — Hedgehogs .
Insectivora continued — Bats — Frugivorous Bats — Insectivorous Bats (Leaf-bear
ing and not Leaf-bearing)
Rodents — Classification — Toxodon
Rodents continued — Hystricidse — Capybara — Cavies — Chinchillas — Octodons
— Echimyina — Agoutis — Porcupine
Rodents continued — Hyrax ....
Rodents continued — Pikas — Hares
Rodents continued — Dormice — Squirrels — Marmots
Rodents continued — Beavers — Voles — Rats — Mice
Marsupials — Classification — Entomophaga — Sarcophaga — Volita-ali;;
phaga — Poephaga — Linguales .
Monotremes — Ornithorhynchus — Echidna
Regional Distribution of Mammals
Great and Minor Mammalian Regions
-Rhizo
132
134
137
143
149
161
164
167
171
178
191
196
205
217
229
234
240
243
249
251
255
263
283
293
296
304
Appendix.
I. Systems ol' Ckis^ification of Mammals proposed by different Authors of
II. Different Classiticaf ions of the Insectivora
III. Synonymic List of Species of Mammals and their Localities
cmmence
315
319
330
CONTENTS.
PAGE
TV. Mammals of Special Districts .......... .36.5
V. Table of Geographical Distribution of the Lagothricina3 ..... 408
VI. Families or Characteristic Forms of Living Non-Marine Manunuls peculiar to
Special Districts, ^^z : — ..........
1. Families or Characteristic Forms present both in Africa south of the Sahara,
and the Indian region, and found nowhere else ...... 409
2. Families or Characteristic Forms present in Africa south of the Sahara, and
not in the Indian region ; and in the Indian region and not in the African 409
3. Families or Characteristic Forms present in Europe or Asia north of the Himma-
layahs, and found neither in Africa south of the Sahara, nor in the Indian
region ............. 410
4. Families or Characteristic Forms found in Euroix", and not in Asia ; or
vice versa ............ 410
5. Families or Characteristic Forms found in the Northern half of North America
and the Europeo- Asiatic region, and nowhere else . . . . .410
6. FamiKes or Characteristic Forms peculiar to the New World, and found in
both South and North America . . . . . . . .411
7. Families or Characteristic New World Forms found in South America, and
not in North America ; and in North America and not in South . . 411
VII. Letter from Mr. Palgrave as to the relations of Arabia (received too late to be
embodied in the work) .......... 411
IXDEX ................ 41-^
UfAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. IX
Map To face Page
53. Whale-bone Whales 208
80
54. Finner — Megaptera longimana )
55. Fossil Cetacea, including Zeuglodon )
56. Grampiis, Porpoise, &c. (Phocaena)^
57. Delphinida) — Dolj^liins . . )
58. Edentata — Fossil ,
59. Do. Existing )
60. Auteators — Orycteropus — Manis — Armadillos |
61. Sloths i
62. Insectivora )
63. Moles )
64. Shrews
65. Macroscelides and Tupaias
66. Hedgehogs — European Hedghog — Centetes 1
67. Pteropi — Frugivorous Bats )
68. Istiophora — Leaf-nosed Bats
69. Bats — Vespertilios .
70. Lagomys )
71. Hares '
72. Hystricidse
73. Cavies
74. ChinchiUas
75. Echimjdna
76. Porcupines
77. Beavers
78. Pouched Rats
79. Rats and Mice — Exclusive of semi-domesticated Species
Jiunping Mice — Meriones and Hapalotis j
81.
Gophers .
82.
Jerboas, &c.
83.
Spalacini
84.
Voles 1
85.
Tjpmmings 1
86.
Musk Rat )
87.
Dormice
. 210
. 212
. 220
. 226
. 230
. 232
. 234
. 236
. 250
242
244
248
270
282
266
264
MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
Map
88. Spermophilus — Ground Squirrel
89. Spermophilus Parryi and Spermoplulus Eversmanni
90. Marmot . . ■ )
91. Tamias — Striped Squirrel )
92. Xerus — Bristly Squirrel
93. Squirrel .
94. Fljdng Squirrels and Petaurus
95. Marsupials
96. Opossums and Kangaroos j
97. Marsupial Carnivora )
98. Myrmecobius and Tarsipes — Ornithorliynchus and Echidna
99. Vermilingual Species .......
100. Great MammaUan Regions ......
101. Minor Subdivisions of Great Mammalian Regions
To FACE Page
260
258
254
256
286
288
292
304
308
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CLASSIFICATION OF MAMMALS,
ADOPTED IN THIS WORK.
Note. — The Geological formations in which remains of the different families have been found are
indicated by the Asterisks.
QUADRUMANA.
1. ANTHROPID^
2. PITHECID^.
1. Catakkhini
2. Plattrhini
3. Aectopithecini
3. LEMURID^.
1 . Lemurini
2. CHEiRoirsntNi . .
3. Gaxeopithecini
CAENIVORA.
1. FELIDiE
2. VIVERRIDiE
3. HY^NID^ ..
4. CANID^
5. MUSTELID^
6. PLANTIGRADA.
1. Arctocyonid^
2. Uhsid^
Eecess of
Access of
Glacial
Glacial
Miocene.
Eocene.
Secondary.
Epoch.
Epoch.
*
?
••
••
*
*
*
. .
. .
*
*
?
••
*
*
?
. ,
*
••
••
••
*
*
*
• •
*
*
*
• •
••
*
*
••
••
••
*
*
*
*
••
*
*
*
••
••
*
*
*
*
. .
*
*
?
••
Xll
CLASSIFICATION OF MAMMALS.
7. PINNIPEDIA.
1. Phocii)^ . .
1. Phocin<B
2. Otarinae
2. Trichechid^
UNGULATA.
1. MONODACTYLA.
1. SOLIDUNGUI.A . .
2. ARTIODACTYLA.
1. RUMINANTIA.
1. Camelidae
2. Bovidse . .
1. Ovibos . .
2. Bison . .
3. Bubalus
4. Bos
3. Capricte.
1. OvincE..
2. CaprincB
4. Antilopida;
1. Bovhia . .
2. Catahlepas
3. Bubalus
4. Oryx . .
5. Gazella
6. Tragelaphus
7. Antilope
8. Redunca
9. Oreotragus
10. Cephalopkus
1 1 . Telracerus
5. Camelopardidae. .
6. Cervidas
7. MoscbidiB
Kecess of
Glacial
Epoch.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Access of
Glacial
Epoch.
*
*
*
*
*
*
Miocene.
Eoceue.
Secondary.
*
*
CLASSIFICATION OF MAMMALS.
xm
8. Tragulids.
1. Tragulus
2. Hyomoschiis
3. Dichohune
9. Anoplotheridse . .
2. NON-EUMINANTIA.
1. Dicotylidfe
2. Suidffi ..
3. Hippopotamidse
3. MULTUNGULATA.
1. Pal^eotherid^
2. Nesodontidjj . .
3. Tapirid^
4. Nasicornia
5. Proboscidea.
1 . Mastodontidje . .
2. Elephantidae
6. SiBENIA.
1 . Dinotheridse
2. Manatidae
CETACEA.
1. BAL^NID^
2. DELPHINID^
3. ZEUGLODONTID^
EDENTATA.
1. BEADYPODID^
1. Gravigrada
2. Tardigrada
2. DASYPODID^
3. SCUTATA ..
Kecess of
Access of
Glacial
Glacial
Miocene.
Eocene.
Secondary.
Epocli.
Epoch.
*
*
*
..
..
*
*
*
*
••
••
*
*
••
*
*
. .
*
*
*
*
*
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*
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*
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*
••
••
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*
*
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...
*
*
*
..
* •
' *
*
*
V
*
••
••
*
••
*
••
••
*
*
*
V 1
••
' Cuvier and Owen ascribe the remains of the JIacrothericm oia.iNTEUM (on which the existence of Scutata, in the Miocene,
rests) to an animal allied to the Manis ; Gervais to an Orycteeopus ; Giebel to one of the Dasypodid.e.
XIV
CLASSIFICATION OF MAMMALS.
EDENTATA {continued).
4. MYRMECOPHAGA.
INSECTIVORA.
1. TALPID^E ..
2. SORICID^ ..
3. MACROSCELIDES
4. TUPAIAD^..
5. ERINACID^
6. CENTETIDiE
CHEIROPTERA.
1. FRUGIVORA
2, ENTOMOPHAGA
1. istiophoka
2. Gymnorhini . .
RODENTIA.
1. TOXODONTID^ ..
2. HYSTRICID^
1. Catiin^
2. ChinchilliNjE . .
3. octodontin^ . .
4. echimyin^
5. Dastproctin^
6. Htstricin^
3. HYRACID^ . .
4. LEPORID^
1 . Lagomys
2. Lepus . .
5. MYOXIDiE ..
6. SCIURID^ ..
Recess of
Glacial
Epoch.
*
*
Access of
Glacial
Access.
Miocene.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Eocene.
Secondary.
CLASSIFICATION OF MAMJIALS.
XV
SCIURID-S {continued)
1 . Xekus . .
2. Rhinoscibrds . .
3. SCIDRUS
4. Pteromys
1. Sciuropterus
2. Pteromys
5. Tamias . .
6. Spermophilus . .
7. Ctnomts
8. Arctomts
7. PECTIN ATORID^..
8. MURIDiE
1. Castorin^
2. Arvicolin^
3. Spalicinje
4 SaccomtinjE
5. Ceicetin^
6. SiGMODONTES
7. Hespeeomtinje
8. Murine
9. Sminthin^
10. Merionides
11. DiPODINyE
MARSUPIALIA.
1. Entomophaga
1 . Antechini . .
2. Phascogale
2. Sarcophaga
1. Dasturid^ . .
2. DiDELPHIDES
3. Phalangist^
3. volitantia
1. Petauri
4. Rhizophaga
1. Phascolomtid^
Eecess of
Glacial
Epoch.
*
*
*
Access of
Glacial
Epoch.
JMiocene.
Eocene.
Secondar)'.
*
*
*
*
XVI
CLASSIFICATION OF MAMMALS.
MAESUPIALIA (continued).
5. POEPHAGA
1. MACROPIDiE . .
2. Stereognathid^
3. Peramelid^
6. LiNGUALES
1. Tarsipes
2. Mtrmecobius
3. MlCROLESTID^
MONOTREMATA.
1. EcniDNA
2. Ornithorhtnchus
Recess of
Glacial
Epoch.
Access of
Glacial
Epoch.
Miocene.
Eocene.
Secondary.
*
*
••
••
/a> w tf>
» M
-^^^
4;
,_
..■ ♦■ ■
M A 1* 1
SKOWINC APPROXIMATELV
THE. 100 FATHOM LINt OF SOUNDINGS
JTro
Tft-'Wr i** C"i-'
T_i.-
^-w-
qr <>■ »■ >w
n~
/ l^ ' ^ 'I
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w
tr^'^
n K a
1
-.^-^
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J L
PA r I r '- >
1
MAP II.
SHOWING THt APPROXIMATt EFFECT OF
A OtPRESSiON or THE LAND 600 FEET
;-!*-.^
M-S; "" "^
■r
-_£
.1. a T J r
•■"i7
1 T II Z 1 R I I!
J =-J U.
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INTRODUCTION.
OBJECT AXD Th\y OF THE WORK MAPS EXPLAINED — SUBSIBENCE ELEVATION — TERTTARY
FORJIATIONS — GLACIAL ACTION SARGASSO SEAS DISTRIBUTION.
The great amount of infonnation which has of late years been accumulated regarding the Geo-
graphical Distribution of Plants and Animals renders it very desirable that it shoidd be
classified and displayed, so that some general and connected view of the facts, and of their bearing
on each other, may be obtained. To do this is the object of the present work.
I shall to a certain extent follow the arrangement suggested by Schouw,* and adopted by
Decandollet and others in regard to plants, and consider the subject under two aspects equivalent
to those which in Zoology Van Der HoevenJ has recently proposed to distinguish respectively by
the names of " Geographical Zoology " and " Zoological Geography," the former referring to the
range of species, the latter to the Faunas of districts, and treat each great class separately and
independently upon both these points.
I shall commence with the former, and shall first pass the different families in each class under
review, giving an account of their distribution, and afiinities.
Their history and that of their nearest relatives during past geological epochs is a most impor-
tant point in relation to this, and to these I propose to give special attention ; and I shall endeavour,
by the aid of maps, to exhibit the facts more clearly and comprehensively than I could otherwise do.
On these maps the localities where the groups or species are found will be marked ; and the districts
where they are most fully or most feebly represented wQl, when necessary, be shown by different m-
tcnsitics of colour. To save expense, and so to allow of greater use being made of maps than would
otherwise be the case, they have been drawn of three sizes, so that, when a mere general reference
is reqiured the smaller ones may be used, and the larger be reserved for those cases which
require more detail. Where the distribution of a species or group is peculiar, any speculations
which have been made as to its cause will be noticed.
After a full inquiry into the Geographical Zoology of each class, I shall conclude its history
with a summary of its Zoological Geography. The geographical distribution of each class will
thus form an independent treatise by itself.
While the work is mainly addressed to the scientific naturalist, it is also intended for the
general reader ; and with this view, scientific names will be avoided whenever there are
* ScHOUw, "GrundzeugeeinerallgemeinenPflanzengcograpliie." Berlin, 1823, p. 4.
t Decandolle, "Geographie Botanique." Paris and Geneva, 1855.
t J. Van Der Hoeven, " Philosophia Zoologica." Leydeu, 1864, p. 375.
2 INTRODUCTION.
English oucs to express the meaning. Por the same reason, in addition to disphiying in correlative
order the distribution of plants and animals throughout the globe, so that the facts may be analj'sed
and reasoned on, I shall make it an object to supply general information regarding the habitats of
those plants or animals as to which the educated reader is most likely to feel curiosity. References
to authorities will be given whenever they seem likely to be usefid. Every naturalist must have
folt the want of such references when searching for information on any subject ; and in the present
case they are especially necessary, for the Zoologist is often unfamiliar with Botany, the Botanist
with Zoology, and the specialist at sea when he gets beyond the limits of his o^Ya territory ; and
yet none of them can proceed far in their work without having frequent occasion to know something
relating to the geographical distribution of other organized beings which incidentally come in con-
nexion with the subject of their studies. I have endeavoured in my references to hit the medium
between a burthensome display of erudition, and a selection too meagre to be of use.
It is right for me to say that I should never have ventured to undertake a work of such extended
scope, were it not for the promised aid and support of many naturalists eminent in those depart-
ments in which I am myself more especially deficient.
To assist the non-geological reader in following any speculations in which extinct animals
are concerned, I have given a diagram, showing the succession of geological strata, and their
respective thickness.
I have also given several maps of a general nature. The first is one representing the
100 fathom line of coast ; that is, the line outside of which no soundings are obtained at a depth
of 100 fathoms (600 feet), so that it shows what woidd be the configuration of the dry land if
it were everywhere raised 600 feet. I have to thank Captain Richards and the other oftieers
of the ITydrograiihic department of the Admiralty for the kindness and liberality with which
they enabled me to prepare this map, by giving me access to the charts in their possession, as
well as ready information on every point on which I applied to them.
The second map represents what would be the i^robable coast-line if the whole land were
depressed 600 feet. It is unnecessary to say that this is much less accurate, notwithstanding
tliat I have had the advantage of the materials in the Geographical Society's possession. Com-
jiaratively few of the lower altitudes of the earth's surface are known ; it is, therefore, not to
be taken as more than a very conjectural approximate essay.
A third map shows the parts of the earth on which tertiary and quaternary formations
have been ascertaiued to occur, that is, those which were probably imder water at the time of
the glacial epoch or not long previously.
A fourth map shows, so far as known, the localities where glacier action or remains of the
di-ift or boulder clay have been remarked. My best thanks are due to Professor Ramsay for the
readiness witli whicli lie has imparted to me his copious information both on this and other subjects.
Nevertheless this map, too, is merely offered as a distant approximation. The importance of
the effects of the glacial epoch, however, renders even such an imperfect tentative very desirable
for the proper understanding of the questions arising out of the action of that period.
INTRODUCTION. 3
A fifth map is given, showing the lands which arc supposed to be now rising and those now
sinking.
The portion of this latter map which relates to the Northern Hemisphere is di-a^Ti from
various sources, but much of it is conjectural and infei-cntial, little being knowai of the greater
part of it. The portion relating to the Southern Hemisphere has been chiefly deduced
from the data laid down by Mr. Darwin in the map published in his volume on " Coral For-
mations."
Prof. Edward Forbes, in speaking of the Gulf weed in the Atlantic, suggested that it might
indicate the spot where land had been submerged, and as botanists are disposed to admit that the
S.viiGASsuM BACciFERUM, or Gulf Weed, is only another form of the Sargassum vulgare, which
fringes our own coasts, it seemed not an improbable conjecture, and its presence must always
be taken into accomit in any speculations on the past changes of the distribution of land
and sea. I have, therefore, added a map in which the different Sargassum Seas are laid down.
I had hoped to have given a seventh general map, illustrative of Dr. Forsehammer's con-
clusions regarding the regional distribution of different kinds of sea-water. That gentleman has
made this the subject of investigation, and has communicated the results to the Royal Society
in a paper on the component parts of sea-water in all quarters of the globe. These results
have induced him to divide the sea into sixteen regions, each distinguished by different physical
qualities. It will be most interesting to compare how far these correspond with the regional
distribution of sea anmials and sea plants. Unfortunately his paper has not yet been published.
Before I reach the Fishes I trust that this will have been done, and that I may then be able to
give a map showing Dr. Forsehammer's sea-water regions.
The order in which I shall pass the different anim;ils and plants in review, is that known as the
descending order, ^-iz. commencing with Man and going down the scale of Nature, imtil we reach
the lowest organisms of animal life. Perhaps the most natural course, when I have reached that
stage, would be then to enter on the vegetable kingdom by the lowest Hnks in its scale, which can
hardly be distinguished from the like links in the animal kingdom, and to work upwards to the
highest. I think on the whole, however, that it will be found more convenient to treat the vegetable
kingdom as a parallel series, and deal with it also in the descending order.
CHAPTER I.
PRELIMINARY INQUIRIES — ORIGIN OF SPECIES SPECIFIC CENTRES.
Before euteriiig on the special subject of this work, there are one or two topics on which I should
wish to make some profession of faith. The chief of these is Mr. Darwin's theory of the origin of
species. A man's opinion on this subject must necessarily and unconsciously modify his views on
many other important points, and it becomes a matter of some moment to the reader to know from
what point of view the author regards things. When he once knows that, the reader can
himself apply a compensation-balance to reduce the author's conclusions to his own standard.
I the more desire to explain the views which I now hold regarding the origin of species, that
some years since (shortly after the first appearance of Mr. Darwin's work), I took exception to it, and
urged various objections to his theory.* Some of these I still maintain, but others I have seen reason
to modify. If it were a mere recantation that I had to make, a couple of lines would be sufficient for
that purpose ; I should not detain the reader long in announcing that whereas I had formerly been
an opponent of Mr. Darwin's views, I was now a supporter. But it is not so. In some respects, I
have come nearer to Mr. Darwin's views ; but in others I still difier from him, if not as much
as before, at least sufiiciently to render some explanation necessary to the understanding of
m}'' opinions.
It is not, however, by way of ojjjjosition to his that I offer mine. The reader will see that
mine are ratlier of the nature of a sequel to his, or an attempt to work out the truth by the
light of his previous labours. If I have been in any respect successful in throwing more light
upon the subject, I owe it to the ideas suggested by his works.
Tlie objections which I took to his theorj^ were not to the origin of species by derivation or
descent — but to the machinery by which he supposed this to take place; viz., development by
long-continued gradual variation and selection through the struggle for life.
I thoroughly accepted the theory that species are not produced by independent creation, but
that, under the operation of a general law, the germs of organisms produce new forms different from
themselves, when particular circumstances call the law into action. I held very much the invo-
lution theory of Bonnet and Priestley,! " that all the germs of future plants, organical bodies of
all kinds, and the reproducible parts of them, were really contained in the first germ." That
theory appeared to me to furnish a satisfactory explanation of the homologies in structure and
of the relationships between species which are everywhere apparent throughout the organized
world.
If, on the concurrence of particular circimistances, a law comes into action effecting an
* " Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh," ICtli t Pkiestlet, " Disquisitions relating to Jtattcr anil
January, 18C0. Si>irit," vol. i. p. 201. Birmingham, 17S2.
ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 5
alteration on the germ which is about to be developed, it follows, that in those points where the law
has not affected the genn, it should have the same form as in the parent ; and on those points where
it has affected the germ, it must produce the alteration, not by creation of new parts, but by
alteration of those already existing. If fins are wanted where legs were before, they must be
obtained not by the creation of a new organ, but by the alteration of the parts of the
leg ; hence the existence of homologies between them. No doubt Mr. Darwin's slow and imper-
ceptible variation jjroduces homologies too ; but inasmuch as the establishment (not the first appear-
ance, but the establishment) of such changes, is in his theory dependent on the variation being
such as to enable the animal to come off successful in the struggle for life, it seemed to me less
applicable to those variations (and many such exist), where, so far as we can see, the change has
no beneficial effect in that struggle.
I did not dcnj- the existence of much variation, and of its being continued, to a certain extent,
by inheritance ; neither did I ignore the possible bearing of hybridization on the question ; nor did I
dispute the existence of the struggle for life, and that that influence cleared away the weakly, and
left the strongly endowed. But with perfect conviction on these points, I had not succeeded in
bringing mj^ mind to accept the possibility of a new species being eliminated out of any amount of
gradual variation, hybridization, or struggle for life, either taken singly or in combination.
What impressed me more than anything else was the absence of any transitional forms or
geological evidence in support of the idea ; I argued that if such transition really existed, it ought to
have either been seen or to have left traces of its having been ; but no form has j-et been discovered
among fossil remains, which can fairly be adduced, as showing a gradation of form passing, during
the coui-se of time, from one species to another. Species varying to a greater or less degree are there
found as wo find them existing now ; but they occur at the same time, and have never been found
gradually increasing in diversity through successive strata, until they reach the proportions of a
new species. In like manner, I looked in vain for any transitional form of existing animals in the
act of passing from one tj'pe to another. It appeared to me impossible for them to exist consistently
with the preservation of the order which we see in Nature. I argued that if the transition were slow
and gradual, there must be a multitude of individuals in different stages of progression towards
species, and branching out right and left from the old one, and consequently the homogeneity
which is essential to the character of species could not exist : they would never have time to settle
into a species. No sooner woidd one have reached that degree of divergence from the type,
than its descendants must start again on a fresh progress of variation. If Nature were provided
with a brake by which she could moderate and arrest the progress of variation when the species
was completed, the case woidd be different. But according to Mr. Darwin, not only time but
variation runs its ceaseless course. Were it not for that, we coidd realise the idea that A produced
B slightly changed ; B produced C more changed ; C produced D still more altered, and so on until
the entire change was effected, always provided that the variation then stopped. But it does not
so. Like the Wandering Jew, it must go on — on — without ceasing ; no sooner arrived than it must
start again. This would be the residt of variation, supposing it to be accomplished through single
individuals, forming .specific centres ; and it appeared to me, that it woidd bo still more hopeless
if we abandoned the origin of species through single individuals, and adopted the \-iew of species
originating not in individuals, but in numbers. Then we should \vd\c to deal not with a change
affecting one individual, one child from each parent, but with one extending over a whole army
of descendants ; and I came to the conclusion that it was inconsistent with what we know of the
6 PRELIMINARY INQUIRIES.
variation which we see daily in operation, that in these descendants of different broods, exactly the
same kind and degree of variation, and in the same direction, should occur in all. It seemed to me
still more incredible that each of the members of all these broods should jn-oduce exactly the same
amount and kind of further variation in their many broods ; and so on, through a longer or shorter
period.
There should, on this principle, be a multitude of varieties, and not one type only. This seemed
to me sound reasoning ; and it is sound, from the premises assumed. But a doubt has begun to grow
in my mind as to the soundness of one part of the premises. I have no doubt as to the fallacy of
this constant persistence of change ; but I am not so clear as I was, that it is an impossibility for
Nature ichen she does make a change to make the transition gradually or over large bodies simultane-
ously, and yet show no traces of the process. I think I see some facts which imply as much, and
I think I see what the brake is by means of which the progress of change is arrested.
We know that throughout the world, multitudes both of local and climatal varieties occur,
which, whether they are species or varieties, still possess one common facies. There are dozens of
forms of plants and insects from North America, which are so like European individuals of the
same species, that no one would think of separating them ; and yet any botanist or entomologist
will tell without foil from which side of the Atlantic each sjoecimen came. There are similar
varieties of man in every land. How ha.ve these differences of form been produced ? On this j)oint
we are not whoUy left without direction ; we have a faint glimmering of light, because we have
seen a race of man formed imder our o\\ti eyes, the Anglo- — -or rather the Europeo- American
nation, as distinct and weU marked a race as any other ; and yet the change has been effected over
the whole of the United States without any transition men ever having been observed ; and what
is still more extraoi-diuary, it has been effected over the whole of the region where it occurs at the
same time. The race has apparently not been produced by an American being born from an
Englishman, and then by his propagating yoimg vVnicricans, but hundreds of thousands have
had the same impress affixed upon them over the length and breadth of the land at the same time.
Agassiz may be right, after all, although not in the sense in which, I imagine, he meant it, when he
contended for a multiple origin of species. Now, according to the reasoning in which I trusted, there
should have been no Anglo-American nation, — the \ype should have been frittered away in a
thousand different directions. A congeries of aU kinds of different degrees of change shoidd have been
jumbled up together, leaving no distinguishable character by which to know the American from any
other nation. And yet, there he is, a nation 2><^>' se ; known to "Punch," — kno-mi to passport
officers, — known to ourselves, — easily identified, easily figured, and easily caricatured. 80, I
believe, there is a modern Mexican race ; a modern Brazilian ; modern Negroes, and a modern
Australian race is far on the way. Although the example of the American is, perhaps, the most
striking I could select, being almost the only one where man has had the oj^portunity, or, at least,
has had the occasion forced upon him, of observing such a change, there is no reason to doubt that
what has occurred with him has also taken place in a multitude 6f other varieties.
Such an argitmcnfiim ad hominem is hard to get over, and I do not mean to attempt to do so. I
have come to the conclusion to accept tlie fact, that Nature can produce a new tj'pe without our
being able to see the marks of transition, and that she can alter a whole race simultaneously without
its passing through tlie phase of development from an individual in whom the entire change
was first perfected. In the case alluded to, the prepotent tj^pical influence has been impressed on tlie
whole ; no doubt, by derivation, but still by some additional influence affecting many at the same
OEIGIN OF SPECIES. 7-
time. If this is the case with varieties, I think it must follow that the same principle may also
act in the formation of species. The difficulty in drawing the distinction between a variety and
a species seems a sufficient reason for holdmg that if we find a principle affecting the production
of the one, it wUl also apply to the other. At any rate, it -will not be the Darwinians who will
object to the same measure being applied to both ; and as to their opponents, I have no fresh
argument beyond what may be inferred from the above to bring to bear upon them.
I need scarcely say that, in other respects, this change in my views brings me no nearer Mr.
Darwin. In the alteration which has been made in the European races by transfer to America,
I see no indication of the principle of constant change, nor selection, nor yet of the struggle for life,
which are essential parts of his theory.
These are the chief differences between his views and mine. He believes that in all organic
beings a certain degree of change is at all times unintermittingly going on ; and that, from that
variation and selection, through the struggle for life, new species are being incessantly developed. He
believes that the portals of the manufactory of new species are constantly open, and the process
always going on. He makes ample provision for instability ; none for stability. I believe that the
gates are habituallj- shut, but that they are alwajs ready to be opened to a greater or less width at a
touch of the kej', and fhaf that h'lj is change in the conditions under which species live. It does
not matter what the change is, nor in what direction it takes place. It has no relation to adap-
tation nor teleological purposes, it may be for their comfort or discomfort ; for their benefit or the
reverse ; its bearing on theii" organization is a matter of indifference ; all that is wanted is change
of some land or other to ruffle the repose of the pool. The only relation in kind, whicli I can
conceive between the alteration of condition and the change of species is that the greater and more
sudden the change of circumstances the greater and more divergent is the change in the species.
On the other hand, it is plain to me that there must be some law which arrests variation
and confines it within certain bounds. Mr. Bentham has truly said, " Every species has
certain determinate limits of variation, which it only exceeds under exceptional circimistances,
and the exceptionally abnormal forms thus produced are few in individuals, and are not
reproduced." I imagine that the law which secures this stability of species is inertia. So long as
they are not meddled with they stand still; but subject them to change, — whether it comes to
them, or they go to it, — give them an impulse of any kind, and variation commences. Some receive
the impulse more oasUy than others. What may be felt by one may not be felt by another. Con-
stitutions differ : hence, the greater range of some species than others ; but whenever the change
makes itself felt, then I aj^prehend modification commences ; and as we go along, we shall, I think,
find instances, such as the half-completed species of the ciixumpolar regions, hovering between
varieties and species, which prove that the degree of modification which takes place in species,
bears some relation to the amount of alteration on the conditions of their existence ; and it may be,
that change once induced works more vigorouslj- in warm than in cold climates. It is well known
to hybridizers that it is not until the second generation of hybrids " tliat those which do not all
revert to the specific types give rise to that irregular variation which induces, after some generations,
that chaos of undecided forms, in the face of which all the efforts of botanical describers miscarry."*
It is not imtil the barrier has been broken down that these irregularities commence ; that once done,
there is no end to them. A somewliat parallel case is quoted by Sir Charles LyeU from the
* Naudin, in " Coujptcs Eendus dc 1' Academic ties Sciences." Nov. 21, IS64.
8 PRELIMINARY INQUIRIES.
observations of the late Dr. Turner, " that when mineral matter is in a ' nascent state,' that is to
say, just liberated from a previous state of chemical combination, it is most ready to unite with other
matter, and form a new chemical compound."* In other words, inertia once destroyed, and motion
given, impulse is more readily received and propagated. The ordinary state of quiescence will
bo resumed as soon as the animal has become habituated to the alteration ; but by that time it
is no longer the same animal, it has become a new species. In this way, and in this way only,
do I think that hybridization may have some influence in producing a new species, viz., by disturbing
the normal stability of an earlier species, and preparing it to receive an impulse from less alteration
of condition than would otherwise have affected it.
It may be objected to this hypothesis, that it is inconsistent with our experience of exotic
plants which have been naturalized in this country. We have plenty of plants which have been
brought from the other side of the world, and have been grown for a couple of hundred years in
this coimtry, and yet no alteration is perceptible iqjon them. My answer to this is, tliat one essential
element in my theory is, that the change is effected through the medium not of single individuals,
but of a midtitude of individuals — a whole nation of the same species ; and I know of no instance
in which such an agglomeration of exotic species has ever existed in this country. We can easily
conceive that where the individuals are isolated or in small numbers, any change wliich might
show itself uj)on one or two of their descendants may have escaped our observation, and become
extinguished before it was established for want of individuals through which to prof)agate, develops,
and extend it. Moreover, the process of change is obviously gradual and imperceptible, and extends
over a greater space of time than we have had the opportunity of obser^'ing.
Again, the sj)ccies may have been of those possessing constitutions adapted to admit without
feeling them considerable variation in their conditions of life ; and lastly, it is not absolutely true
that no change has been observed ; our observations in this country are made on plants or animals
which are soon killed by the climate, if the conditions of life are not pretty well suited to their
constitution. Where the climate is warmer, it seems that a greater change of condition can be
borne than in cold countries without killing the species ; and in tropical lands a change is cer-
tainly observed. In cattle, the Pelones and Calougas now existing in the warmer and warmest
parts respectively of South America, having been changed from ordinary cattle so much that the
former has only very fine short hair, and the latter no hair at all. The effect of climate on the
wool of sheep is well known ; and Mr. Winwood Rcade, in speaking of the different animals and
plants introduced into West Africa, speaks of a nmrkcd change in all. The horse rapidly deteriorates,
and in some jjlaces cannot be kept alive at all. The shecjj change in other respects than their
wool ; the very dogs, which we shovdd expect to bear the change at least as well as their masters,
alter under the baleful climate. " In process of time," writes Bosman, " our dogs alter strangely
here ; their ears grow long and stiff like those of foxes, to which colour they also incline, so that
in three or four years they degenerate into very ugly creatures ; and in three or four broods their
barking turns into a howl." As to plants Mr. Reade says, " It is only on the borders of malarious
Africa, that is to say, in Angola and Sonegambia, that most foreign j)lan(s and vegetables can be
made to live ; and these, as Mr. Gabriel of Loanda informed me, completely changed their nature
when planted in the African soil."f
liut althougli I mention these instances, it is not on them that I relv for an answer to the
* Lyei-l's " Elements of Geology." Si.\th edition, 18G5, p. 41. t Ekade, Wikwood, " Savage Africa," 1863, p. 519.
/.
ORIGIN OF SPECIES. »
objection. It is tlic absence of a sufficient number of individuals, and for a sufficieiitly long time to
allow the experiment to be fairlj' tried.
lily hypothesis seems also to furnish a satisfactory explanation of a phenomenon which has
puzzled naturalists to account for. Professor Owen refers to a special law of nature the remarkable
fact that, "with extinct, as with existing mammalia, particular forms were assigned to par-
ticidar provinces, and that the same forms were restricted to the same provinces at a former
geological period as at the present da3\"* Dr. Knox (whose ability at least, if not his judgment,
commanded respect) held similar views still more strongly. He maintained that so specially were
the inhabitants of every country adapted to that place, that they would thrive there and nowhere
else ; and he adduced the inhabitants of the United States, and more especially the ISfew Englanders
(they being the portion of them longest exposed to the influence of phj-sical conditions different
from those of the countries whence their progenitors came), as an instance to show the effect of a
change of country or physical condition, however trifling that might be.f I have applied the
illustration to a different purpose ; but the use he made of it was to point to the assumed shortness
of their lives, the alleged earlier maturity and more speedy loss of beauty in their women, the
rapid decay of their teeth, their restless and unsettled habits, and any other similar peculiarities
in which he thought they contrasted unfavourably with the English and German people from
whom they sj)rang, as evidence of deterioration, and insisted that, but for the constant supply of
fresh blood from the original stock, they woidd have been much worse, if not wholly extinct.
How he reconciled these fancied ideas of decadence with the general acuteness of the American
intellect, and what I may almost admit to be their national supremacy, in ingenuity and constructive
facidty ; or how he would have explained awaj' the brilliant courage, chivab'oiis feeling, and heroic
endurance, of which so many bright exampiles have beea lavishly given on both sides during the
late uuhap)py war, is no business of mine. I do not adopt the Doctor's views. I believe in change,
but not in deterioration. If progress is to be imjjorted into the question, then amelioration, not de-
terioration, must be the ride. He, however, maintained that the progress was retrograde, that similar
sj-mptoms were already showing themselves in the Australian colonies ; and that so marked was the
deterioration in the sheep and cattle, that it was only bj' the unceasing importation of the best stock
from this comitry that the quality of their flocks and herds was maintained.! This was the dream
or fancy of a clever but eccentric man, not perhaps too scrupulous as to the authenticitj' of his facts ;
but Professor Owen's unknown law, at least, is the deliberate ojnnion of a sober-minded thinker.
Sir Charles Lyell, in like manner, thus acknowledges the difficulty, "Dr. Bachman pointed
out to mo ten genera of birds and ten of quadrupeds, all peculiar to North America, but each
represented on the opposite side of the Rocky Mountains b}' distinct .species. The theory of specific
centres, or the doctrine that each sjiecies of bird and quadruped originated in one spot only, may
explain in a satisfactory manner one part of this phenomenon ; for we may assume that a lofty
chain of mountains opposed a powerful barrier to migration, and that the mnuntains were more
ancient than the introduction of these particular quadrupeds and birds into the planet. But the
luitUatioH of jK'cnliar (joncric ti/pes to certain (jeographical arean now observed in so many jwrts of the globe
2)oints to some other and higher law governing the creation of species itself, which in the present state of
science is inscrutable to us, and ma i/ perhaps remain a mijsterij for cver."X
* Owen, " Report on the Extinct Mammafs of Austra- X Lyell's " Second Visit to tlie United States," vol. i.
lia," 1844, and "PalEeontology," 1858, p. 397. 3C4, 1S50.
t Knos on the Eaces of Man, 1862, p. 71 and 7.3.
//
10 PRELIMINARY INQUIRIES.
Agassiz, again, saj's, " Nothing can be more striking to the observer than the fact that animals,
though endowed with the power of locomotion, remain within tixcd bounds in their geographical
distribution, although an unbounded field for migration is open to them in all directions over land,
through the air, and through the waters. And no stronger argument can be introduced to show
that living beings are endowed with their power of locomotion to keep within general boundaries
rather than to spread extensively." * "We know well enough what he means by this paradox ;
although, if we were inclined to be critical, we might call it rather a Hibernian definition of
the purposes of the organs of locomotion, to say that limbs are given us to enable us to stay
at home.
None of these authors can mean that there is any special attraction for the fauna in the solum
of the province. The history of the glacial epoch furnishes us with a thousand instances to the
contrary. As the cold retired from the Equator, the glacial inhabitants (produced, as I believe,
under its influence) followed in its footsteps. The law they speak of must apply not to the place
but to its conditions.
The hj-pothesis which I offer seems to meet all the requirements of the case. Under it,
the provinces are preserved special, not by any mysterious erooyri, or peculiar law which prevents
their inmates from using their limbs for going abroad, but simply, in the first place, by the inertia,
or instinctive regard for personal ease, which leads every creature to remain where it is while
it is comfortable, and so not to pass beyond the bounds for which it was originally fitted and best
adapted, into others less suited for it. And, in the next place, when by geological changes, in-
sufficiency of food for growing numbers, or other extraneous causes, it is reluctantly diiven out
or compelled to pass beyond its natural province, the province is still preserved special either
by the death of those which have gone beyond it, or by their transformation (in consequence of
their having passed under new conditions of life,) into something else — into a new phase of their
old form — in a word, into new sjiecies, more or loss distant from the original type according to the
character of the new conditions.
This hypothesis also accords sufficiently well with what we know of the history of species
during past geological epochs. If the common belief be well foimded that our globe at one stage
of its existence was a ball of incandescent matter, which for long went on gradually cooling,
it must follow that the more such internal heat made itself felt at the surface, the more uniform
the temperature and climate in every country on the face of the earth must have been, and the less
the amount of variation in the conditions of life upon it.
As the internal heat diminished, the more woidd the surface become liable to the extraneous
influence of heat from the sun, or to unequal degrees of radiation from land and sea; and as
their proportions and arrangement varied, the greater would be the variety of the conditions of
life upon the surface of the globe and the more frequently would changes in them take place.
Now the theoretical result of such a state of things upon the production of species accordin"- to
the laws which my hj-pothcsis presupposes, would be, that during the earlier periods of the history
of the globe, the number and variety of forms of life would be more uniform and fewer in number,
and during the later periods when the amount of internal heat was diminishing, the forms of life
WDuld be more varied and numerous. The formation of new species being, according to my
theory, dependent upon the old ones encountering a new condition of life, where there was only
* Agassiz, op. cit. i>. 13.
ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 1 1
one condition of life, there could bo no change of species. Of course such an absolute unifor-
mitj'- of heat could not exist ; a pot, although boiling, has not in every point the same
degree of heat, therefore different degrees of temperature, in other words, different physical con-
ditions which might give rise to new species, must at all times have existed on our planet ; but,
as in the parallel of the boiling pot, they would not be great (so might often be ineffective),
and would not be permanently fixed for any time upon one spot, so that although new species
might occasionally bo developed, special provinces, or fauna, cuuld not exist, or at least could
only do so when the internal heat had been so far reduced as to allow external influences to bestow
a more or less iiermanent character upon particular spots. The greatest change of all, however,
must have occurred at the glacial epoch, when probably for the first time in the history of the
globe organic life made acquaintance with frost and snow. Then, if there is any truth in my thcorj%
a universal change must have taken place ia everything that was exposed to that cold ; that is,
in fact, in everything beyond the tropics.
Now, in relation to this latter point, we find that in none of the strata of a date anterior
to the glacial cold are the remains of any boreal animal to be found. Every creature adopted
for life in a cold country appears to have been developed, subsequent to that epoch. For examjjle,
the mice and the voles are two nearly allied creatiu-es, the former of which is adapted to mild
countries, the latter to cold. No mice or rats are found in the arctic circle, but voles abound ;
no voles occur in the tropics or warmer temperate regions, but mice are abundant. So the fossil
remains of mice are found in the tertiary as well as the recent deposits, but none of any vole
until the dilixvium deposited subsequent to the conamencement of the glacial epoch. The same
is to be observed of aU boreal animals that I know of, and I bebeve the rule is universal. I
apprehend that the change which took place in the northern hemisi^here at the glacial epoch
was absolute : nothing that remained to abide the influence of the cold could escape alteration.
Whatever escaped change did so by taking to flight to the south, and carrjang its climate and
conditions of life with it. I shall have to discuss these points more at large and in- detail hereafter.
It is suflficient here to indicate the support that they seem to give to my hypothesis of the origin
of species.
The facts relating to the appearance of species in the earlier geological formations seem
to accord not less exactly with the requirements of this hj-pothesis. Geologists inform us that
in the earlier periods of the world's history the changes of life in the sea (and there appears
no reason to suppose that a different law should regulate life in the sea from life on the land)
were accomplished at a rate much less rapid than that which prevailed in later times. The
premises from which they derive these inferences are no doubt imperfect. Thej' do so by com-
paring the depth of sedimentary rocks in which indications of life have been found, in the palaeozoic,
the mesozoic, and the cajnozoic periods. f They assume the amoimt of changes of life on the wliolc
to be equal in eacli of these jieriods, — an assumption which is, perhaps, not warranted, — and
having done so, find, according to Prof. Phillips, the rate of jjrogressive change to be y^ for
palaeozoic, jL for mesozoic, and + for ctcnozoic timc.X
If the projjortion thus given by Professor Phillips for caenozoic and palaeozoic time be
anything like correct, or \ to y'g, we have, I submit, a strong confirmation of the truth of the
♦ Sec Geological Diagram.
X Profe.'ssor Phillips, iu "Quarterly Journ Geul. Soc.," vol. xvi. part 2, p. 1. (May, 18G(.i.)
12 PRELIMINARY INQUIRIES.
general principles of my tlieoiy. As to the uniformity of fauna in ancient times, every one knows
how complete that was. The same fossils in the older rocks indicate with perfect certainty each for-
mation in whatever quarter of the globe it may be ; and the great breaks or commencement of
a new phase of life at the end of the palaeozoic and raesozoic of)ochs may be due to some cosmical
change having taken place, affecting the conditions of life over the whole globe, at these dates.
Dr. Babbage's machine furnishes an illustration of the mode in which Nature's action may
perhaps be regidated in thus developing sjDecies. Dr. Babbage, as all the world knows, has
invented a calculating and an analytical machine. The first is merely a machine for arithmetical
calculation, the latter is a contrivance of a much higher and more difficult character. It not only does
the arithmetical calculations, but changes the formulae where it is necessary to do so in order to
work out the result, and goes through the oj)eration of equation. This machine can put upon paper
a series of terms or arithmetical numbers of any kind whatever, following any desii-ed law. If,
for example, an order is given to it to make the scries of the natural numbers, 12 3 4, &c., and this
order a/oiie is given, it v,-ill go on producing the series of natural numbers, without variation, until
the machine is worn out, or the motive power ceases. The parallel to this in our subject would be a
law in nature providing for the continuance of siDecies by generation, but providing for no develop-
ment of any new form.
But at the original setting of the machine an order might have been given to it to violate
the above law, and at some term millions upon millions of times distant, to substitute a diffijrent
number following some other law, and this new law might have been directed to be observed for one
turn of the machine, or for any number of turns, and then that the original law should be restored
for the future. This woidd not exactlj- be the parallel to the law ordaining the development of new
species on the occurrence of any change in condition. It is only a parallel to one producing a new
form or species at some certain time, and that time, fixed and independent of the occurrence or
concurrence of circumstances. The parallel, to bo complete, would require that the new law should
not take place at a fixed predetermined time, but^be dependent on circmnstances, or a cii'cmnstance
(as, for example, the occurrence in plants or animals of some change, in the physical condition of
themselves or their place of abode.)
Not being quite satisfied, therefore, with the parallel so far as I could work it out from the
account of Dr. Babbage's machine given in any books about it to which I had access, I had recourse to
the Doctor himself — to whom I owe many acknowledgments for his kindness and patience with my
dullness— and asked him the question whether he could so set the machine that it should go on pro-
ducing a series of numbers until a certain concurrence of circumstances should take place, the time
when sucli concurrence would or could take place not being known to him, and that then, and not until
then, the alteration on the law should take place. The Doctor thought for a moment and then replied,
" Certainly I can. I can give the machine an order to go on producing a series of numbers until the
last, and the third last, and the fifth last, or any other combination, shall all be the same figure, or
shall be some combination of figures — all threes, for example, or all fives, or two fours and one five,
and then the new law shall come into operation. I cannot tell, when that may happen, and do
not know whether it may ever luqjpen, but whenever it does happen, be it soon or be it late, the
new law will immediately come into operation." That is the parallel to our ease, and I use it for
the purpose of making more plain to the reader tlie form in which the subject of which 1 have
been speaking presents itself to mv mind.
SPECIFIC CENTRES.
13
The adaptation of species to the conditions in wliicli they arc to jiass tlicir lives, as of tree
kangaroos to a life in trees, or blind animals to a life in darkness, is, I think, a phenomenon of a
different nature, and regulated by other laws, the working or nature of which does not come within
the scope of this inquiry. I offer no opinion here ujwn that subject. Only of one thing I may
say, I feel as sure as I can be of anj'thing which I do not know, and that is, that it is not b}'
the process supposed by Mr. Darwin, viz., by Nature trying an infinity' of experiments and rejecting
them all until she hit upon the right one. Nature never makes chips. When the occasion for
a tree kangaroo arose, M'c may be sure that the tree kangaroo appeared perfect at the first attempt.
There was no failure of myriads of forms of kangaroos in other directions created or developed
but to die, until by chance one in this direction appeared. Tltai I feci, but I cannot prove it ;
it is only my feeling, and therefore of no vise to any one but myself.
Of course, in adopting the view which I have above explained, I abandon, to a certain extent,
the theory of specific centres of creation ; and I adopt, to a like extent, the theory of a multiple
origin of species. But neither unconditionally. I abandon the idea of specific centres of creation only
so far as that implies that the original centre was confined to one or two single progenitors. My
centre is the whole si^ccies ; — from the region where it received the impress of its character, it may
sjjread in all directions, continuing unchanged wherever it feels no important change in its con-
ditions of life ; becoming changed into another species or variety when a change on them makes
itself felt. In like manner mj' multiple origin of species is not that of Agassiz, who imagined
the same 8j)ccies to be produced separately and independently of each other in many different
places without communication, as, for example, the same species of fish to be produced in three
different rivers between which there were no means of communication.*
* I hope that I have correctly interpreted Agassiz's
views ; I have taken them from the following quotation
from his paper on the subject in the " Edinburgh
New Philosophical Journal:"
"Let us compare tlie different species which occur in
the Danube, in the Rhine, and the Rhone, three hydro-
graphic basins entirely unconnected with each other
throughout their wliolo extent. They spring from the
same mountain chain, as we may take the Inn as the
source of the Danube. These three great rivers take
their rise within a few miles of each other. Nevertheless,
most of their fishes differ ; but there are some which are
common to the three. * • * if the.se animals had not
originated in these rivers sepai'ately, why should not sucli
closely-allied species — some of which occur in the three
basins^ — have all spread equally into them ; and if they
originated in the separate basins, we have, within close
limits, a midtiple origin of the same species ; and that this
multiple origin must be admitted as a fact, is shown by
the following further evidence. Among the carps we find,
for instance, Barbus, Gobio, Carpio, common to the three ;
but the Danube has three Gobios, whilst the others have
but one — one of the Danube being identical with the one
of the other two rivers. The mo.st striking fact, however,
occurs in the genus Leuclscus. L. L'ODULA is common to
the tlu'ee ; but in addition to it the Danube has second
species, which occur neither in the Danube nor in the
Rliine ; and in the Rhine there are species which be-
long neither to the Rhone nor to the Danube. Now
we ask, could all these species of Leuciscos have been
created in one of the basins in the Danube, for instance,
and have migrated in such a way that a certain number
of the species should remain solely in the Danube,
while some others left the Danube altogether to settle
finally only in the Rhone, and others to settle only in the
Rhine ; that one accompanying those species jjeculiar to
the Rhone remained in the Danube with those species
peculiar to it, and settled also in the Rhine with those
species peculiar to that river ; and also in the Rhino, with
the species peculiar to the Rhine. And whether we assume
the Rhone as the primitive centre, instead of the Dauvibe
or the Rhine, the argument holds equally good. We have
one species common to the three rivers, and several spe-
cies peculiar to each which could never have migrated (if
migration took place) in such a manner as to assume this
present combination. But if, on the contrary, we suppose
that all the species originated in the rivers where they
occur, then we have again a multiple origin of that species
which is common to the three, for it were wonderful if
that one alone had migrated when they were all so closely
allied." — Ag.vssiz, iu " Edin. New Phil. Journ." vol. xlix.
p. 12.
14 rUELIMINARY INQUIIUES.
To my multiple origin, comiminication and direct derivation is essential. The species is com-
pounded of many influences brought together through many individuals, and distilled by Nature into
one species ; and, being once established, it may roam and sjDread wherever it finds the conditions
of life not materially different from those of its original centre.
I may add that I do not imagine that time has anything to do with the change or creation
of species, fui-ther than as it gives greater opjoortunity for the occurrence of change. Species may
vibrate backwards and forwards between two differently situated districts in the same country, and
at each vibration give off new forms, while the portion of the old which have not moved still sub-
sist, and the longer time there is for this to go on of course the greater nimiber of sjiecies will the
country contain. It is thus not solely because Africa is a tropical, and in many parts a productive
land, that the number of its sj)ecies is great, nor is the paucity of species in Siberia wholly due
to the ungenial nature of its soil and climate. The one owes its prei^onderance over the other also
partly to the comparatively long period which has elapsed since it became dry land, and the other
its deficiency partly to the short time which has elapsed since it emerged from below the waters.
For practical purposes, however, my opinion regarding the origin of species merely requires
the coincident pre-existence in time and place of some other species from which it may have been
derived ; it may have been derived, as I siippose, through the effect of change letting loose an
innate power of variation, or, as Mr. Darwin supposes, by selection. It may have been by descent
from one individual in whom the change has been effected, or, as I now believe, by the impress of
change being extended over all the individuals similarly situated. I am not greatly concerned to
explain the exact mode of operation of the laws evolving new species. What I cannot do
without, however, is the assumption that there is some law having such effect, and that de-
scent is the only possible explanation of relationshijj and distribution.
15
CHAPTER II.
PRELIMINARY INQUIRIES, COntilUwd MODES OF DISPERSAL OF SPECIES.
The mode in wliich, and the extent to whicli, species become dispersed, is another point which
must be settled at starting. Tlie j)rincipal question on which a difference of opinion exists is tlie
value to be attached to accidental or occasional dispersal as a means of distribution. Taking for
example the case of Oceanic Islands, there aa'e two ways in which their faunas and floras may
bo accounted for. One — that advocated by the late Professor Edward Forbes — by sujiposing
that at some period, more or less distant, the islands had been imited to the nearest land, to
whose faimas and floras their own was most akin. The other, which is that adopted by
Mr. Darwin for most of the cases which occur, tliat the}- had been colonized by chance visitants,
or what may be called the flotsam and jetsam of the ocean.
For the purpose of testing the feasibility of his hj-pothesis, Mr. Darwin tried many ingenious
experiments as to the length of time for which seeds can float in the sea •\^'ithout losing their
vitality. He reckoned how fast ciu-rents carry them on their way. He also showed the many
different means by which they may be transported — as in earth about the roots of drift timber,
or adhering to the beaks or claws of birds, by icebergs, and by means even of fresh-water fish
swallowing seeds, and then being themselves swallowed by birds of prey. Edmund Bm-ke
objected to the instances of some of his political oiDponents, that " their examples for common
cases were all taken from the exceptions of most urgent necessity." The same objection apj)lies
to Mr. Darwin's illustrations. It is not to be denied that they are all possible, but they are also
all of an exceptional natm-e, and some of them very improbable, as, for example, the transport
of seeds by means of icebergs, or by birds of prey swallowing the stomachs of vegetable-feeding
fish. Where the icebergs leave their jjarent glacier there are few seeds of any kind, and fewer still
that woidd suit the climate of milder regions. As to the birds of prey, their digestion is so
notoriously rapid, that imless the bird set oif express immediately after its meal, and the islands
were not far ofi", there woidd be small chance of anj-thing it had swallowed ever reaching their
shores. The reader -n-ill remember numerous other instances of the actual difliision of jjlants
and animals in a similar way given by Sir C. Lyell ; * and Mr. Darwin, while he adds a few others,
has no doubt a multitude more in his armourj-. Notwithstanding this, I can come to no other
conclusion than that colonization or occasional dispersal is insiifiicient to account for the character
of the faimas and floras of Oceanic Islands ; and I believe that the normal mode in which
islands have been peopled, has been by direct continuity with the land at some fonner period,
or by contiguity so close as to be equivalent to j miction ; and that the exceptions to this, such
as St. Helena, have been excessively rare. That a slight intermixture due to Mr. Darwin's
* Lyell, " Principles of Geology." 1st Edition. Vol. II. p. 10, and scq. 1832.
IG TRELIMINARY INQUIRIES.
colonizntion occurs in many (probablj^ In all) I am ready to admit ; and from instances to be afterwards
noticed, I am disposed to reckon the proportions of such intermixtures in the flora, in the most
favourable circumstances, at not more than two per cent. In the fauna I think it must be much
less.
As the question is a most important one in relation to geographical distribution, and Mr.
Darwin's view strikes at the root of a great portion of the propositions which I shall have to submit
to the reader in this work, I must consider his arguments in some detail.
" Edward Forbes (saj's he) insisted that all the islands in the Atlantic must recently have been
connected vnth Europe or Africa, and Europe likewise with America. Other authors have thus hj'po-
thetically bridged over everj^ ocean, and have miited almost everj' island to some mainland. If,
indeed, the arguments used by Forbes are to be trusted, it must be admitted that scarcely a single
island exists which has not recently been united to some continent. This view cuts the Gordiau Icnot
of the dispersal of the same species to the most distant points, and removes manj^ a difRcidty. But to
the best of my judgment we are not authorized in admitting such enormous geogra^jhical changes
within the j)eriod of existing species. It seems to me that we have abundant evidence of great oscil-
lations of level in our continents, but not of such vast changes in their position and extension as to
have united them within the recent period to each other, and to the several intervening Oceanic
Islands. I freely admit the former existence of many islands now buried beneath the sea, which may
have served as halting-places for plants, and for many animals during their migration. In the coral-
producing oceans such sunken islands are now marked by rings of coral or atolls standing over them.
A^Hienever it is full}' admitted, as I believe it ivill some daj^ be, that each species has proceeded from
a single birth-place, and when, in the coui-se of time, we know something definite about the means of
distribution, we shall be enabled to speculate with secm-itj' on the former extension of the land. But I
do not believe tliat it will ever be proved that within the recent period continents which are now quite
separate have been continuously, or almost continuously, united with each other, and with the manj^
existing Oceanic Islands. Several facts in distribution — such as the great difference in the marine
Faunas on the opposite side of almost every continent — the close relation of the tertiary inhabitants
of several lands, and even seas, to their present inhabitants — a certain degree of relation (as we shall
hereafter see) between the distribution of mammals and the depth of the sea — these, and other such
facts, seem to me opposed to the admission of such prodigious geological revolutions within the recent
period as are necessitated on the view advanced by Forbes, and admitted by his many followers. The
nature and relative proportions of the inhabitants of Oceanic Islands like-^-ise seem to me opposed to the
belief of their former continuity with continents." And in another place he thus siuns up : " All the
foregoing remarks on the inhabitants of Oceanic Islands — namely, the scarcity of kinds, — the richness
in endemic forms in particular classes, or sections of classes, — the absence of whole groups, as of batra-
chians and of terrestrial mammals, notwithstanding the presence of aerial bats, — the singular proportions
of certain orders of plants, herbaceous forms ha\ing been developed into trees, &c. — seem to me to
accord better with the view of occasional means of transport having been largely efficient in the long
course of time, than with the view of all oiu- Oceanic Islands having been formerly connected by con-
tinuous land with the nearest continent : for, on this latter \aew, the migration would probably have
been more C(jmplete : and if modification bo admitted, all the forms of life woidd have been more equally
modified, in accordance with the jiaramount importance of the relation of organism to organism."*
* Darwin, op. cit. p. 427.
DISPERSAL OF SPECIES. 17
One of the great delights in dealing with Mr. Darwin is the perfect fairness with which he
states every point connected with his case. The unconscious bias, from which few men escape, seems
to be wanting in his constitution. He alwaj's tells the facts which make against him as fully and
fairly as those which are in his fovour. And while we may feel unable at the moment to make head
against the current of ingenious suggestions, illustrations, and possibilities, with which he hurries us
along, he always gives us the real facts to anchor by, so that we can, when we think joroper, pull up
and form our own judgment. Now, on this topic he has given us some remarkable instances
opposed to his hypothesis. He mentions various islands only separated from others or the main-
land by a narrow channel where the species are wholly different. He refers to the Straits of
Macassar as separating two widely distinct Mammalian Faimas. Such a separation was first sug-
gested by MuUer, and is laid down on his authority in Berghaus' "Physical Atlas."* He (Miiller)
ran the line of division up the east side of Celebes, whereas Mr. Earl and Mr. Wallace (more
particularly the latter) have since shown that it lies to the west of that island ; and instead of cutting
the Island of Timor in two, as was supposed by Miilkr to be the case, passes up the narrow straits
(only a few miles wide), between the islands of Bali and Lombock. Mr. Wallace also notices
that " Java possesses numerous birds which never pass over to Sumatra, though thej^ are separated
by a strait only fifteen miles wide, and with islands in mid-channel." t Of course this can
only apply to non-migratorial birds, and I have already suggested a cause why even birds may
often be kept within the limits of their original bounds. If they go beyond them in small numbers
they die off. If they go and increase in numbers, the new conditions of life affect their constitution,
set in action the principle of change, and they become transformed into new sj^ecies. Again, Mr.
Darwin says, in speaking of the Galapagos Archipelago, " The really surprising fact in this
case, and in a lesser degree in some analogous instances, is that the new species formed in the
separate islands have not quickly spread to the other islands. But the islands, though in sight
of each other, are separated by deep arms of the sea, in most cases wider than the British Channel ;
and there is no reason to suppose that they have at any former period been continuously united J
. . . Many even of the birds, though so well adapted for flj'ing from island to island, are distinct."
At the Hawaian Islands each separate island has, in a general way, its own set of land shcUs. ||
At the Sandwich Islands the same thing occur8,§ and even the fishes of difierent islands are said by
Agassiz to be distinct from each other.^ Other instances might be given of islands which are
favourably situated for receiving immigrants, being inhabited by plants and animals different
from those of the neighbouring coasts, although still bearing the far-off impress of a common
origin.
But no stronger instance of the power of a small barrier in retaining species could be cited than
that of the straits between the Continent and our own island. The faunas and floras both of
* Berghaus, " Physikalisohen Atlas." 1845. endemic peculiarity of the species of each individual island
t Waixace, on " The Physical Geography of the Malay tells of subsequent separation and change wrought in each
Archipelago," in Proceedings ofRoyal Geographical Society, probably at the same time, by the alteration of climate
June, 1863. (Separate copy, p. 12.) from continental or terrestrial, to isolated and oceanic.
I The character and the species of the different islands § Dr. PiciiERiNO, in " Proceedings of American Aca-
would lead me to a different conclusion. The American demy of Arts and Sciences," vol. iv. p. 193. 1860.
type of the whole group speaks primarily of connexion || Dr. A. A. Gould, in "Proceed. Amer. Acad. Ai-ts
with the continent. The family facies of the group inter and Sciences," vol. iv. p. 195. ISGO.
se, speaks of a period when the whole islands were se- T Prof. Agassiz, in "Proceed. Amer. Acad. Arts and
parated from America, but united to each other. The Sciences," vol. iv. p. 195. 1860.
D
18 PEELIMINARY INQUIPvIES.
it and of the neighbouring continent have been now for a considerable time minutely known ; and
although all the species in Britain are also found on the Continent, there arc many species in
the latter which are not found in Britain. The length of time for which authentic data have
existed is no doubt but a brief moment compared to the lapse of ages which Mr. Darwin requires for
his colonization ; but the thousand facilities for introduction which are daily furnished by the constant
intercom-se between England and the Continent may be allowed in some respect to compensate for
the briefness of our chronicle, and we may fairly argue from what has taken place durmg that time as
if it represented a much longer period. And what does it show ? Putting aside the introduction of
plants brought by commerce or in ballast, and ichicli almost invariably dimp2xar in the course of a
few years, how few colonists can Britain claim from the Continent during the past century. More
than that, the difficulty which a colony (much more a single colonist) must encounter in establishing
itself on a foreign shore may be estimated from the fact that any attempts which have been
made to introduce and naturalize species from the other side of the Channel, have always failed.
The difficulty which we exi^erienco whenever we attempt to transport animals from more distant
lands into other coimtrios, even if we secure for them as nearly as can be the same conditions as
those in which they used to live, is another instance of the same kind. The same thing may
be observed everywhere. Sir Charles Lyell says of America, " Many European plants arc making
their way here, such as the wild camomile and the thorn apple [Datura Stramonium) ; and it is
a curious fact, which I afterwards learned from Dr. Dale Owen, that when such foreigners are first
naturalised they overrun the country with amazing rapidity and are quite a nuisance. But they
soon grow scarce, and after eight or' ten years can hardly be met with."* The overrunniag phase
seems to be the stage to which New Zealand has arrived at the present time ; an immense irruption
of EurojDcan weeds has been made in these islands, and it will doubtless disappear there in a few
years, as has been the case in America.
But much less important obstacles than straits or passages of the sea act as efifectual barriers
against distribution. Rivers also sometimes form effective barriers, although I believe that in
most instances where they so act the phenomenon has been originally occasioned by a former
different arrangement of land and sea, and the obstacle then occasioned b}' a strait or sea been
kept up by the river now flowing in their coui-se. This I beKeve to be the case with the Amazon
and Orinoko, which furnish many instances in point ; for example, Mr. Wallace mentions that
" on the north side of the Amazon, and east of the Rio Negro, are found the following
three species of monkeys : — Ateles paniscus, Brachyukus Satanas, and Jacchus bicoloh. These
are all found close uj) to the margins of the Rio Negro and Amazon, but never on the opposite
banks of either river."
Again, a species of Pithecia is found on the west side of the Rio Negro for several hundred
miles from its mouth up to the River Curicuriari, but never on the east side ; neither is it known on
the south side of the Upper Amazon, where it is replaced by an allied species, the P. iiirok.\ta
(P. HIRSUTA Spix.), which, though abundant there, is never fomid on the north bank. He
mentions, also, that on the south side of the Lower Amazon, in the neighbourhood of Para, are
found two monkeys, Mycetes Beelzeisub and Jacciius tamarin, which do not pass the river to the
north.
Mr. Bates bears similar testimony. He informs me that it is the universal and spontaneous
* Ltell's " Second Visit to the United States," ii. 270, 1850.
DISPERSAL OF SPECIES: 19
statement of native hunters, that the river does limit ranges, and out of many other instances
gives the case of two remarkable species of monkey, Brachyurus CALvrs and B. RrBicuxDrs,
which are found abundantl)' in Ygajio Forest, north of the Ujjper Amazons west of Japura, and
altliough there are hundreds of miles of the same sort of forest on the south bank, no instance
is known of either of these monkeys having been seen there.
Mr. Darwin mentions that the Bizcacha has never been seen to the eastward of the Eiver
Uruguay. "Yet in this province there are plains which appear admirably adapted to its
I'.abits. The Uruguay has formed an insviperablc obstacle to its migration, although the broad
barrier of the Parana has been passed, and the Bizcacha is common in Entre Rios, the province
between these great rivers."*
Even birds are subject to the same law, althoiigh it cannot be expected that rivers should often
limit their ranges. Mr. Wallace mentions several instances, some of which, as the birds are of a
kind whose flight is short, are not so remarkable, but others are not open to that objection ; for
example, —
" The fine blue Macaw (Macrocercus Maximili.\nus) inhabits the borders of the hilly country
south of the Amazon, from the sea-coast probably up to the Madera. Below Santarem it is sometimes
found close up to the banks of the Amazon, but is said never to cross that river. Its head-quarters
are the U2)per waters of the Tocantins Xingu and Tapagoz rivers.
" iijiother instance of a bird not crossing the Amazon is the beautiful Curl-crested.Aracari (Ptero-
GLOssus Beauharnasii), which is found on the south side of the Upper Amazon, opposite the Rio
Negro, and at Coari and Ega, but has never been seen on the north side. The green Jacamar
of Guiana, also (Galbula viridis), occurs all along the north bank of the Amazon, but is not found
on the south, where it is replaced by the G. cyaxocollis and G. maculicauda, both of which occur
in the neighbourhood of Para." f
Other facts to the same effect are mentioned by 'Mr. "Wallace and Mr. Bates regarding insects
and the lower animals. Similar instances can be given from the Niger, the Lena, and other great
rivers. But enough has been said to show that the fact is not exceptional.
These are cases showing that under the most favourable and iu^itLng circumstances, colonization,
immigration, or occasional visitation, has not taken place. If it has failed in these, with what logic
can we be asked to admit its being the ride under less favoured circumstances?
In like manner moimtains, deserts, woods, and plains, all act as barriers of separation or
bridges of communication, according as they are fitted or not for the occupancy of the animal.
On the other hand, where the sea between neighboiiring lands is bridged over in ^-inter by
ice, it often, although not always, ceases to be a barrier. In Captain M'Clintock's journal,
various incidental notices occur, showing that a general migration of the polar animals over the
ice takes place on the breaking up of winter.*
* Darwin, "Journal of Researches." Second edition, be some land in the north-east or east. Jfay 0th. —
1845, p. 124. Dehghtful weather; tufts of moss and the tops of
t Wallace, Alfred, " Narrative of Travels on the Ama- stones are gradually peeping up through the snow, and
zon and Rio Negro." London, 1853. animals begin to appear. I picked up two catcrpil-
X The following are examples of this. "April 21st, lars to-day. Fox-tracks are very numerous; the ma-
temperature 8°. Whilst crossing a bay, and about a jority of these tracks are crossing to the north-westward,
mile oft" the laud, we passed four separate tracks of probably following the ptarmigan. Lemmings are abun-
lemmings, travelling in for the laud. If these little crca- dant, and these wonderful little creatures, which consti-
tures are migrating across the ice, there would seem to tute the chief support of foxes, ravens, wolves, owls, and
20 PRELIMINARY INQUIRIES.
Still on the whole, I agree with those who think that the effect of barriers in preventing the
spread of species has been undervalued, and that a much slighter obstacle than is generally
supposed to be necessary, is sufficient to preserve neighbouring faunas from iutermixturc.
The above are negative arguments against the peopling of oceanic islands by occasional visitants.
The reasons in favour of this having been effected through former continuity of land are more po-
sitive. One of these is the nature of the affinity which can be traced between the inhabitants of such
islands and of the main coast. It is not a near affinity, but faint and far off; and this is just what
we should expect. If the island were formerly united to the mainland, it must have started with the
same inhabitants as it, and under the influence of the change which must have occurred in the
conditions or climate of both or either through isolation, they must have gradually diverged
from each other by the successive development of new species. Their affinity is still indisputable,
although it has gradually become distant, and in the case of the island (which has had its oppor-
tunities of communication with the outer world very much restricted) peculiar and endemic, while
the mainland, not so restricted, is more expanded in its character. If, on the other hand, the island
had derived its inhabitants from colonization, they must necessarily be more recent than the separa-
tion, and the immigration must have gone on continuously through all succeeding times, so that instead
of our finding a homogeneous endemic fauna and flora, we shoidd have contributions of all dates,
and from various coimtries ; for it is to be remembered that currents and winds may, nay must, have
sometimes changed, in consequence of alterations on the relative distribution of land and water, in the
course of uncoimted ages ; and instead of having everything from the nearest land we might have a
morsel from one country and a morsel from another, as we certainly should have fragments of all ages
down to the most recent — a state of matters essentially inconsistent both with the reality, and with
what is understood by the term endemic.
The richness of oceanic islands in endemic forms, therefore, seems a strong argument in favour
of Forbes' view and against Mr. Darwin's. It seems to be as necessary a result of isolation, as
restricted and confined (what may be called endemic) views used to be of the country life of the
untravelled Thane. When Mr. Darwin says, that had the forms of life been derived as supposed by
Forbes, they woidd all " have been more equally modified in accordance with the paramount import-
ance of the relation of organism to organism," I am not sure that I understand him. He cannot
mean that some paramount influence modifies the development of new species and forms into
certain relations with each other ? for that would be nearly equivalent to the old theory of the
forms of life being dependent on the physical conditions xmder which they are produced — a
theory which is repugnant to the whole spirit of Mr. Darwin's hypothesis ; and is repudiated
by himself as " a deeply-seated error." It may bo so. Still I have a strong suspicion that
we are in the infancy of our knowledge of physical conditions, and how they operate.* The
whole length which I have yet gone in ascribing effect to physical condition is to attribute
some influence to the mere fact of exposure to a change in condition. It stimulates or sets a
even every species of gull, are as active tourists as the less than to the abundant exercise and unloaded mind,
larger animals, crossing these wide straits iu all directions." that he owes the draughts of health which he drinks in
— See Captain M'Ctintoch^s Diary in Proc. Dublin. Nat. when striding over our Highland mnirs, or pacing along
Uist. Univ. Assoc, in N<ii. Hist. Rev. April, 185C, p. 40. our salt sea beaches. The " change of air," constantly
* If the reader will refer to his own sensations, I think recommended by physicians, is nothing but a change of
he will admit that, although these conditions are very physical condition : and shall we be told that this has no
subtle, they are also very powerful. It is to them, not influence on the animal frame ?
DISPERSAL OF SPECIES. 21
working tlio organic impulses which produce organic changes. It is, I imagine, analogous to
the physiological phenomena which occur in our own bodies in health and sickness, especially
as seen in the weak and aged. So long as we go on in our regular daily course of life, we enjoy
our usual health. Some trifle occurs to disturb this regularity. We say we are upset by it. We
are jolted off the rail ; the doctor tries to get us back into the old track, but the impulse of change
has been set a going, and the system instead of returning into its old groove sets off in a different
direction, vires acquirit eundo, and when he asks for us to-morrow we are grave men. It may
bo that particular conditions produce particular effects, as darkness, absence of eyes ; but the subject
is one on which we are iu darkness and unable to see. No matter what the nature of the physical
condition may be, if Dr. Forschammer is correct in allotting distinct physical properties to sis-
teen different regions of the ocean, it is not improbable that material differences may exist without
our being able to detect them.
Mr. Darwin relies on other facts characteristic of oceanic islands, more especially of those
which have subsided. These facts all fall under the same category, and involve the same principle.
They are : — The nature and relative proportion of inliabitants in oceanic islands ; the existence
of some families to the exclusion of others (bats to the exclusion of batrachiaus and terrestrial
mammals, &c.) ; the scarcity of kinds of animals generally ; and the preponderance of arboreal over
herbaceous forms of plants.*
Now, if we think for a moment of the course of events which must necessarily have taken
place on the subsidence of the land of which these islands formed part, there seems nothing in the
above facts to justify the idea of colonization, or inconsistent with that of former continuity. The
reader will find the probable course of events following upon subsidence speculated on a little more in
detail in a subsequent chapter on the Distribution of Man. Here it will be sufficient to say, that as
the land became submerged, such animals as existed would for the most part be drowned or starved,
unless where they betook themselves to the highest peaks, which remained longest above the waves.
If man or carnivorous animals were amongst them, their extinction would only be the more rapid. If
none but herbivorous animals took refuge there, the food would be insufficient for numbers, and they
would drop off by inanition. It seems also very doubtful whether the peaks which we now see in the
centre of the atolls, were in existence when the spot on which they stand was first submerged. They
are all of volcanic origin, and may have arisen after the land was drowned. The coral atolls may have
originally started from slight elevations on the surface of a flat continent, and man may have been able
to maintain his place on these half-dry reefs, which terrestrial animals — excepting always bats and
birds — could not. Under such circumstances it is obvious that it would be an inexplicable anomaly
were we to find no " scarcity of animals generally." It is equally obvious that all other animals which
could neither fly nor swim must be absent. And, as is remarked by Mr. Darwin himself, batrachia
must follow in the same category, for they cannot live or propagate in salt water. Therefore their
fate would be as much sealed as that of any other class of animals. Mr. Darwin claims the bats as
specially supporting his view. He says, " No terrestrial mammal can be transported across a wide
space of sea, but bats can fly across." But they at least are the mammals most fitted for preserving
their lives so long as any resting-place at all remained. The presence of land-shells on these
islands is acknowledged by Mr. Darwin as a special difficulty in his view of the case, as they can
neither fly nor swim across a part of the ocean, and neither they nor their eggs can live in salt
* Darwin, op. cit. p. 427.
22 PRELIMINARY INQUIRIES.
■^ater ; — according to Forbes' theory their jDresence offers no difficulty at all, so long as any
portion of the land remained above the water.
The preponderance of arboreal over herbaceous vegetation again, is a pecidiarity shared by
other lands which are not oceanic — North Ajiaerica, Japan, Ilong Kong. But I am ready to acbnit
that the dissemination of such plants may have been to a certain extent due to accidental or
occasional dispersion, in which, however, man was probably the chief agent. I do not so much
disjjute the fact of occasional colonization having taken place (especially among plants), as I object
to the attempt to refer everything to that cause.
If I am correct in holding that the transformation of old species into new is usually (if not
always) effected through the medium of large numbers of individuals, chance colonists, being of
course solitary or few in number, would not undergo this change until their numbers had suffi-
ciently multiplied. I would, therefore, infer wherever individuals belonging to the same identical
species occur in different lands (always excepting polar districts and those where the physical
condition is uniform), that their presence is probably due to colonization ; and where the species
are representative that there is a presimiption that the land in which they occur must at some
former period have been connected ^vith that of the typical sjiiecies.
9 9
CHAPTER III.
GEOGRAPHY OF THE GLOBE SINCE THE SECONDARY EPOC:H SUBSIDENCE IN SOUTHERN AND ELEVATION IN
NORTHERN HEMISPHERE CORAL REEFS BANDS OF ELEVATION AND DEPRESSION.
It TviU save the reader as well as myself much subsequent digression if I lay before bim at the outset
a general view of what I conceive to bave been the past geograpby of tbe globe during the successive
epochs which have elapsed since mammals first appeared, or rather, were first established — in other
words, since the close of the secondarj'' epoch.
My theory, that change in the forms of organic life is the result of alteration on the physical
conditions of the earth, requires that some important change on the condition of the globe should have
occurred at the close of the secondary and commencement of the tertiaiy epoch ; for at that time
there was a great start given to the development of species, and new forms and new tj-pes came then
into beipg.
What the change consisted ia we do not know ; but it may have been some great change in
the relative proportions of land and water : a change from a world almost covered with water to one
with less sea and more dry land. The fact that no remains of land-animals have been found during
the cretaceous epoch, and very few of terrestrial plants, while soon afterwards they become jslentifid,
suggests the possibility of this having been the nature of the change.
Whatever it was, however, the fact seems certain that a great change did then occur, and, inter
alia, that terrestrial life for the first time assumed an important place among created beings.
The first stage was the eocene epoch. Remains of this period occur in Europe, Asia, and
America ; also in North Africa ; but none have been found in Africa south of the Sahara, nor in
Australia.
Of Australia, Mr. Jidces says, " Above the pala;ozoic series there is an absolute gap, a total
deficiency of all other stratified rocks whatsoever, so far as .is at present known, except those be-
longing to a tertiary formation which, from the verj^ recent aspect of its fossils and their resem-
blance to existing forms I believe to be a very modern one."* Some of the \-iews entertained at
the time Mr. Jukes wrote have since been modified, but it remains uncontroverted that a portion of
Australia w'as above the sea in the secondary and eocene epochs, and has continued always above
it until now.
As the characters of the early eocene flora and fauna of Europe bear great resemblance to
those stUl existing in Australia, geologists have concluded that these two countries were formerly
in some way imited, and that a continuous stretch of dry land existed between them. It has
been supposed that never having since been wholly submerged, AustraKa had preserved the general
type of this eocene life down to the present day ; and although Professor M'Coy has latterly
taken exception to the correctness of this in its full extent, the comparative lists of plants
found in the eocene deposits of Europe contrasted with those now living in Australia, given by
* Ju;;es, "Sketch of the Physical Structure of Australia,'' London, 1850, p. 89.
24 PRELIMINARY INQUIRIES.
Professor Ungcr in his " New Holland in Europe,"* puts it wholly beyond dispute. lie has
there enumerated 173 plants discovered in the eocene beds of Europe analogous to species now
livino- in New Holland or in the southern hemisiDhere. In his interesting paper on this subject,
Professor linger also points out that the representatives of a certain proportion of the eocene
plants are now found in China and other parts of Asia, and the analogues of a third portion in
North America. He might have added that another proportion occurs in the Indo-Malayan region,
for Mr. Bowerbank has described no fewer than thirteen fruits of palms from the eocene beds in the
Island of Sheppy, aU of the recent type, now foimd only in India, and in the Moluccas and
Philii^pine Islands.
The conclusion to which Professor Ungcr arrives from these premises is that Europe was not
a centre of creation, but that it received the impress of the peculiarities of three continents ; and
he supposes that it did so by means of a land communication existing between Australia and
Europe, through Asia, by way of the Moluccas, and by one from America across the Atlantic. Of
course, it is part of his hj'pothesis that at that time the climate of all these coimtries was the same.
Professor TJnger's explanation is open to the objection that he assumes, without the smallest
warrant, that the floras of Australia, of Asia, and of America, were each of the same character
in. the eocene epoch as they are now. Europe is the only country with whose flora in the eocene
epoch we are at all acquainted. With that of Australia we shall probably never be acquaiated,
because it apparentlj^ has no eocene formations. The eocene fossils hitherto found in America are
extensive, but entirely marine, and consequently our knowledge of the fossil flora of that epoch
there, is nil, and we know as little of the eocene flora of Asia.
The character, therefore, of the existing vegetation in the only country (Europe) with whose
flora during the eocene epoch we are acquainted, is different from that which then grew in it,
and therefore, so far as we can draw any conclusions from that solitary fact, they should certainly
not be that the eocene flora of all the other countries was the same as their existing flora. There
are groimds for making an exception in favour of Australia whose present flora is so largely
analogous to the European eocene flora. The very extent of the analogy is in itself an argu-
ment for doing so, but there are no grounds for supposing this either for America or Asia,
of whose elements only a small proportion appears in the eocene flora of Europe. The m^ore
generally adopted view accords better with facts, viz. that (whether as a consequence of the more
uniform heat which then extended over the whole globe or not) organic life during the secondary
and eocene epoch was more homogeneous than it became afterwards, or is now. The elements
out of which the American, Asiatic, Indo-Malayan, and Australian floras have sprung, were doubtless
intermingled then not only in Europe, but in America, in Asia, in the Tropics, and Australia ;
but since then, through the changes arising from altered conditions of life, the uniformity has
been broken up, and the j^resent distribution of species established.
There can be no dovibt that laud communication between Australia must then have existed,
and the route suggested by Professor Unger seems as likely as any other. At the same time, it must
be remembered that the present arrangement of the flora or fauna of any part of the northern
hemisphere is not the slightest criterion of what it was in the eocene epoch, because the whole of
the old relations of species there must have been completely overturned by the clearance of life
which the glacial epoch brought about.
* Unger, Dr. F. " Nou Holland in Europa," and Translation in Seeman's " Journal of Botany," Feb. 1S65, p. 39.
SUBMERGENCES. 25
The progress of life dui'ing the eocene epoch seems to have experienced no sudden or material
change. Mammalian life went on gradually from the Marsupials to the rahicothcroid animals, and
onwards to the ruminants ; and the flora passed from the Australian to the nuocene, or North
American tj'pe. These changes were apparently brought about by gradual mutation in the arrange-
ment and distribution of land and water, possibly a gradual reduction in the temperature of the
globe ; but no violent or abrujjt alteration of any kind seems to have occurred.
So far as we can trace these new modifications in the distribution of land and water, the main
feature seems to have been a transference of dry land from the Southern to the Northern Hemisphere :
that is, the submergence of land in the one, and its emergence in the other. Great alternations have
taken place, and are constantly taking place in this respect, everywhere. What is now above water
was formerly below it, and rice versa, and in each hemisphere there are jjortions intermixed ^vith
each other, the one of which is rising and the other sinking. And we can see that both operations
are carried on at the same time, and that the one is usually in compensation of the other ; although
both are intermingled, sometimes a general sinking with partial risings.
The most important of such submergences seems to have been the subsidence of the vast space in
the South Pacific Ocean, now beaconed by the Oceanic Coral Islets which are scattered through it,
both east and west of the Indian Archipelago and Australia.
It is now universally admitted that these coral islets are the relics of a submerged land which had
formerly existed as a great continent ; and the relations of the faunas and floras of South America
to New Zealand and Australia on the one hand, and to Africa on the other, as well as some
relations between South-West Australia and South Africa, almost compel us to admit that as comj)lete
a circlet of land formerly crowned the southern temperate regions as now does the northern.
The fact that these Oceanic Islets are vestiges of a great continent was first proved by
Mr. Darwin. He showed that fringing reefs, — that is, reefs growing close to the land, — are an
evidence that the land is either stationary or slowly rising, at least that the reefs have been
formed when the land has been rising ; that atolls and barrier reefs, that is, reefs not clinging
to the shore, but separated from the land hy a space of water, show that the land has been
subsiding, or that a subsidence was taking place whilst they were formed ; and from this mute
evidence he was enabled to compile the map of elevation and subsidence by which I have pro-
fited. To give the evidence in support of this, woidd be to repeat Mr. Darwin's beautiful train of
reasoning on the subject in his " Journal of a Naturalist." The scientific reader is already familiar
with it, and it would be injudicious kindness to attempt to save those who are not the jjlea-
sui'e of reading one of the most delightful works in the English language. His argument is
chiefly, if not entirely, drawn from the coral reefs in these seas, and from the fact that while
they are composed of coral, standing on foundations of great, generally, iinfathomable depth, they
are yet constructed by animals requiring a foundation to start from and that foundation not to
be at a greater depth than twenty or thirty fathoms.
The same fact carries the period of submergence back into the abyss of time, when the elevations
in the other hemisphere took place, for it proves the slow rate and consequent long duration of the
period during which the subsidence has been taking place. Unless the depression had been gradual,
the coral architects would not have had time to build up their towers and buttresses as the land
sank. No personal inspection is in our power here, but if we give the reins to our imagination
and try to guess at the scene which would meet om- eyes were a sudilini uprising equal to the
previous depression to take place we might find something like this to be the residt. Such an
26 PRELIMINARY INQUIRIES.
event would bring all the foundations of these reefs to the surface, each bearing its narrow, loft_v,
Ijerpendicular-cliffed coral tower, circled ^vith precipices such as it has not entered into the mind of
man to conceive, whose height is not to be reckoned by feet, biit by miles ; where the light of day
would scarcely penetrate to the bottom of the deej) channels between those which stood near each
other ; and with the top of each, all on one level, like mighty shot-towers or bastilles. Each has no
doubt been formed as the elevations on which they stand successively sank beneath the sea. ■ Some,
no doubt, may be founded on ordinary hills or even lofty mountains, when we shoidd liave, on a
colossal scale, a curious i-esemblance to the round j^illars or towers on hill-tops, with which it is
the fashion of Englishmen in their different coxmties to preserve the memory of their great men.
Some indeed have thought, that the atolls and reefs might be the indications of the highest
peaks of ranges of moimtains. But tliis idea seems inconsistent with their j^osition as well as
tlieir composition. Their general distribution indicates ratlier the beaconing of each elevation, small
or great, as it successively sunk beneath the level of the ocean. Mr. Darwin objects to the idea
on the ground that oceanic islands, where rock is found, are almost universally composed of volcanic
minerals. If they had originally existed as mountain ranges on the land, some at least of the
islands would have been formed like other movmtain summits of granite, metaniorphic schists, old
fossiliferous, or other such rocks, instead of consisting of mere piles of volcanic matter.* The
irregidar distribution of many of the atolls and reefs, moreover, is opposed to the idea of their
being parts of mountain ranges, and the long lines of others may be better reconciled with
barrier reefs along the lines of coast than chains of moimtains, when the subsidence began. Every
little eminence a few feet high would furnish as good a foimdation and starting-point for the
coral architects as the serrated peaks of the loftiest mountains.
The facts proved by Mr. Darwin, however, aR relate to the past. It is quite consistent with
them that the subsidence which they prove may now have ceased, and that as contended for by M. de
Ilochas, an elevatory movement may have commenced. We know that there has been an eleva-
tory movement subsequent to the depression, both on the shores of Africa and in India, and the
Indian Archijjelago. M. de Rochas maintains that no coral island can have been raised above the
water by the agency to which their rise is usually ascribed, viz. by a deposit from the waves dash-
ing over the reef, and that the only means by which they can have appeared is by an upheaval,
pushing them up from below. He has insjoected coral islands in various parts of the globe, and
finds the surface free from the attrition and fractures which ought to result from the throwing over
them of ijcbbles and sand by the waves ; and he also finds the coral in many places where no
upheaval has raised it above the surface, remaining in j)recisely the same position in which it was
observed long ago, with no accumulation of debris at its surface. It does not concern us much
to determine which is the true explanation. The fact of subsidences and elevations having taken
place at certain places and in a certain order, is what we chiefly require to make sure of.
We have no data to determine witli anything like accuracy to what extent these subsidences
have taken place. We cannot even tell In some which are believed to be rising, whether they have
only just begun to do so, or if they have for a long time changed from subsidence to elevation. It
would seem as if nothing could be easier than to do this, because the raised clifis of coral along the
sea-shore should speak for themselves. Biit Mr. Darwin has shown, that in the natural course of
things it is not probable that coral reefs elevated by a gradual rise of the land would often be
* Darwin"s " Origin of Species," 3rd edit., p. 388.
GEOLOGICAL MUTATIONS. 27
preserved so as to prove that they ever existed. It is only so long as the coral is fresh that
it is hard and impenetrable ; when raised above or below the proper depth which suits the par-
ticular species, the coral polype dies, and if exposed to the air the coral rots, and if then exposed
to the wash of the sea is swept away. He himself narrates his experience of the rotting of the
coral, but on the other hand he also speaks of having heard of two coral islands which had
been elevated thirty or forty feet above the sea and showed a face of perpendicular coral cliffs to
the sea : these, however, had not been examined by any naturaKst.*
If I am not mistaken, objections have been taken by some authors to the hjqjothesis of a sub-
merged continent, on the ground that it might disturb the equiHbriimi of the earth. There is no
doubt that on this point the arrangements, instead of being of a compensatory nature, are directly
the reverse. A mass of material like the mountain-ranges protruded to one side further from the
fidcrum (the centre of the earth) than the rest of its crust, must have a tendency to make the earth
lop-sided, and a depression on the opjjosite side diawiug the weight nearer to the fulcrum, and
thereby diminishing its force, instead of being a compensatory movement, would only add to the
disturbance. It is for astronomers and physicists to determine whether there is anything iu the
objection. I may, however, remark, that the parts where there is the greatest subsidence may not
be opposed to those where there is the greatest rise : . that subsidence and elevation often take place
side by side, and that the whole alteration on the equilibrium even at the greatest, is probably
too trifling to have any effect on such a large body as the earth.
As to the date when this continent or these continents existed, and when they became submerged,
we have more than one indication which may assist us in. coming to a conclusion. In the first
place, it is a generally acknowledged principle that important geological revolutions are slow and
deliberate, and extend over a long pciiod of time ; that the crust of the earth is not perpetually
bobbing up and dowoi ; and that the oscillations which occur in every part of the globe are mere
minor accidents, as it were incidental to the progress of the great movement, and not the great
movement itself. They may be compared to the slightly tremulous movement of a man's hand when
he heaves his food to head : the real movement is the raising of his hand ; its vibration is the
incidental.
One phase of these geological mutations is the alternation of bands of elevation and depression.
It was, I think, Mr. Darwin who suggested this idea, and at any rate it was was his discoveries
relating to the jihysical and geological history of coral reefs, which brought it into favour. It is
matter of fact that the elevation and corresponding depression iu the two bands generally lie along-
side of each other. The Andes of South America is a band of elevation; to the west of that range
there is a depression of immense depth, almost without islands or reefs ; westward of that gulf
there is a vast area of coral atolls and reefs, which, as a whole, have been, and perhaps still are,
sinking, while through it extends a band of rising land, distinguished by numerous volcanoes. The
North Atlantic is a band of depression, Europe a recent band of elevation. "Where active vol-
canoes are in operation, the land is visually rising ; and these generally lie in bands which
often end in reaching to the dignity of mountain chains. Such is the band which extends from
the New Hebrides through New Guinea, Borneo, Java and Sumatra. It seems ' a necessary con-
sequence of the elevation of diy land in the northern hemisphere, that a corresponding de-
pression should have taken place somewhere else. The elevation of, at least, all the land which
* Dakwin's •' Coral Formations."
28 PRELIMINARY INQUIRIES.
is marked as tertiary in Map 3, and as seems more than probable of a p^reat continent in
the Atlantic, must have left a vacuity in the interior of the earth, and withdrawn a support
from the crust which stretched over it. That crust is both solid and elastic, but wc know, from
what takes place on the withdrawal of props in coal-mines, that the strata forming it are unable to
support themselves by cohesion ; and it stands to reason, that the crust of the earth, although
so much thicker than any strata existing above the beds of coal, being of correspondingly
greater extent, will be as little able to do so. The greater thickness will be compensated by the
greater extent without support. The supposed subsidence in the Paciiic Ocean extends over thousands
of miles, and an unsupported roof that woidd cohere for such an extent, must be made of other
materials than those of any minerals or rocks yet known. The elevation of the land in the northern
hemisphere must, therefore, have entailed a corresponding amount of subsidence elsewhere, and as
there is no " elsewhere " under water of corresponding dimensions but the Southern hemisj)here, it
must have been in the Southern Seas that the subsidence took place. The elevation and subsidence
being compensatory must have also been nearly simultaneous, not quite, indeed, for the elevation
being the cause of the depression must have been first in order of time. The elevation we know has
been subsequent to the commencement of the tertiary period. The depression therefore must have
been a little nearer to our own time.
The sinking of the bottom of the Southern Ocean has probably been in operation long before
the present rising of the Javan band of volcanoes, and the latter belongs to a different chapter
in its history, and is, perhaps, more of the nature of an episode than an integral part of one
operation. The former may be a chapter nearly past, the latter the commencement of a new one.
Applying this view to the occurrences since the eocene epoch, we have at least one great
result, the subsidence of the Southern hemisjphere, and the elevation of the Northern : perhaps
accomplished by alternate elevation and depression of portions of each. If the depression in the south
was, as I suppose, general over a considerable part of that hemisphere at one time, we may fix the
date of the subsidence of a large part of it. The geology of South Africa and the zoology of
Madagascar enable us to do this.
Africa, south of the Sahara, has probably remained stationary since the secondary ej)och,
at least has not been submerged. " Judging from all the evidences as yet collected," says Sir
Roderick Murchison,* " the interior of South Africa has remained in that condition " (ter-
restrial and lacustrine only) " since the period of the secondary rocks of geologists." A nai'-
row belt of tertiary formations along the eastern coast, from the Cape to the Zambesi, and along
the south-west coast near Cape Negro, alone attests a trifling rise and extension of surface ;
Sir Roderick adds, " In truth, therefore, the inner portion of Southern Aii'ica is in this respect
geologically unique in the long conservation of ancient terrestrial conditions. This inference is
further supported by the concomitant absence throughout the larger portion of all this vast area,
i. e. south of the equator, of any of those volcanic rocks which are so often associated with oscillations
of the terra Jirma."
To this continent Madagascar was at one time united, when it received the original elements of
its fauna and flora. These are of a type subsequent to the eocene date, and akin to luodcrn species.
Before the separation, therefore, the miocene epoch must have commenced. IIow was the separation
caused ? Most probably not by the sinking of the channel between them, but by the general
' See his opeuing address totlie Geographical Society in 1864.
J» ftf
GEOLOGICAL MUTATIONS. 29
sinking of all around. The fringe of tertiary beds on the opposite coast of Afiica must have been
deposited subsequently to the submergence, and, therefore, the coast of South Africa (and as the fringe
extends on both east and west shores, the whole of South Africa, and Madagascar with it) must have
suffered, first, a depression sufficient to allow of these tertiary beds being deposited, and then a
subsequent elevation so as to bring these beds to view. These tertiaries are referred to the upjoer
miocene epoch ; the subsidence, therefore, must have taken place not later than the middle of that
epoch.
The extent of land then submerged, wo cannot specify ; but we may safely infer that a great con-
tinent stretched across between Africa and India. The numerous shoals in the Indian Ocean is one
indication of this, but a much more important one is the fact of the fixmia of India and Africa,
belonging, with few exceptions, to the same families, and these families which are peculiar to
those two districts. So far as regards Mammals, abundant illustrations in support of this will
be foimd throughout the following pages, passim. This Africano-Indian continent was boimdcd
on the north by the Saharan Sea, and by the sea which appears from the nummulitic eocene beds
in Arabia, Persia, Beloochistan, and more modern tertiaries in the north of India, to have then
covered these countries.
On still stronger grounds the existence of a large tract of land, where the North Atlantic now
rolls, has been inferred. This is what is known as the Miocene Atlantis.
CHAPTER IV.
PAST GEOGRAPHY OF THE GLOBE Continued — MIOCENE ATLANTIS — GLACIAL EPOCH.
tTNDER the influence of the mutations in the geography of the globe which continued slowly to be
carried on dui-ing the eocene and miocene epochs, the faunas and floras which had been nearly
uniform over the whole globe, now began to break up into regional provinces. The old flora in which
the Australian forms predominated was extirpated in the northern hemisphere, and henceforward
confined to Australia, from which, in like manner, were eliminated the elements which were not
suited to the climate required for the other tj^es, descended from those of the eocene period.
Each coimtry retained (more or less altered according to the extent and nature of the change of
condition) the portion of the original eocene flora which suited it best, and from that starting-
point the difierent provinces of organic life have all gradually assimied their pi'esent places. At
the commencement, however, the provinces were different from what they afterwards became.
It has been well ascertained that, in the miocene epoch, both the flora and fauna of North
America (although the latter in a less degree) were closely allied to those of Eiu-ope at the same
time ; and that, while the miocene flora of Europe has undergone an entire change, that of North
America has not, but retains to a certain extent the character of that which flourished there in the
miocene age.
Our information upon these points in that age is fuller than upon them in the eocene. The
upper miocene fossiliferous beds at ffiningen, in the valley of the Rhine, between Constance and
Schaffhausen, have supplied a mass of material which has enabled Professor Heer of Zurich to
construct a miocene flora of Switzerland,* containing no less than 900 plants (which Professor
Oliver would reduce to SOOf), while his researches have led him to the conclusion that of phajno-
ganious plants alone there must have been 3000 miocene species, a much richer and more varied
flora than Switzerland now possesses ; and the remarkable fact is, that a large number of these be-
long to North American genera. M. Gaston de Saporta, in a more recent paper on the plants found
in the tertiary strata of the South of France, J has added considerably to the number; and the
united result has been to establish beyond question that a very striking resemblance, and in some
cases even identity, exists between the flora of the miocene epoch in Europe and the present vege-
tation of California and the Southern States of North America. The miocene beds of Vancouver's
Island and North-west America fortunately supply similarly ample material, which has been
investigated by M. Lesquereux, and he has satisfactorily established that the miocene flora of
that district is extremely similar to that still in existence there, some of the species, such as
* " Flora Tertiaria Hclvctite," by Fiof. Oswald Hker. J G. De Saporta, in " Annalcs des Sciences Natur."'
Winterthur, 1855-59. 1862.
t Oliver in "Nat. Hist. Rev." 18(;2, p. 149.
MIOCENE ATLANTIS. 31
tlie Sequoia sempervirens having apjDarently continued in existence from the miocenc times
until now.
The relative prejDonderance of tj-pe in tlie European miocene flora at that epoch was, first,
that of North America, especially the southern part of the United States, as Louisiana, Florida,
Georgia, and the Carolinas ; second, of Europe, particularly the Mediterranean district ; third, of
Asia ; fourth, of Africa ; and fifth, of Australia. The Australian types had been diminishing in
numbers as we ascend from the oolite and the lower eocene to the upper miocene. The American
element is esi^ecially remarkable in the number of evergreen oaks, maples, planes, poplars, liquid-
amber, Robinias, Sequoias, and Ta^das, that is, pines with leaves in clusters of three. The con-
clusions drawn from insects, of which no less than 1322 fossil tertiary species, or supposed species,
have been found in Switzerland, correspond in the main with the conclusions derived from
plants.
These facts suggested to Unger and Goppert the speculation which is known as the " Atlantis
theorj'," or the " Miocene Atlantis," viz. that the present basin of the Atlantic was occupied
by land, over which the miocene plants could pass freely, and this hypothesis has been enlarged
and advocated with great abilitj- bj' Heer and other eminent men. To use the words of Sir- Charles
Lyell : " The existence of a continuous land communication between Eastern America and Western
Europe in the pliocene period, by means of which many plants migrated before the glacial epoch,
from one region to the other, was also suggested by Mr. Darwin, in his Origin of Species;
and Dr. Leidy has observed that a like continuity of land from east to west is implied by the
identity of some of the extinct pliocene mammalia of the Niobrara Valley in Nebraska with
those of a corresponding geological age in Europe."
The fact that it is the Eastern or Atlantic side of America, or that which is nearest to
Europe, which presents the greatest number of vegetable forms analogous to the miocene flora,
woidd be an additional argument in favour of the Atlantis, if the present distribution of species
and their relative proportion in America gave any clue to those in the miocene age, but if, as
I imagine, they do not, the hypothesis must stand upon more general grounds.
On the other hand, Dr. Asa Gray, Professor Oliver, and others, following up a hint thrown
out by Bentham, have argued that it is more probable that the plants, instead of reaching Europe
by the shortest route over an imaginary Atlantis, migrated in an opposite direction, and took a
course four times as long across America and the whole of Asia.
It rather appears to me, however, that their hypothesis does not apply so much to the miocene
epoch as to a subsequent period. When the glacial epoch was at its height, ice covered the wliole
of North America, as far south as the north of Georgia and Texas (see Map 4) (that, as is proved
by the tertiary deposits to the south of them, being the then southern termination of the North
American contuaent), and the ice there ran into the sea in miglity glaciers. In its progress
south it must, of course, have driven every plant or animal before it, making a clean sweep of all
life wherever it came ; and wherever it rested, covering the land as it did, for thousands and thou-
sands of years (whether intermittently or not), it must have left the surface a tabtda rasa for the
reception of new impressions. Wliere there was an extension of land before it, as in the south-west
corner of North ^\merica, the plants and animals would take refuge in i1. Where there was no
extension of land, and the glacier ice terminated in the sea, of course every living thing woidd
be annihilated.
In Eui-ope, on the other hand, although the drift or glacial ice did not reach so far south as
32 PliELIMINARY INQUIRIES.
in America, nor, perhaps, the general mass of glaciers run into the Mediterranean Sea, wo shall
find, if we inquire a little, that it was in a still worse case than North America. The latter had
an outlet ; but we shall presently see that Europe had none.
Let the reader figure on a map the extent of the land in Europe covered by the glacial ice
("shown in Map 4). Then let him lay down its tertiary and quaternary beds (shown in Map 3).
They, of course, represent at least some of the water previous to that period — they are the site
of the seas in which these beds were deposited. Next, let him remember that at that epoch
itself the general level of Europe and Asia was considerably lower than it is now. The Sahara
was united with the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, and the Black Sea with the Caspian.*
Sir Roderick Murchison and M. de Verneuil consider that another sea as large as the Mediter-
ranean, and several hundred feet in depth, existed about the south of the Caspian during the
pliocene epoch (that is, the commencement of the glacial epoch), f It is, therefore, no very imrea-
sonable surmise that the level of Europe fi-om the longitude of the western termination of the
Sahara to the longitude of the Caspian Sea, was 100 fathoms lower than it is now. If the reader
will add from Map 2 the portions of Europe, which in that case would be under water, to the other
two (the limits of glacial action and tertiary deposits), he will find that Europe has but all disap-
peared. In addition to this, however, the sandy plains in the centre of Germany stretching with
interruptions from the Danube to the Baltic, show every appearance of having been recently
under water. If we reckon them also as submerged at that epoch, then Europe, east of the Atlantic,
will be practically almost blotted out from the map.
If that be so (as so it seems to be), scarcely any life at all can have survived the glacial epoch
in Europe. Whether at that time the communication with Asia was also cut ofi' is doubtfid,
but is not of much consequence, as a communication after the glacial epoch was certainlj' opened
between them. Still, to complete our knowledge of the state of facts during the miocene epoch, we
may note, regarding the then boundaries of Europe, that we are sure that it was absolutely cut off
on the south by the Sahara, on the south-east by sea, which then covered Arabia and Persia, and
by the Aralo-Caspian seas above-mentioned ; and the interesting fact to which we shall presently
come, that seals of the same species as those now living in the Arctic Seas, occur both in the
Caspian and Lake Baikal, renders it almost certain that a commimication existed between the
Caspian and the Arctic Seas ; so that Europe, previous to the glacial epooh, was probably a
group of islands isolated from Asia, and from Africa — whether or not from America we shall
presently see.
* " I was particularly struck by the fact, that several given by Sir Roderick Murchison and M. de Verneuil to
of my fossil shells from the Sahara, in the superficial de- the limestone and associated sandy beds, of brackish
posit, proved specifically identical with fresh-water ter- water origin, which have been traced over a very ex-
tiary fossils given me by my friend, Captain Spratt, and tensive area, surrounding the Caspian Azof and Aral Seas,
obtained by him in the fresh-water deposits of the Black and parts of the northern and western coasts of the Black
Sea." — Tristram's Sahara, p. 370. Sea. The limestone rises occasionally to the height of
" M. Eschcr von dur Luith himself, together with several hundred feet above the sea, and is supposed to
MM. Desor and Martins, have found marine shells, espe- indicate the former existence of a vast inland sheet of
cially the common Cockle, Condium Edule, scattered far brackish water, as large as the Mediterranean, or larger."
and wide, from west to east, over the desert (Sahara) ; " The proportion of recent species, agreeing with the
while the shells of these, and other living species, have fauna of the Caspian, is so considerable, as to leave no
also been found in boring Artesian wells, at the depth of doubt in the minds of the geologists above cited, that this
many feet below the surface." — Ltell's Elements of Geo- rock, also called by them the ' Steppe Limestone,' belongs
logy, 6th edit. 186.5, p. 175. to the phocene period." — Lyell, op. cit. p. 209.
\ " Aralo-Caspian formations. — This name has been
MIOCENE ATLANTIS. 33
In America, on the other hand, where the flora was not annihikted it must have been tkivun
into its south-west corner ; and the sixice there into which it must have beem circumscribed was much
smaller than it is now, for the north-east of Mexico was also then under water as well as Texas,
as is proved by the tertiarj' deposits now covering these districts. Thus it seems plain that all reason-
ing from the present distribution of plants or animals, or their relative preponderance on this or that
side of the continent, must be inapplicable to the state of things which existed prior to the glacial
epoch, and therefore can only have an indirect bearing on the miocene Atlantis. That question
must be decided on other grounds altogether. The objections to the hypothesis are thus stated
by Sir Charles Lyell : —
" If the evidence in the botanical scale were equally balanced in favour of these two opposite
theories, a geologist would not hesitate to prefer that of Dr. Asa Gray as demanding an incomparably
smaller amount of change in physical geography since the close of the miocene period. It is true
that since the beginning of that era there have been vast alterations in the level of the Alps and
contiguous regions, and in the Mediterranean, especially the vEgean Sea. And there has been,
perhaps, as the late Edward Forbes contended, an extension westward of European and North
African land, even in the pHocene period. If, instead of assigning an almost historical date to
a continental condition of the area between Africa and the Southern States of North America, such as
might realize the story of the Atlantis spoken of by the Egyptian priests to Plato,- we could
look back through the whole interval which separates us from the eocene or cretaceous periods, we
might then, indeed, freely grant, as geologists, any amount of change that may be required in the
position of land and sea.
" It is the enormous depth and width of the Atlantic which makes us shrink from the hypothesis
of a migration of plants, fitted for a sub-tropical climate in the upper miocene period, from
America to Europe, by a direct course from west to east."
* Professor Unger gives the following account of the organization, and possessed a great intellectual and stra-
traditiou here referred to : tegic power. As the goddess loves war as much as wisdom,'
"The early history of man is still wrapt iu obscurity. he continued, 'she selected a country which would produce
It is, therefore, the more surprising to meet with a tradi- men closely resembling herself. Under such laws aud
tion of the highest importance with respect to that geolo- excellent political institutions did your nation then live,
gical period, and containing as it were a confirmation of exceeding all others in virtue, as was fit for a people de-
the former connexion of Europe with America, though we scended from the gods, and educated by them,
should have thought that this connexion had ceased long " ' Jlany of the great deeds of your nation preserved in
before 'man's appearance on earth. This curious tradition our writings cause surprise. But one of them exceeds all
is found in Plato's dialogue entitled 'Tima.>us.' Here direct others in magnitude and splendour. It is recorded how
mention is made of a great island of Atlantis, situated your country once opposed a power which with great ar-
beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and the seat of a powerful rogance pushed its way into Europe and Asia from the
nation. A priest of Sais made this singidar communica- Atlantic Ocean, for in those days that sea was navigable,
tion to Solon, who had gone to Egypt to become acquainted Beyond the entrance, which you call the Pillars of Hercules,
with the wisdom of that caste. It is mixed with a gi-eat there was an island larger than Libya aud Asia together,
deal that must appear unhistorical, and it puzzles us to From it navigators passed to the other islands, and from
know how an Egyptian priest coidd have come by this tra- them to the opposite continent, which surrounded that
dition, or how Plato could arrive at so singular a concep- ocean.
tion. Let us hear Plato himself: — 'After the said priest "'For the sea, situated inside that strait of which wc
has pointed out that Egypt is the only country where speak, appears to be a sea with a narrow entrance, but the
traces of the oldest history of man could be preserved, he other would justly be termed an ocean, and the adjacent
informs Solon that Greece, aud especially Athens, had a land a continent. On this extensive Atlantic island there
very ancient history, which, however, had been lost there, was a powerful and singular kingdom, whose dominion ex-
he draws his attention to the fact that that country was tended not only over the whole island, but over many
settled earUer even than Sais by the goddess Neith. other islands and parts of the continent. It ruled, also,
Athens enjoyed at remote times a well-regulated political over Libya as far as Egypt, and over Europe as far as
34 PRELIMINARY INQUIRIES.
" The ideal map given by Ileer of the Atlantis represents a continent as large as Europe pre-
cisely in that portion of the Atlantic Ocean which is now the broadest and deepest, viz., from
two to three miles in its deepest portions." *
Notwithstanding this, the facts appear to me clearly to show that during the miocene epoch
there must have been a laud communication between Europe and America. It is well ascertained
that the floras of America and Europe were the same in the miocene age, and that the miocene
tA'pe still continues in America, but not in Europe. At the same time, and notwithstanding
the bearing of these facts in favour of an Atlantis, it is not impossible that a " north-west pass-
ao-e," sufiicicnt for the purpose of intercommunication may have existed, although not directly
across the Atlantic ; it may have been by Greenland ; it would only require a very trifling change
in the level of the land to establish a communication between America and Europe by the North
Pole.
We must remember that the Polar climate at the time was genial. Frost and snow were
unknown, and the northern district of Iceland, and several parts of the Arctic lands, such as Disco
Island, on the west coast of Greenland, lat. 70" N., although at the present tune entirely without
trees, were densely wooded in the tertiary period. Fragments of trees are preserved in the lignite
or " Surturbrand " of Iceland, and as they are still covered with bark they cannot have reached it as
drift-wood. This vegetation agrees with that which in the miocene ejjoch covered the whole EuroiDcan
continent, and a portion of the sijecies composing it have their analogues in North America."
That route was amply sufficient to supply America, without another across the Atlantic ;
and, therefore, had we only to consider the miocene epoch, I should join the ranks of the oppo-
nents of the theory, simplj' on the groimd that it was unnecessary. But if not a necessity before
the glacial epoch, it becomes a necessity after it. The Polar climate was then no longer as mild
as that of Madeira, nothing temperate could pass by the Polar route, and yet many instances occur
of the same species being found both in Eiu-ojDe and North America, which must have found
their way from the one to the other, subsequent to the glacial epoch ; and if such a communi-
cation existed after the glacial ejjoch, it is an unavoidable coroUary, that it also existed pre-
vious to that epoch, viz. in the miocene times, when the extent of dry land was increasing in-
stead of diminishing, as was the case after the cold had begun to retire.
If such an extension of land between Europe and Asia formerly existed, where was it placed
and what were its limits ? The first position which has claims to be considered is in the line
Tyi-rhenia. This kingdom, witli the whole of its forces Atlantis sank into the ocean. This is the reason why, at
united, tried to subjugate, in one campaign, your and our present, that sea is difficult to pass and explore, the deep
country, and all the districts inside the straits. At that mud which the island formed in sinking being an obstacle
time, O Solon, your nation shone out from all others by to navigation.'
bravery and power. Taking the lead by courage and in " Thus far the curious passage in ' Timreus,' a satisfac-
the arts of war, be it as leaders of the Hellenes, be it noccs- tory explanation of which histo'-ians, philologists, and
sarily isolated by the withdrawal of the allies, it was placed naturaUsts, have hitherto attempted in vain. That this
in great danger, but it defeated the attacking army, and tradition is entirely imaginary woidd be bold to assume,
erected triumphal monuments. It also prevented those since we have shown that its most important substratum
who had as yet preserved their independence from becom- is sound, and that at one time a continent did exist in the
ing subjugated, and generously freed all the otliers living Atlantic Ocean." — UyG'ERyVcrsunkcHc InselAdantis. Wien,
inside the Pillars of Hercules. But, when at a later period 1860. Copied from Translation in " Seoman's Journal of
severe earthquakes and great floods took place, the whole Botany." January, 1865, p. 23.
of your united army was swallowed up during one evil day *" Elements of Geology," by Sir Charles Lyell.
and one evil night, and at the same time the island of London, 1865, pp. 265-272.
MIOCENE ATLANTIS. 35
of the Sargasso Sea or Gulf weed in the middle of the Atlantic ; and, as the claim founded on the
existence of that weed applies not only to this case, but may have to be considered in other
parts of the world, it may be desirable to state once for all in some detail the grounds on which
his hypothesis is founded. They are contained in the following note by Edward Forbes in his
paper on " The Geological Relations of the Existing Fauna and Flora of the British Isles :" —
" The following extract from the writings of one of the first of li\Tiig Algologists (Prof. Harvej-)
will show that there are botanical grounds for my speculation respecting the Gulf weed. ' Authors
wlio have written on this Fxrus, have much disputed both regarding its origin, and whether
it continues to grow whilst floating about. Nothing at all bearing on the former question has
yet been discovered ; for, though species of Sargassiim abound along the shores of tropical coun-
tries, none exactly corresponds with S. bacciferum. That the aiwesfors of the present bank have
originally migrated from some fixed station is probable ; but fui-thcr than probability we can say
nothing. That it continues to flourish in its present situation is most certain. Whoever has
picked it up at sea and examined it vrith. any common attention, must have perceived not only
that the plants were in vigorous Kfe, but that new fronds were continually pushing out from the
old, the limit being most clearly defined by the colour, which in the old frond is foxy-brown ; in the
young shoots, pale, transparent olive. But how is it propagated, for it never produces fructification ?
It appears to me that it is by breakage. The old frond, which is exceedingly brittle, is broken
by accident, and the branches continuing to Uve, push out young shoots from all sides. Manj- minute
pieces that I have examined were as vigorous as those of larger size, but they were certainly not
seedlings, and appeared to me to be broken branches, all having a piece of old frond from which the
young shoots sprung. As the plant increases in size it takes something of a globular figure, from the
branches issuing in all directions as from a centre. On our own shores we have two species analogous
to S. bacciferum in their mode of growth, namely, Fucus Mackayi and the variety B. sub-ecostata of
Fiwus vesicnlosus (F. Balticus, A'g.) Neither of these has ever yet been found attached, though they
often occur in immense strata ; the one on the muddy sea-shore, the other in salt marshes, in which
situations respectively thej^ continue to grow and flourish ; and it is remarkable that neither has ever
3'et been found in fructification, in which respect also they strikingly coincide with S. bacciferum.
And if it be hereafter shown that F. Mackai/i is merely F. nodosus altered by growing under peculiar
circumstances, may it not be inferred that Sargassum bacciferum, ■which difiers about as much from
Sargassum rulgare as Fucus Mackayi does from Fucus nodosus, is merely a pelagic variety of that
variable plant ? ' — Harvey, Manual of the British Alga- (1841.) Introduction, pp. 16, 17.
" My friend and colleague. Dr. Joseph Hooker, who has had great opportunities of studying the
Gidf weed, believes with Dr. Harvey, that the Sargassum bacciferum is an abnormal condition of
S. vulgare. Now as the latter is essentially a coast-line plant, growing on rocks with a very limited
vertical range, I propose to account for its abnormal condition as Sargassum bacciferum in the Gulf
weed bank, on the supposition of the subm,ergence of the ancient line of coast on which it originated."*
The idea here may either be, that the weed has spread from the ancient submerged line of coast
over the whole of the rest of its bounds, or that the limits or outer margin of the Sargassum mark
the ancient original coast-line, and that the whole of the space within these limits has been filled
up with Sargassum by its having by successive subsidences aU passed through the phase of coast-line.
* Ed. Forbes, on the Geological Relations of the exist- the Geological Survey of Great Eritain and of the Museum
ing Fauna and Flora of the British Isles in "Memoirs of of Economic Geology." London, 184G. Vol. i. ji. 349.
36 PRELIMINARY INQUIRIES.
There is no impossibility iii this, nor even any very great improbability ; but there is an
explanation of its dispersion and distribution [it being once there in some part of the area), which" seems
to meet the facts equally well by the phenomena in daily operation, and if there be a sufficient
cause already at hand, it would be unphilosophical to abandon it, and refer the residt to another
whose former existence is only a sujjposition.
The phenomena which furnish such an explanation are the currents which surround the Gulf
weed bed, and the explanation is that the Sargasso is thrown into and kept in its present position
by the eddy or whirl caused by their revolution on every side of it. Hvmiboldt, I think, was the first
to notice that it occupied the eddy, and Maury states the theory broadly, that the Sargasso Seas
are composed of drift matter, which cannot escape or accompany the current which brings it, in
consequence of its being met by another current. " The water that is drifting north on the
outside of the Gulf stream turns with the Gidf stream to the east also. It cannot reach the high
latitudes, for it cannot cross the Gidf stream. Two streams of water cannot cross each other,
unless one dip down and under-run the other ; and if this drift water do dip down, as it may,
it cannot carry with it its floating matter, which, like its weeds, is too light to sink. They,
therefore, are cut ofi" from a j)assage into higher latitudes. According to this view there ought
to be a Sargasso sea somewhere in the sort of middle ground between the grand equatorial flow and
reflow, which is performed by the waters of all the great oceans. The place where the drift matter of
each sea would naturally collect would be in this sort of pool, into which every current, as it goes
from the equator, and again as it returns, woidd slough ofi" its drift matter. The forces of diurnal
rotation woidd require this collection of di-ift to be in the northern hemisphere, on the right hand side
of the current, and in the southern to be on the left. Thus, with the " Gulf Stream " of the Atlantic,
and the " Black Stream " of the Pacific, their Sargassos are on the right, as they are also on the right
of the returning and cooler currents on the eastern side of each one of those northern oceans. So,
also with the Mozambiqiie current, which runs south along the east coast of Africa from the Indian
Ocean, and with the cooler current setting to the north on the Australian side of the same sea.
Between these there is a Sargasso on the left, for it is in the southern hemisphere. Again, there
is in the South Pacific a flow of equatorial waters to the Antarctic on the east of Australia, and of
Antarctic waters (Humboldt's current) to the north, along the western shores of South America ; and,
according to this principle, there ought to be another Sargasso somewhere between New Zealand and
the coast of Chili. To test the correctness of this view, I requested Lieut. Warley to overhaid our
sea journals for notices of kelp and drift matter on the passage from Australia to Cajje Horn and the
Chincha Islands. He did so, and found it abounding in small patches, with ' many birds about,'
between the parallels of 40° and 50° south, and the meridian of 140° and 178° west. This Sargasso is
directly south of the Georgian Islands, and is perhaps less abundantly sujiplied with drift matter,
less distinct in outline, and less permanent in position than any one of the others."*
It thus appears that instead of three, as stated in the former editions of Lieut. Maury's
"Physical Geography of the Sea," there are really five Sargassos, and it is from his maps that
I have laid them down as shown on MajJ 5*.
Now the objection to Maury's explanation taken by itself is, that the Sargasso, at least in the
Atlantic, is composed of only one ingredient, the Saegassum bacciferum ; whilst any collection of
true drift would necessarily be composed of a heterogeneous accunmlation of all sorts of things. If
* Maury, " Physical Geography of the Sea," 1S60, p. 50.
MIOCENE ATLANTIS. 37
the Sargassum were once there, there would be no diflficulty in admitting that the effect of the
streams or currents would be to keep it fenced in within their limits. And it would not bo necessary
for this that it should have originally occupied the whole of the space which it now does. Once
within it, although originally occupying only a small corner, it might have spread all over it
(the conditions of the ocean being there everySvhere similar), but coidd not pass the boundaries
of these currents. I therefore thiidc that to obtain a true explanation of the Sargasso Seas we
requii-e both Forbes and Humboldt's theories ; Forbes' to explain the original appearance of the
weed, Humboldt's its present limits.
If we admit this, it follows that Gulf weed in the Atlantic indicates the submergence of land
somewhere in that ocean ; but it does not indicate where the submergence took place. It may not
have been within it at all. It niaj^ have been in the coiu-se of some of the surrounding currents,
and the weed which sprung from it may have been caught up and carried along by it until tossed
into the eddy, there to spread over the whole tranquil space.
The fact, however, of the restriction of species within their original boimds, leads me to believe
that the starting-point or specific centre of this species, or this form of the Sarf/a-ssum vulrjarc,
if it be not a distinct species, and consequently the point of the disappearance of an ancient
coast of submerged land, must have probably been within the bounds of the Atlantic Sargasso.
It may not have been the miocene Atlantis ; that is, the route of communication between Europe
and North America ; but for aU that the weed may mark in whole or in part the site of submerged
land.
If not on the site of the Gulf- weed where else can the Atlantis have been ? Heer and Unger,
while they do not adopt Forbes' idea, place it, as already said, across the widest and deepest part
of the North Atlantic, somewhat to the north of the Sargasso.
I think it must have been still more to the north ; certainly it kept its last hold well to the
north, for all the species very closely allied, or common to both Europe and America, are northern
types ; not species which might have crossed from Andalusia or Algeria, to Florida, nor of so
extreme a polar character that they could have crossed by Greenland in its present climate, but
such as might have done so by Labrador or Nova Scotia. I imagine there must have been a
great extension of land on the European side of the Atlantic, reaching beyond the Azores, uniting
Spain and Ireland, and stretching westward by Newfoundland and its banks to Nova Scotia
and Labrador on the one hand, and northwards to Greenland and Spitzbergen on the other.
It is not to be doubted that this arrangement of land and water must have greatly contributed
to the occurrence of the glacial epoch. It is also probable that the termination of that epoch
was due in part, if not entirely, to the sinking of a large part of this preponderance of land,
but that it had not wholly disappeared by the time the cold of the glacial epoch was in the wane.
If it were so, and the connexion between Greenland and Europe still subsisted, that would much
increase the probability that the connexion with America also subsisted to a greater or less ex-
tent for some time. Let us see what there is to be said in favour of this view.
It is not difficult to show that such a connexion did continue between Greenland and Europe'.
In the first place, Greenland has a faima and flora which are not its own. "^Tience has it
received them? Singularlj^ enough they bear more than one impress. The manunalian fauna
and the ornis is American. The flora and entomology is European ; and these different phases
of organic life represent a different distribution of land and water when they were established.
Of course when organic life began to replace the inanimate desolation left by the glacial epoch
38 PRELIMINARY INQUIRIES.
over all Greenland, plants would come first, then insects, and afterwards birds and mammals. Until
vegetation clothed the land, animal Ufe must have been absent. There was nothing for it on which
to subsist. I have said that the flora is American. This has been amply shown b_y Dr. Hooker
in his valuable paper on the distribution of Ai-ctic plants. He has also shown that it is pecidiar in
the paucity of the number of its species, compared with other equally Arctic lands ; it con-
taining actually fewer species of European plants, than have found their way eastwards from Lapland,
by Asia into western and eastern Arctic America.*
He conceives that this is all explained by Mr. Darwin's hj^othesis, — "First, that the existing
Scandinavian flora is of great antiquity ; and that previous to the glacial epoch, it was more imi-
foi'mly distributed over the Polar zone than it is now. Secondly, that during the advent of the
glacial period the Scandinavian vegetation was driven southwards in every longitude ; and even
across the tropics into the south temperate zone. And that on the succeeding warmth of the present
epoch, those species that survived both, ascended the mountains of the warmer zones, and also
returned northwards accompanied by aborigines of the countries they had invaded during their
southern migration."*
He savs, " If it be granted that the Polar area was once occupied by the Scandina\'ian flora, and
that the cold of the glacial epoch did drive this vegetation southwards, it is e\'ideut that the
Greenland individuals, from being confined to a peninsida, would be exposed to very difierent
conditions to those of the great continents In Greenland many species would, as it wore, be driven
into the sea, — that is, exterminated ; and the survivors would be confined to the southern portion
of the peninsida. And not being there, brought into competition with other types, there could be no
struggle for life amongst their progeny ; and, consequently, no selection of better adapted varieties.
On the return of heat these survivors would simply travel northwards unaccompanied by the plants
of any other covmtry."t
The first point in the above propositions which I shoidd wish to notice, is the assumed existence
of a boreal flora before the commencement of the glacial epoch. This is a point which is always
taken for granted.
The usual conception of the matter is that stated above by Dr. Hooker. Were the question
under consideration solely what was the course of action to which these northern types were sub-
mitted during and after the glacial epoch, of course the exact period when they first made
their appearance would be of little consequence. But it is different with me here. The ques-
tion is one of vital importance to my theory, and I cannot afibrd to pass it as a matter of
indiflcrence. If the origin of species is in any respect due to change of condition, of life, then
at the glacial epoch, if ever, great alterations must have taken place. The southern migra-
tion of sjaecies from the north, their subsequent return, and the lingering behind of some on high
mountains, no one disputes ; but they are facts belonging to one category, while the original ap-
pearance of these northern types are facts belonging to another. It is essential for me to dispute
the proposition that these arctic tj'pes existed previous to the glacial epoch. If that were true, my
theory woidd be worthless, and I must give it up. But the proposition is not true. Not a single
arctic or boreal species of either plant or animal has ever been discovered in any stratum of older date
than the glacial epoch. It was the cold of that epoch which produced them all. How soon it was
* Hooker, in " Trans. Linn. Soc„" xxiii. p. 253. t Hookee, op. cit. pp. 254 and 258.
THE GLACIAL EPOCH. 39
after the appearance of the cold that the species were changed from their southern tj'pe into northern
forms wc cannot tell. My view is that it would be soon ; but doubtless, as the cold increased and
advanced southwards, fresh boreal species woidd be developed b}^ the increase of the power of the
instrimient of change, and doubtless also on its decrease as well as its increase the same result would
follow. But what I maintain is, that until the cold began, boreal species there were none. I speak
not only of plants, but of shells, mammals, and ever}^ created thing.
Some botanists speak of the plants returning in the same line of longitude after the retreat of
the glacial epoch as they had advanced before it. If my view is correct, this of course is impossible.
Neither can I adopt Dr. Hooker's view of the course of action of the glacial cold in Greenland,
and its probable effect upon " the survivors," for two reasons, the one that Greenland in all pro-
babilit)' had not then its present configuration, but was united to Europe ; the other, that, supposing
it not to have been so, then I cannot conceive to be possible that there should have been (?«y
survivors. It seems a physical impossibility that any germ of life could have sui'vived the euvelope-
ment of the soil for thousands of years, with a thick coating of ice, which was certainly the con-
dition of the whole northern hemisphere to a far more southerly latitude than Greenland.
When the glacial epoch arrived and advanced southwards, it must have operated in two
waj's — it must either have killed, or transformed into something else, all those species of plants
and animals which were subjected to its influence. It is also possible that it may have driven before
it, at a respectfid distance, all those which escaped its influence, and which migrated southward,
carrying their climate with them ; but as a uniform climate had imtil then subsisted at least as far
south as Greece, as is proved by the fossil flora of Euboea, it is not necessary for our argument to
decide whether the old miocene flora still subsisted in the southern parts of Europe in virtue of that
having been the general and established flora of the coimtry, or if, imder the altered conditions of
climate, it was now confined to those parts where the temperature and other conditions of life
suited it.
To this it is doubtless due that certain miocene genera, such as Clethra, Bystkopogon,
Cedronella, and Oreodaphxe, still subsist in the flora of Madeira and Porto Santo, and of the
Canaries and the Azores, as well as in North America.
In either view there would, both in the Old World and the New, be a double band of species ;
the most southerly consisting of the old species which lived before the glacial epoch ; and next, a
more northerly band fringing the line of ice, consisting of what we now call Aljjine and Boreal
plants and animals, and which were developed out of the old species under the influence of the novel
sensation of cold.
But although Dr. Hooker's explanation of the facts is not satisfactory to me, I readily accept
his facts themselves, and they show that, as already said, the type of the flora of Greenland is
European ; and if all life existing in Greenland previous to the glacial epoch was then exterminated,
it follows from their presence there now that it must have been connected with Europe subse-
quently to that epoch, for a sufiicient time to allow it to be refurnished with European plants
and insects. It is a necessity, not a matter of probabilitj*.
Next, as Iceland, Greenland, and Spitzbergen,* all three possess nearly the same flora, and
that flora European, they must either have been united to each other and to Europe in one line,
or united by different necks of land to the Continent ; which latter supposition, altliough not irn-
* There are some peculiarities in that of Spitzbergen to which I shall presently advert.
40 PKELIMINARY INQUIRIES.
possible, is inconsistent witli the close similarity of tlie floras of these lands, with the configura-
tion of the bed of the neighbouring sea, and with other facts having a like bearing.
The European character of the plants and insects of Greenland, Iceland, and Spitzbergen, is
sufficient evidence that they must have been connected with Europe in some way, but that alone
throws but little light on the point of connexion. It may have been by Norway, by Nova Zembla,
or by Britain. The following considerations show that it must have been by the latter : —
No tree now grows in Orkney or Shetland; the only ligneous things that do grow are the
Betula alba and the common juniper, both merely existing as shrubs ; but at six feet beneath
a peat-bog, trees, branches, leaves, and cones, ascribed to the silver fir, have been fovind — one tree
in particular of six feet in circumference and forty feet in height,* being recorded by Mr. Edmon-
ston as having been found in peat in Shetland.
Wlien did these trees grow, and what was the climate of Britain then ? Was it really milder
then than now, as we should be inclined to expect, from the fact of these trees being found in
Shetland, where they will not now grow ? As to the date of their growth there, there can be very
little doubt that it was subsequent to the glacial epoch. The grinding of the ice of that time would
sweep away every trace of peat-bogs from the surface of the land. Were a Swiss glacier to meet a
peat-bog in its course, it would soon plough it up, and scarify the ground to the very bone below.
It is plain, therefore, that the tree must have grown and died, and the peat been deposited, subse-
quent to the glacial epoch.
Now one of two things must have taken place since it grew ; either the general climate of the
Northern hcmisjjhere must have undergone a change, and that change must have been from warmer
to colder, or the individual climate of Shetland must have done so by an alteration in its configura-
tion and physical condition.
But the growth of these silver firs (if silver firs they be and not spruces, a point on which the
record is not absolutely clear) could not be due to any material change in the general climate
of the whole country : for their remains are found in the peat, in company with those of the Scotch
pine and spruce fir, and as these are the same trees that now grow in the corresponding isothermal
line on the Continent, no general alteration from warmer to colder can well have taken jolace over
the whole hemisphere ; and as it is only on the Continent or in lands not exposed to the sea that
they thrive in that latitude, it may be inferred that at the time they grew there the Shetlands
were either not islands, or not such small islands.
But the Shetland Islands rise nearly precipitously from a wide submarine plain seventj'-four
fathoms deej), which extends from these islands to within no great distance of the coast of Norway.
Their form, therefore, shows that any increase on their size could only be obtained by such an eleva-
tion as would unite them to the Continent, from Denmark southwards ; and there is little doubt
that that must have been the position of matters when the trees in question grew on these islands.
Along the west coast of Norway a deep channel extends in continuation of that of the Baltic.
That sea then must have trended away up by the west coast of Norway, and Britain must have
been joined on to the present Continent from the Shetlands to the north of Denmark, all south
of a line drawn between them being, much less than seventy-four fathoms in depth. The Rhine
and the Elbe, so soon as by the subsequent rise of the land they came into existence, probably
emptied themselves into the Baltic.
* Edmonston, in " Annals of Natural History," 1841, vii. 295, and Edmonsion in " Pliytologist," i. 430.
THE GLACIAL EPOCH. 41
There remains the difficult question whether the embouchure of the Baltic opened into the
Atlantic between Iceland and the British Islands, or between Spitzbergen and Fiumark ; in other
words, whether Greenland was united to Europe by Norway, or by Britain. As Iceland, Greenland,
and Spitzbergen, were united, the Baltic must have reached the sea by one or other of the above
passages.
I have tried to make out something from a comparison of the phaenogamic flora of Great Britain,
and of the Scandinavian Peninsula, with that of Greenland. I thought that it might show traces of
its former connexion by an imdue preponderance of anj' peculiarity existing in the one flora or the
other ; but they have turned out so equally balanced, that no inference, one way or the other, could
be drawn from the contrast.*
It is therefore very much a matter of imagination which supposition we adopt. I prefer the
union with Britain for the following fancies, I can scarcely call them reasons. 1. It carries on the
land in the same line in which what we see of it is already directed. 2. There are a number of
stepping-stones on the way which may be supposed to indicate the topmost summits, and the
course of the sunken land ; and 3. It allows the prolongation of the Baltic to pursue its course
to the open sea in a straight line instead of turning it off a second time at right angles.
The proof that Greenland was united to Europe subsequently to the glacial epoch, is thus clear
enough. That the communication between Europe and America also subsisted for a short time,
although probably imperfect and interrupted, seems also pretty plain ; it is more difficult to
judge whether that communication still subsisted after the separation between these lands took
place. The fact that Iceland is wholly destitute of aboriginal mammals, except perhaps what
may prove to be an American Lemming, and that those of Greenland and Spitzbergen are not
of the European, but American type, shows that the connexion between Europe and them, while
it endured long enough to allow them to be peopled by European plants and European insects,
was severed before mammals followed on their trace. The connexion with both continents may
then have been severed, for although the mammals in Greenland are of the American tj-pe, they
are very {cw, and all of a class that might have migrated across any moderate distance of ice; and
Spitzbergen and Iceland may have continued united to Greenland after both were disunited
from the rest of Europe. In any view it is only the now submerged north-western portion of
miocene Europe, which still subsisted dnring and after the glacial epoch. Its south-western part
cannot have done so, or we should have had a flora in Europe more nearly resembling that of
North America. Some remains of it, however, still survive, to show that the miocene flora escaped,
where it was beyond the influence of the cold.
I may remark, par parenthese, here, that it would be difficult to find two lands better adapted for
illustrations of 'Mr. Darwin's views of colonization by flotsam and jetsam than Spitzbergen and
* I took the Greenland flora from the tables in Hooker's siderably greater than those in Britain, the numbers being
ussay above mentioned ; the Scandinavian from Frie's 1708 Scandinavian plants against 1239 British, conse-
"SummaVegetabilium Scandinavia;," and the British from quently the former might be expected to possess the
Bentham's " Hand Book " (as steering a just medium be- largest actual number of species ; tried according to that
tween the extreme opinions regarding species on both ratio, the proportion of Greenland plants to the whole of
sides), and this comparison gives 232 Greenland species the Scandinavian is a little more than a seventh (about
as found in the Scandinavian Peninsula, and only 167 in 7|), while that of Britain is also a little more than a
Britain, but this apparent preponderance in favour of seventh (about 73), showing that the difference is too
Scandinavia is neutralised by the fact that the number of slight to allow us to draw any conclusions from it cither
species inhabiting the Scandinavian Peninsula is con- one way or other.
G
42 I'RELIMINARY INQUIRIES.
Iceland, both large islands, the one with a flora limited to ninety-three species, the other apparently
witliovit an indigenous mammal. In the former, the most remarkable fact in favour of the view is
that Spitzbergen appears to have two, if not three, floras represented on its shores, — literally its
shores, — ^because the interior is a pile of snow and ice where nothing can live.* The flora of the west
coast has been chiefly borrowed from Greenland ; that on the north coast has a considerable flavoui* of
the Melville and Parry Islands species, there being, besides half a dozen species peculiar to Mel-
ville Island, no less than 58 out of the 83 composmg the flora of that island found in Spitz-
bero-en, and chiefly on its north coast, and about 53 out of 12-4 species from Eastern Asia. It is
not said whether these latter are chiefly found on the eastern coast or not. If it should prove so,
we shoidd then have each coast with a predominance of species from the country lying opposite
it, which certainly would look something like colonization by immigration by some such means.
On the other hand. Mammals, such as the Reindeer and Hare, could have come neither by
flotsam nor jetsam. It is possible that they might have crossed the ice, particidarly if nmch land
lies between Spitzbergen and Melville Island ; but former contiguity or continuity of land seems the
more probable explanation. As to Iceland, its flora does not seem to have any of these pecidiarities,
and besides, although only amounting to 445 phanerogamous species, it is still greatly too large to
allow of our supjjosing it all to have come over sea.
Before leaving these frozen regions I may remark that their floras furnish confirmation of
the justice of my view of the origin of sj>ecies on one point, viz., that without change of condition no
new species can be produced. There can hardly be any condition more constant than continual
cold ; and we find in conformity with what we might expect from such a character, that the species
which are frigid in their constitution exist without change in Greenland, the Alps, the Him-
malayahs and Andes, while those of more temperate character have disappeared in some localities
and become changed in others, — the change probablj^ being due to interventions of more moderate
climate. The Greenland and Spitzbergen species are all of an arctic character, and have come
back with and kept pace with the cold, consequently we should not expect to obtain any change or
development of new species out of them, and so it is. With the exception of a single insig-
nificant new grass (Catabrosa Vilfoidea) in Spitzbergen, not a single species has been foimd
either in Spitzbergen or Greenland which was not already known as occurring elsewhere.
* Malmgren says, " The summer's heat melts the snow is an old sea-shore, and that Spitzbergen is gradually
and fits the soil for its scanty vegetation only on a narrow rising above the sea. This naiTow ledge of so compara-
strip of land, which .stretches along the coast between the tively recent a geological age, supports the great propoi-tion
sea and the nearest mountain ridge. The mountains of the vegetation ; only a third of the species are found
seldom rise precipitously from the sea, thei-e is generally on the north coast at a greater height than 300 feet above
such a narrow terrace of about one-eighth to half a mile the sea." According to his view, the flora of Spitzbergen
in width. Its composition and the sub-fossil whale-bones must consequently also be comparatively recent, and still
and moUusca contained in the uppermost bed of gravel, continuing to increase. — See Malmgren, op. cit. Transla-
which is 50 to 150 feet above the sea, show that this ledge tion in Seeman's " Journal of Botany," p. 173.
CHAPTEE V.
PAST GEOGRAPHY OF THE GLOBE Continued GLACIAL EPOCH.
Such a Miocene Atlantis as that above defined sufficiently explains the common distribution of
plants and animals in Europe and Ajnerica, up to the glacial epoch. We have now to consider how
and by what channels the rehabilitation and distribution of these lands themselves were effected
subsequent to that period. I have rather anticipated this in regard to Greenland, Iceland, and
Spitzbergen. But the main question of the restoration of life to Europe and America still remains.
Life in North America being by the glacial eold driven into Mexico, and in Europe almost
entirely extirpated, and the communication with North America cut olT, except at an extreme point
which lay at the greatest distance from the siu'vi\Tng focus of life in each country respectively,
viz. as regards America in the extreme north-east, while all the survi\-ing life was crowded into the
extreme south-west ; and as regards Europe in the extreme north-west, while the nearest point
whence life could be drawn was probably the south-east of Asia ; it is plain that neither of the
continents could help the other, America covdd receive European colonists, and Europe American,
only after they had each been re-peopled from some other source.
In the first place, as to Europe, it is plain that it must have drawn its new inhabitants almost
entirely from Asia ; the Sahara still subsisted as a sea, although perhaps diminished in size, and cut
it off from Africa ; and accordingly no trace of the fauna or flora of Africa proper is to be found in
Exirope.* There was, therefore, no place except Asia on which it could draw (any slight remnants of
the miocene flora which are still to be foimd in Europe were doubtless preserved in those parts of
the South of Europe which existed as islands beyond the reach of the ice of the glacial epoch ;) and,
in accordance with this, we find that the flora and faima of Europe and Asia are essentially the
same. It is to be expected that in such an immense tract of country climatal variations must have
arisen since then ; and we can distinguish three sub-provinces (which may be called respectively the
Scandinavian, the Mediterranean, and the East, or Mongolo- Siberian), but essentially the whole of
Asia north of the line of the Himmalayahs and Europe is of one type. When we come to trace the
spread of particular species of plants and animals, I have been surprised to find how happily
this view explains many seeming anomalies, which have puzzled naturalists to account for, such
as the distribution of the cedars — the silver firs— many of the mammals, and in fact of every class
of organic life in Europe and Northern Asia.
As to America the whole of its pre-existing flora and fauna having been crowded into the north-
west of Mexico and Central America, that is the source from which it must have been restored. On
the retreat of the ice the flora, of course, would follow it step by step, but its starting-point being
west of the dividing ridge or backbone of America, or, what is probably more to the purpose, west
of the tertiary sea which lay in the line of the Missouri and Mackenzie Eivcrs, and thus being
penned in between the Pacific and these barriers, it would flow iip in strength into Cali-
* Any instances, such as the lion or leopard, which pearancc. See remarks on the distribution of the lion
seem inconsistent with this statement, are only so in ap- postca.
44 PRELIMINARY INQUIRIES.
fornia and Oregon, and only sucli a portion of it as might be able to cross the ridge or sea woidd
succeed in making good its footing on the eastern side of North America.
I conceive that the Missouri sea must have been the more important obstacle of the two ;
because the place where that sea lay is to this day the limiting boimdary between various
species inhabiting the country to the east and west of it. That sea, however, was interrupted near
the south, and by that interruption Eastern America doubtless received many of its species. The sea
appears to have run up straight to the Arctic Ocean in the line of the Mackenzie River ; but I have a
strong expectation that it will be found, when the regions to the north of Vancouver's Island are
thoroughly examined, that this sea had another communication with the Pacific perhaps not very
far north of or on the site of the tertiary beds near that island, which acted as a barrier isolating the
strip of land which lies along the coast of the Pacific between the mountains and the sea. This
seems probable from the following facts in the distribution of Asiatic plants in America, or of
American types in Asia.
Professor Gray has shown that the relations of the flora of Eastern Asia (as more particularly
expressed by that of Japan) with that of the United States, east of the Mississippi are j)eculiarly
intimate. This is evinced by the great number of congeneric, closely representative, and identical
species in the two floras. Also that although there is a considerable number of species com-
mon to the western side of the American continent and to Japan, yet that the likeness is
less strong between their floras than between those of Eastern North America and Japan.
On the other hand, large American genera (such as Eupatorium, Aster, Solidago, Solanum)
are represented in Asia by a small number of species, which diminish or disappear as we approach
the Atlantic limits of Europe, whilst the tj'pes peculiar to the extreme west of Europe are wholly
deficient in America. " The deficiency," says Dr. Gray, " in the temperate American flora of forms
at all peculiar to Western Europe is almost complete, and is most strikingly in contrast with the
large number of Eastern American forms repeated or represented in Eastern Asia."
Professor Gray thus accounts for these facts. First, he adopts the theory that a more extended
homogeneous and uniform distribution of plants than we now have existed previous to the glacial
epoch ; that during the continuance of thgt epoch, the northern types migrated, or were
driven southwards, (although he does not seem to accept the idea of their being driven so com-
pletely out of the coimtry as I have supposed), and that, on the retreat of the ice before the
returning warmth, the temperate flora which had sui'vived the cold returned to the north, fol-
lowing the steps of the ice pari passu; and, what he considers an important point, that they
must have advanced further north, and especially north-westward, than they now do, so far,
indeed, that the temperate flora of North America and Eastern Asia must have become con-
terminous. He- then supjjoses that an epoch, called by Dana the Fluvial epoch, followed the
Glacial epoch, which, from whatever cause, was of a milder character than our present climate,
as he thinks is proved by the remains of species of Megatherium, Mylodon, Megaxonyx, Mas-
todon, and the Mammoth, having been foimd in the deposits of that period. He argues that all
the facts known to us, even to tlie limiting of the drift, show that the configuration of the two
continents was nearly the same then as now, and the isothermal Knes curved as now (which,
so far as regards the isothermal lines, the reader will see to be correct by comparing the limits of
the glacial action in Europe and America shown in Blap 4) ; that such a more genial climate would
commingle the temperate floras of the two continents hy Bhering's Straits, or perhaps by the still
shorter route of a tract of land between Kamtschatka and the Aleutian Islands.
THE TERRACE EPOCH. 45
Still following Dana's geological views, he imagines a third ejioeh (the Terrace Epoch), wliich
is the transition between his fluvial eiioch and the present state of things, during which he supijoses
that the interchange of migrations by which the preponderating affinity between the East of North
America and the East of Asia over that of "Western America w^as eifected, took place by, and in virtue
of, the isothermal Hnes. To use his own words, — " The interchange of plants between the East of
North America and Eastern Asia has mainly taken place in high northern latitudes, and that the
isothermal Hnes have, in earlier times, turned northward on our eastern, and southward on our
north-western coast, as they now do, arc points which go far towards explaining why Eastern North
America, rather than Oregon and California, has been mainly concerned in it, and why the
temperate interchange, even with Europe, has principally taken place in Asia."
I am a little sceptical about the sixpposed fluvial epoch ; and its climate being milder than
that of the present day. The presence of the Megatherium might be worth something as evidence
of a warm climate, seeing that the typical South American species lived in a warm climate, and
that the species itself lived previous to the glacial epoch ; but the company of the Mammoth, and this
not a tropical Mammoth, but the woolly fur-clothed Elephas primigenius, adds nothing to the force
of that fact. If the maxim "iioscitiir a sociis" is to be applied, its association with the species
of Megatherium and Mylodon in question would be fatal to the idea of a mild climate. For, although
the kindred of the Megatheres lived in a warm climate, so did the kindred of the Mammoth : and
yet we are as sure almost as we can be of anything depending on paloBontological evidence that
the Siberian Mammoth (Elefhas primigenius) was an animal fitted for a cold climate. More-
over, the evidence of extinct Megatheres having survived the glacial epoch is not altogether beyond
suspicion. The reader will find the question more fully discussed when we come to the Edentata.
If they did, they did not survive it long, and only in the most southern and warmest parts of North
America.
The argument from the isothermal lines is more satisfactory. There is, however, one purpose
to which it is applied by Professor Gray in which I cannot concur, and that is, to explain the
cause why species whicli, according to him, have crossed from Asia, have passed by, or omitted
to enter, north-west America, and travelled on to Eastern America. His theory explains most
happily and ingeniously how species, whose habitat is in Eastern Asia and Eastern America at as
low a latitude as 50° N., may yet have been able to cross from one continent to the other at a
latitude of upwards of 60°, but having once crossed, I do not see they shoidd have a greater range
of latitude in east than west America, nor why the species should be absent in the latter altogether.
The fact is, however, that they have not spread into north-west America. That district — that
strip of land lying to the west of the Rocky Mountains — has been passed by the plants, whether
from Asia or Eastern America? If the plants really touched the north of this territory, there
must have been some other reason for their going past it than the difference in temperature. There
must have been a barrier there which they could not pass ; and I think the hypothesis which
I have above suggested, that at that time there was a strait or sea to the north of Vancouver's
Island, joining, what I may call the Missouri-Mackenzie tertiary sea, is the true explanation of
the phenomenon. Such a barrier would hem in and preserve North- West America as a com-
paratively isolated region, in which, as Dr. Hooker points out, — " wc have, as in an oceanic
island, a great mixture of types (Asiatic, Eurojjcan, East and West American) and paucity of
species."*
* HooKKK, " On the Distribution of Arctic Plants," in Liunean Society's Transactions, vol. xxiii., p. 270. 1S61.
46 PRELIMINARY INQUIRIES.
There is, however, another feature in the distribution of vegetation in North America, which has
been used as an argument in favour of the miocene Atlantis without regard to the interruption of
phenomena which must have been occasioned by the glacial epoch ; but which, if it was worth
anything as an argument when no such interruption was thought of, shoidd be equally good for an
Atlantis after it ; and that is, that the number of the species of plants which occur in Eastern
Asia diminishes as we proceed westwards. Mr. M'Clelland makes an observation to a similar
effect as regards the animals of Assam ; his catalogue of them displaying an interesting balance
numerically in favour of the extension of species from the eastward.* As to plants, out of 1550,
which is the number of Japanese phaenogamous species known up to this time. Dr. Gray has pointed
out that, supposing them to have been spread in the direction and from the point specified, by
the time they reach Europe they are reduced to 157 ; by the time they come to Eastern North
America they only nmnber 134 ; and when they get so far as Western North America we find only
120 species.
The inference from this, of course, is that there was a highway open to the plants all the way
round the world from Japan to California ; and that as they got further and further on their
journey, species kept dropping off until, when they reached its end, only 120 species remained out
of 1550. The idea is plausible at first sight, but a little consideration will serve to show that
the distribution of species in North America has in reaKty nothing to do with that in Europe and
Asia, but that they are the results of two totally different trains of action. It is plain that if they
were part of the same train of action, they must bear a relative proportion to each otlier. If 1550
species are reduced to 157 ia journeying to Europe — say 7000 miles — they ought to have suffered a
further proportionate decrease by the time they have reached America, and a stiU greater by the
time they have reached California. Does that rate correspond with the results above given ? Here
they are compared : —
LOSS PROPORTIONATE
ACTUAL LOSS OUT OF 1550. TO THE DISTANCES.
From Japan to Central Europe, say 7000 miles — 1393=one in every five miles . 1393
From Central Europe to Newfoundland, 3000 miles, 23 600
From Newfoundland to California, . 4000 miles, 13 800
In other words, according to that ratio the whole shoidd have been extinguished before they
had well left Em-ope ; the 157 left would not suffice to carry them across the Atlantic, even starting
from the west coast of Ireland. In the first 7000 miles, the missing amounted to 1363, in the
second only to 36 ; a result too extravagant to be seriously looked at, and yet not even so bad as
it really should be, because no allowance has been made for the increased ratio of loss which
we should expect to be consequent on increased distance from home.
The real cause of the similarity of the floras of Eastern Asia and America is probably that
both started from a similar basis. In the miocene time one flora inhabited Europe, Asia, and
America. The glacial cold all but destroyed it in Europe, but in North America it found a refuge
in the south-west, and in Asia the distribution of land and water shows that its refuge there
must have been mainly in the south-east — not in the Malayan south-east, which was cut off"
from Northern Asia — but in the south-east of Northern Asia; in other words, Japan and the
north of China. The floras preserved in Asia and America would, of course, imdcrgo different
* M'Clelland, Catalogue of Animals in Assam iu " Annals of Natural History."
THE GLACIAL ErOCH. 47
changes as they spread further and further from their starting-point, hut in hoih those left at tlieir
starting-point should be nearest the original miocene type from which they have descended without
undergoing the chances of change of form incident to change of place.
As regards modified species which may have found their way from Asia to America, or, vice verfta,
the difference in their proportion in East and West ^Vmerica is to be sought for in the com-
paratively insular position of the latter, fenced off, as I have shown, by seas to the west, to the
greater part of the east, and also probably to the north. Hence East America, although furthest
from Asia, received the Asiatic species first, and West America only received them by regurgita-
tion from the East.
Before leaving the consideration of the effect of the glacial epoch, I should wish to notice an
ingenious, cosmical speculation, in relation to it, which has recently been propounded.
That epoch plays too important a part in questions relating to the geographical distribution
of plants and animals, to allow us to disregard as extraneous any views relating to it. I there-
fore make no apology to the reader for detaining him for a few minutes while we look into this
hypothesis and endeavour to estimate it at its real value.
The speculation to which I refer is that lately made by Mr. Croll* in which he ascribes
some of the phenomena of the glacial epoch to the disturbance of the centre of gravity of the
earth. That gentleman has suggested that the submergence of the land in the north which
is believed to have followed the termination of the glacial epoch may have been due to a
distuibance or alteration of the centre of gravity of the earth, consequent on the enormous
weight of ice accumidated at the North Pole during that epoch. Mr. Jamiesonf had already
suggested that the earth's crust may have yielded imdor the weight of the ice, and so caused
the submergence ; but Mr. Croll, whde he also refers the residt to the weight of the ice, argues,
that instead of the earth sinking, the water, in adjusting itself to a different centre of gravity,
overflowed part of the land. Mr. Croll says, " The surface of the ocean always adjusts itself in
relation to the earth's centre of gravity, no matter what the form of the solid mass of earth may
happen to be. Now if a portion of the water of the ocean be converted into solid ice, and placed,
for example, around the northern polar regions, it will necessarily change the position of the
earth's centre of gravity. The centre of gravity will be removed a little to the north of its former
position. The water of the ocean will then forsake the old centre, and adjust itself in relation
to the new. The surface of the ocean will, therefore, rise towards the North Pole, and fall towards
the South ; in other words, there will be in relation to the sea-level a depression of the land on
the northern hcmisj)here, and an elevation on the southern. The extent of the rise of the ocean,
level, or, what is equally the same, the extent of the submergence, will be in proportion to the
weight of the ice-sheet. The weight, or the size, of the ice-sheet being known, we can determine
with the utmost certainty the extent of the submergences ; or controversely, the extent of the
submergence being known we can determine both the weight and the size of the ice-sheet. It
is singular why physicists should not have perceived the physical impossibility of an ice-sheet,
several thousands of feet in thickness being placed upon the northern hemisphere, stUl retaining
its former level in relation to this land, unless the ice-sheets be counterbalanced by one of equal
weight placed upon the southern hemisphere. But this leads to another residt. The submergence
of the land during the glacial epoch leads to the conclusion that the glaciation wa.s not contem-
* Sec Letter in " Reader," Aug. 1865. t Jamieson, in " Quart. Journ. of Geology," xviii. 170, and .\i.\. 235.
48 PRELIMINARY INQUIRIES.
poraneous on both hemispheres. If the ice-sheet had covered both hemispheres, the earth's centre
of ji-ravity, and consequently the ocean-level, would have remained unaffected. The submergence
of the land is therefore another confirmation of the truth of the theory, which attributes the glacial
epoch to excentricity of the earth's orbit ; for, as you are aware, if the glacial epoch had been
due to the excentricity, the glaciation could have extended to only one hemisphere at a time. One
hemisphere would have been covered with snow and ice, while the other would have been enjoying
a perpetual spring.
"A glacial epoch resulting from the excentricity of the earth's orbit would extend over 100,000
years. But owing to the precession of the equinoxes and the revolution of the apsides the glaciation
would be transferred from the one hemisphere to the other every 10,000 years or so. A glacial
epoch extending over 100,000 j^ears would therefore be broken up with five or six warm periods.
A warm period on the one hemisf)here would be contemporaneous with a cold period on the other.
Under these circumstances we ought to have elevation of the land during the warm periods, and
submergence during the cold. The land ought to have stood higher than at present during some
periods of the glacial epoch as well as lower. This, again, is in agreement with geological facts.
That the cold of the glacial epoch was not continuous, but was broken up by comparatively warm
periods, when the ice to a considerable extent at least disappeared, I think has been clearly
proved by Morlot, Geikic, and others, from the stratified beds of sand clay and gravel, old water-
courses and striated ' pavements ' which have been found in the true boulder clay."
As regards the glacial epoch being the result of the excentricity of the earth's orbit, there
is much that is attractive in the idea. It would explain many puzzling facts, and others which
appear inconsistent with it might be explained away or reconcilod to it. For example, it may
be said if that is a true explanation the glacial epoch should return periodicallj^ and that this has
been so we have no evidence. But the heat of the earth until the glacial ej)och may have been
sufiicicnt to have enabled it to have endured the cold with only a slight alteration of temperature,
sufficient to make such a change of condition as J require for the development of new species,
but nothing so great as to produce an extinction of Kfe on any part of the globe : of course it would
be less and less felt the further back we go in the history of the earth.
There are, however, some facts apparently opposed to it, which I do not at present see any
means of explaining away. The excentricity of the earth's orbit would produce its effect at regular
periods, always the same, and at each of these periods marks of its presence should be left — the
mark of its presence which I would require wovdd of course be more or less an important change
in the tyjjes of animal and vegetable life. These we have, but they do net recur at the right times,
some being separated by longer periods than others.
Then, again, the necessary assumption that the cold did not extend to both hemispheres at the
same time seems inconsistent with some facts which we shall have to consider as we go along;
more especially the close affinity of the Arctic and Antarctic whalebone whales, whose ancestors
could never have passed from the one Pole to the other, unless the cold extended over the whole
earth to such a degree as to render the equatorial seas tolerably cold, or imless the constitution of
these whales was something very difierent from that of theii- descendants.
Mr. Croll next goes on to .specidate on the thickness and weight of the ice-sheet, and the
extent of the effect it would produce.
"It has been proved by Mr. Jamieson that in some parts of Scotland the ice-sheets must
have been at least 3000 feet thick. Agassiz thinks that in some parts of North America its
THE GLACIAL EPOCH. 49
thickness could not have been less than a mile ; the thickness of the ice in Scandinavia and
other parts of northern Europe miist have been enormous." He therefore assumes that it was
. 7000 feet thick at the North Pole, diminishing in thickness towards the Equator, according to
a law, into the consideration of which we need not here enter, so that the upper surface of the
sheet should curve exactly the same as the land beneath, and ends by bringing out the result
that this distribution of ice would have the effect of producing a total submergence of 1000 feet
at the North Pole, and a elevation (emergence) of 1000 feet at the South Pole, and of course
a lesser accumulation of ice would produce a correspondingly lesser amount of submergence and
emergence.
Now this hypothesis depends upon several assumptions the withdrawal of any of which would
be fatal to it. There must have been a vast accumulation of ice in the northern hemisphere, and
it must have been thickest towards the Pole ; there must have been not one submergence but
several ; and these must have taken place during the continuance of the glacial epoch.
Now, first as to the ice ; is there any reason for supposing that at the present time it increases
in thickness as we approach the Pole ? I have not met with any statement to that effect ; and
if the voyagers who have penetrated furthest had observed any indication of its becoming so they
would surely have mentioned it. But both from their sketches and descriptions it appears that the
ice and glaciers continued of the same thickness as they advanced to the north. Into this question,
the dimensions and extent of mountain glaciers, such as those of the AIjds, do not enter. The
inferences of Venetz and Cliarj)entier as to the immense extent of these may be perfectly correct ;
but it does not follow that their height must have been correspondingl}^ great. They are, however,
exceptional and detached, and do not afiect the case of the general mass of polar ice.
Of course in the case of sea ice it would probably be of a greater depth the further north we
go and the greater the cold there is ; but that is nothing to the purpose, for ice is iigliter than
■ water, and an addition to its dei^th would not add to its weight. It is only by accumulation
above the level of the sea that additional weight could be produced. As no one has reached the
Pole we cannot tell from observation what is the case there, but we may reason from analogy as
to what should be found there. If we assume that the cold becomes more intense the nearer we
approach the Pole, it by no means follows that there should be more ice there. All the ice of these
regions comes from snow. Snow is produced by warm vapour-bearing clouds or atmosphere coming
in contact with cold air. It never falls when the thermometer is much below 32° Fahr. The
vapour-laden warm aii' which has risen from the tropics and ascended above the colder temperate
atmosphere on meeting the frozen air of the Arctic regions, deposits its vapour in the shajje of
snow. It is, therefore, always on the boundary of the eternal ice that snow will be deposited.
The Pole itself shoiild be clear from fogs, or vapour, or snow. How far the direct heat of the sun
might have some efiect in producing them during the short summer wo cannot tell ; but we know
that that is not the origin of the snows which fall elsewhere. It comes from the source already
mentioned. Increase of snow and ice shoidd therefore be always at the outer margin of the polar
ice ; when there is no yearly increase in the cold, when it is standing water between heat and cold,
there will be little increase in the breadth or thickness of the ice, for the heat of summer will
melt away the increase of winter. But when the cold is on the increase, as when the glacial epoch
came on, its last year's gain woidd not be melted away indeed, but stiU there would be no increase
of snow or ice in the interior, it would be always at the outer margin that the increase would go
on ; and the effect of increased cold would be, not to pile up more ice upon that which already
50 PRELIMINARY INQUIRIES.
existed, but to advance the margfin towards the equator ; and all that the margin would gain in
increase would be the few years' accumulation which might have fallen before it was left behind
in the interior by the general advance of the margin towards the tropics. The glacial ice, according
to my view therefore, never was thicker than it is now in Greenland and the Polar Seas.
Of course, if I am wrong in my reasoning as to the deposit of snow in the Polar regions, and if
the analogy of what is now to be seen in the Polar regions, can be disregarded or explained away,
I then must abandon my position and acknowledge that here is no limiting power but time to
the thickness which the sheet ice may have attained during the glacial epoch. I would only
say in that case, that I am astonished at the moderation of Agassiz and his followers in limiting it
to a mile. The rate at which the glaciers of the Alps move (from several inches to a foot or two in
the twenty-four hours) indicates a rate of increase at the upper end of many feet during the year ;
for although they are, as it were, the outlets of large lakes of ice, and consequently their rate of
movement is no guide as to the amount of snow which may have fallen on every square foot : still
considering how much is lost by melting, the rate of movement shows that the increase is very
great ; or, if we merely reckon all the rain that falls during the year in our own country, which
would then of course all be snow, and estimate the depth of ice as cqiial to that of the rainfall
it will be a very low estimate to take that at a foot in the year ; and if we then take Mr.
Croll's reduced datmn of only 10,000 years' continuance of cold without a break, we shoiJd on that
ratio have a thickness about two miles in height. Or if the alternative proposition of no breaks
of warmth be adopted, and his 100,000 years be accepted as the limit of time, the thickness on
the same ratio would reach twenty miles in height.
Again, as to the repeated or alternate submergencies and elevations during the continuance of
the glacial epoch, this, no doubt, may have been, but it can scarcely be called more than a conjecture.
All that can be said of the facts to which Mr. CroU alludes as in some degree supporting this
idea is, that they are not irreconcilable with it. They are as consistent with the subsidence
(which all admit) haraig taken place subsequent to the retreat of the ice as during its sub-
sistence. The evidence of subsidence, such as that of beds containing shells being found overlying
the drift, jDoints to a date subsequent to the cessation of the chief rigour of the glacial epoch,
and some of them indicate the lapse of long periods of time between its close and the submer-
gence. The old watercourses and striated pavements found by Mr. Geikie in the drift, speak
neither for nor against submergence, but are so far in favour of a break in the intensity of the
cold, although they do not necessarily prove this. They may have arisen while the ground
where they occur formed part of the outer margin of ice, and vibrated between advance and
retreat. In our own times, without any apparent alteration in our climate, an immense barrier of
ice, which had surrounded the east coast of Greenland for fom- centuries, broke up in the year
1816, and in that and the following year disappeared from the coast. Its disruption and re-
growth might simulate some of the i^henomena referred to by Mr. CroU.
Lastly, if the elevation or transference of mountain chains and vast continents from one
hemisphere to another, failed to disturb the centre of gravity of the earth, the existence of such
a quantity of ice as it seems reasonable to admit the existence of, could have had still less influence
especially if the balance of the earth were preserved by both Poles being refrigerated at the same
time.
51
CHAPTER VI.
MAMMALS CLASSIFICATION AND MUTUAL AFFINITIES.
Starting -with the principles which I have laid down in the previous chapters, and by which I
mean to be guided throughout the remainder of this work, the affinity of species becomes of vital
importance to our whole inquiry ; and not merely the simple question, whether this or that species
be allied or not, but the degree of affinity, becomes almost as necessary to be known. While it
is indisputable that two different species starting on the career of change at the same time, and
from the same terminus, can never bo expected to make equal progress ia their journey, as one
will certainly outstrip the other, stiU it is equally clear that when they do not start simultaneously,
those which have started first ought to have the advantage on the whole. Thus we can hardly
escape from the conclusion that when we find two animals both apparently derived from the same
stock, but one more removed from its typical character than the other, that one dates its connexion
with it from the more distant period of time.
The reader will see how important such indications may be when questions arise as to the
relative antiquity of the separation of diffi?rent lands, or their alternate separation and reunion.
No work can deal satisfactorily with geographical distribution which does not take a large account
of questions of affinity.
A few words upon the chief difficulties which meet us in our attempts to classify the animal
kingdom, and more particularly, mammals, will therefore be a fitting preamble to th-s details
on which we are about to enter.
Assuming that species are derived, the one from the other, the most perfect system of
classification would of course be simply a genealogical tree showing the descent of each.
The materials for making such a tree are, however, beyond our reach. The records that
have been kept in the pages of geological strata, are imperfect and Luterrupted, and we do
not even know that we can always read the language ; and of by far the greater portion no
record has been preserved at all.
All that we can do, therefore, is by the study of the anatomy and physiology of those living
species to which we have access, to endeavour to ascertain their affinities, and to make up a fictitious
tree, in the best way we can from the materials we possess.
. The genealogical form of classification has, however, this disadvantage, that wo can at no
rate, and by no possible contrivance, squeeze it iuto a linear arrangement. Each species requires
a separate tree for itself. Scarcely one of all the thousands of species inhabiting the globe can
come into the same arrangement with another, for if two appeared in the same genealogy, one
of them must either be the parent or descendant of the other, and the cases in which there is the least
reason for supposing that this has been the case with living species, are few in the extreme. But
although this bo the case with individual species, it is not necessarily so with larger groups ;
52
MAMMALS.
a group from which another has sprung may still subsist in its descendants; some groups may-
be very old, others quite modern, alwaj^s supposing that the groups really do exist in nature, and
are homogeneous, and may be treated as entities. If we may so treat them, the best substitute
for a linear arrangement is to have as few and as short, separate, and independent lines of
classification or descent as possible. But may we look upon such groups, famiKes, or orders,
as separate and independent existences P or, like genera, are they merely artificial aids to memory
and arrangement. It appears to me that they are in many respects more real than modern genera.
In the first place, the difierent orders (or, to prevent all dispute as to what an order really is, let
us say some of the different groups) are undoubtedly very homogeneous.
" In all the instances of approach of species of one order to other orders," says Mr. Waterhouse,
in speaking of the classification of the different orders in one of the best of his many excellent papers,
" there is not a single case which would fairly bear out the notion that these orders imperceptibly
blend into each other. There is always a tolerably weU marked line between them. The aberrant
species are readily traced back as it were into their own groups, and when they evince an approach to
other circles it is rather to the order than to any particular species of the order."*
In the next place, a species is something separate and distinct, which, although composed of
many items, is still only a unit. This, I think, is an inevitable corollary to the hypothesis that
new species come into existence in one body of many individuals. If we could believe the same
of orders we should be relieved from some of the most difficult questions attending the origin of
species.
In manamals, one of these is the relation which subsists between certain Marsiipials which
represent in that order equivalent groups of placental Mammals, and the difficulty arises in attempt-
ing to ascertain the respective origin of these Dromios. The Marsupials have many claims to be
considered one of the oldest, if not the oldest, order of Mammals. The following table of the
sequence in which Mammals have appeared on the earth, shows in a general way (without
takmg into account disiDuted or exceptional cases) theii- relative priority, so far as geology has been
able to determine it.
Geological
Epochs.
Recent
Pli(
Miocene
Upper Eocene
Lower Eocene
Secondary for-
mations
Orders of Mammals.
Man (?)
Monkeys — Proboscoid Pachyderms (Elepliants) — Edentata, (Megatheria, &c.)
Insectivora (Shrews, &c.) — Rodents (Rats, &c). — Ruminants — Whales
Bats — Tapyroid Pachyderms — Carnivora
Marsupials
* Watekhouse, On The Classification of the Mammalia in " Annals of Nat. Hist." Vol. xii. p. 399. 1843.
CLASSIFICATION. 53
This is not worth much, the record being so very imperfect, from the greater part of the
earth being now under water, or haying been in ancient times above water, and hence having
furnished few or no organic remains. But such as it is, it gives us the Marsupials (with a
questionable trace of Insectivora) as the first Mammals which appeared on the face of the earth. In
addition to the geological reasons for believing in their early appearance, the fact of their structure
being lowest in the scale of Mammalian life is an important fact, for although there is no doubt that
steps are taken by nature both backwards and forwards, as well as to the right and to the left, stiU
her general course iias been forwards, — her motto has always been "Excelsior," — and the chances
are thus in favour of the lowest having appeared first. The admirable system of classification
(admirable from the point of view of organization) founded by Professor Owen, chiefly, although
by no means wholly, on the characters of the brain,* seems to place it beyond doubt that the
relative position of the Marsujiials is at the bottom of the list, and that the place of the Rodents
and Insectivora is next to them. At any rate that one or other of these three is oldest. If
the Marsupials are not the oldest, then the choice lies between the Insectivora and the Rodents,
the claim of the former being strongest on geological grounds, of the latter on structural, and both
(if we reckon the Bats as Insectivores) as being the only placental inhabitants found in Australia
along with the Marsupials ; the equivalent relations above referred to being also much stronger
with them than with any other order.
These equivalent groups are of two kinds. One disj^lays relations of analogy which have been
thought to tj'pify difierent orders of placentals ; as, for example, the pedimanous and frugivorous
opossums are supposed to have foreshadowed the pedimanous frugivorous monkeys ; the marsupial
hyena or tiger (Thylacixus) our common carnivora ; the wombat, the rodents ; the kangaroo, the
ruminants ; the koala, the phytophagous sun-bear ; the phascogales, the shrews ; the Ecliidna and
Myrmecobius, the ant-eater. This relation shows parallelism of internal structure, but little external
resemblance. The cow has a complicated digestive apparatus ; so has the kangaroo. Both are her-
bivorous ; herbivorous animals require a more elaborate apf)aratus for digestion than carnivorous (which
have a great part of the business of assimilation from vegetable to animal tissues already done to
their hand), therefore both are supplied ^ith suitable machinery for the purpose; it is not the
same, but so far alike as is necessary. So with their dentition ; in both it is adapted for grinding
vegetable matter, but it is not the same. As to external appearance, on the other hand, they are
totally void of resemblance. This kind of analogy is more of the nature of homology than of close
affinity.
The other analogy is of a difierent character. It is a close personal resemblance promising abso-
lute identity throughout, but not fulfilling the promise. The frontispiece is an illustration of this sort
of resemblance. It is a representation of Antechinus minutissimus and Mus delicatxjlus,
two Australian Mammals, copied, by Mr. Gould's permission, from figures in his magnificent
work on the Mammals of Australia. The one belongs to the order of marsupials, the other does
not ; the one has rodent dentition, the other has not ; and yet, as the reader sees, the two are so
identical in outward appearance, that, on a hasty inspection the most experienced naturalist might
be deceived, and might set them down as two species of mice. The same thing happens with
other species of rodents ; — the flying Marsupial Petaurus is a close counterpart, in outward
appearance, of some of the flying squirrels. One or two of the Phascogales, or Antechini, resemble
* Owen, in " Proceedings of Linnean Society," vol. ii. p. i. 1857.
54 MAMMALS.
the jerboa. Peeagalea lagotis has consideratle resemblance to a hare, and carries its habits as
well as its ears — making a form in the grass like it. The Wombat has been compared to the
beaver, or capybara ; but there is not sufficient actual similarity of appearance in them to suit
the purpose for which I refer to these analogies.
Now let us take two (the two most striking, of course) of these resemblances, — two will answer
as well as a dozen. Let us take the mice and the flying squirrels as opposed to the Anteciiini
and Petauei. All inhabit the same quarter of the world (New Guinea and Australia), and have
special ordinal structure — that is, a structure which is found in the whole of the order to which
each belongs, and which, therefore, may be assumed to be of primary importance and essential in
character. The two first have the rodent dentition, and not the marsupial structure ; the two last
have the marsupial structure, but not the rodent dentition. Can these so similar species have
descended the one from the other ? Any one looking at the frontispiece would say that the animals
there represented must have done so ; that such close external resemblance is impossible on any other
supposition. Assume it to be so, both with the mice and the flying squirrels, for if it be so with
the one, the same rule must hold with the other — we should then have two animals independently
of each other, making the same change, both from a marsupial structure to a rodent, or from a
rodent to a marsupial. This is, I think, impossible. Nature never repeats herself. Had it been
that the one changed to a rodent, and the other to something else — that might be — but both
from the same and to the same is opposed to all that we know either of the laws of nature or of
the doctrines of chance.
Therefore, so far as the question is the origra of species from a single progenitor, I feel con-
strained to admit that it cannot be. But may not the whole order of marsupials, or of rodents,
or a part of the order embracing those instances where close resemblance exists, have received
in one body the impulse of change from marsupial to rodent, or from rodent to marsupial, as I
think there is reason to hold is the case in whole bodies of individuals composing a species ?
That is an explanation which appears to me to have some germ of truth.
But the difficulties do not cease here. We have taken the two orders, Marsupials and
Rodents, as in pari casii, and looked at the question of the derivation of these similar species
from one or other, as if either might be indifierently the oldest ; but one or other must be
the elder — they could scarcely be twins, — or triplets if we take in the Insectivora. But might
they not be the children of difierent parents ? Is it absolutely necessary that all Mammals should
spring from one progenitor or parent stock ? May they not have sprxing from difierent stocks —
the bat from the pterodactyles ; the duck-bill, or ornithorhynchus, from birds ; the whale from
the ichthyosaurus, and the general mass of Mammals from terrestrial reptUes ? — or have the
whole four classes of Vertebrata (mammals, birds, reptiles, and fishes) been developed into being
successively in descent, not one from the other, but from some ancestor common to them all ?
All these inquiries are involved in the argument whether there is such a thing as an order ; and
if so, whether more than one part or member of it can receive simultaneouslj^ the same new
impress, as appears to be the case ui species. If this were possible, then I incline to think that it
may have been the mode in which the orders of Mammals came into being ; but if that hypothesis
must be excluded, then we are driven to the conclusion that each class, order, or natural group,
started from some one parent species, into which had been drawn, as into one focus, all the difierent
rays of previous form which were afterwards dispersed among the equivalent types which sprimg
from it.
MUTUAL AFFINITIES. 55
If we must take this as the coiirse of Nature, it will then be most in accordance with the
preponderance of evidence to admit the Marsupials to be the parent from which all the other
Mammals have descended. The Rodents would come next — indeed, we are not without some grounds
for considering them first. But this would not affect our classification materially. If they came first,
they gave off the Marsupial as a side branch, which has gone no further ; and they then went on to
the development of the other orders. If they did not come first, but descended from the Marsuj)ials,
they left them behind, standing still, and proceeded as in the other case. Whether the Monotremes
cannot be treated as an exception, being scarcely Marsupials, and be regarded as the direct source of
the Edentates (ant-eaters, &c.) is another question involved in doubt. From the Rodents would then
spring two antagonistic organizations — the carnivorous and the herbivorous, a partition of a bifold
principle embodied in the Rodent itself — some of them like the rat, being both vegetable and flesh-
feeders. The Insectivores under our supposed case would be the first of the flesh-feeders. The lower
monkeys, Prosimi.e, I would, with M. Gratiolet, refer directly to the Insectivores. From them also
I would draw the Carnivores ; and from the Carnivores, the monkeys and man.
Reverting to the herbivorous section of the Rodents, there seems more direct evidence of the
descent of the Pachyderms from them (as through the Toxodon, the Capyb.\ra or Hykax,) than is
accessible for most other groups. From the Pachyderms to the Ruminants and Sea Cows follows,
as a natural step. The whales are generally supposed to be drawn from the same source, but their
location is attended with peculiar difiiculty.
In all this, however, there is a multitude of objections, puzzles, and contradictions, which can
only be got over by an amount of reconciling and explaining away which appears to me to be quite
an exception to the usual simplicity of truth. This remark, however, only applies to the orders and
general mass of typical forms, each taken as a whole. ^\Tien we come to deal with the individual
species of the difierent groups, their affinities to each other are generally simple and clear ; and this
inclines me to think that we have probably reached the tnith in the one case, and not in the other.
In the meantime, however, feeling no confidence in any plan of descent which I can suggest, I
shall, in the main, follow the system of classification of Mammals laid down by Professor Owen ;
merely deviating from it in those points on which I have formed a decided opinion of my own
in opposition to his conclusions, although derived from the same premises.
That arrangement proposed by Professor Owen will be found in the Appendix, along with
those of Cuvier, Milne Edwards, and other eminent naturalists. The modification of it, which I
have adopted, has been given at the commencement of this volume, coupled with a table of the first
geological formations in which remains of the different orders and families have been discovered.
Before leaving this subject I would wish to draw the reader's attention to one noteworthy
inference to be drawn from the course of descent, whichever view be adopted ; and that is, the
excessive rarity of any important change in the form or structure of animal life. VV hen we thmk
of the extraordinary prolificness of nature, of the vast diversity of form and organization scattered
all over the globe, we are apt to imagine that the changes must have been frequent. But on
more careful inquiry we see that at the utmost only three or four important changes have succeeded
each other in any one direction from the first appearance of Mammals, down to the present day.
Taking aU the orders together, and including the small changes in each, their number is beyond
reckoning ; but, looking at important changes of tj-pe, the number is as I have stated.
56
CHAPTER VII.
DISTRIBUTION OF MAN BLACK AND WHITE RACES.
The races of man as defined in most of our works on Ethnology are six, — the Caucasian, the
MongoKan, the American, the Ethiopian, the Mahayan, and the Australasian. To these many
add a seventh, the Papuan or Oceanic.
Although this division maintains its place, it does so more from the difficulty of finding a
satisfactory substitute, than from any general assent to its proj)ositions.
It appears to be unsupported by any argument or consideration beyond this, that in each
of the countries allotted to these seven sections, certain difierent tribes or races of mankind are
foimd ; but that they are all of equal value, or that no other varieties can be pointed to showing
as marked distinctions between them as some of the above, no one who has thought on the subject
will afiirm. For example, is there no more difference between a Mongolian and an Englishman
than there is between an Englishman and a Negro ? Most people would say that the Mongolian
was half-way between the European and the Negro. I shall, I think, presently show that he
iij greatly less than half-way towards the Negro ; but assimiing for the nonce that he is half-way,
what kin d of system of arrangement is that, which places the race which stands half-way between
two others on the same footing and equality as those which are separated the whole way ? Or
if races showing lesser degrees of difference are to be associated with, and placed on the same
platform as those more widely separated, why are not all minor sections to be taken into account
too ? It seems plain that the present usual scheme of classification is erroneous, both in principle
and in application.
The opinion which I have formed is, that there are no more than two great di-s'isions of man-
kind, equal in value and marked by characteristics of equal importance, each of which again is
divisible into an indefinite multitude of smaller sections. Speaking roughly, these two great races
may be distinguished as the Blacks and the Whites. Map 6 will show the territory which I think
is occupied by each, and the following is the line of reasoning by which I have arrived at
this conclusion.
If wo begin our survey at the North Pole, we find one race of men (the Esquimaux) inhabiting
the first habitable land all aroimd it. The Esquimaux in Greenland, the Esquimaux at Baffin's
Bay, the Esquimaux at Bhering's Straits, and the Esquimaux in the North of Asia, are one and
the same. In this respect, the facts with regard to man correspond with those of other
organized beings. The faunas and floras* of all the countries around the Pole are nearly the
same.
* The words Fauna and Flora are now naturalized common use, especially names of plants ; and I take the
English, and being so it would be a mistake to speak of opportunity, once for all, to claim the right to treat all
them in the plural as Faunae and Flors. The same re- such words as English, and to give them English plural
mark applies to a multitude of other scientific words in terminations when speiking of them in that number.
DISTRIBUTION OF MAN. 57
Taking the East of Bhering's Straits, and passing southwards into America, we see the Esqui-
maux imperceptibly changed into the North American Indians. The Chinooks, and other northern
tribes nearest the Esquimaux, cannot be distinguished from them ; and the tribes next to tlicm
on the south again pass insensibly into the red-skinned tribes of middle North America. These pass
into the digger tribes of California, which have in their turn many of the characteristics of the
tribes of Central and South Ajnerica, and all attempts to elevate the tribes of South American
Indians into separate races, have long since been abandoned. In short, it is now universally
acknowledged, that the whole of both North and South America, from the Arctic Sea to Tierra del
Fuego, has been peopled hy one race. The physical characters, the traditions, the Linguistic affinities
of the different tribes, white, red, yellow, copper, and brown skins, all bear one stamp. We are
compelled, therefore, to receive them as one, and that one identical with the inhabitants of the Arctic
regions.
Returning to Bhering's Straits again, and turning westward, we find the Esquimaux amal-
gamated with the Samoiedes and Tunguseans of North - Eastern Asia, who in their turn
pass into the Mongolians on the south ; and so strong is the affinity of the Esquimaux with these
tribes, that not long since, apropos to two North American Esquimaux who visited the United
States, and were the subject of examination and ethnological specidation. Dr. Pickering, whom no one
will accuse of an undue tendency to diminish the number of races, stated that there could not be a
doubt that they were Mongolian.* If the American Indian is an Esquimaux, and the Esquimaux is a
Mongolian, the Mongol must be an American Indian too. Additional confirmation of this view is
furnished by the Mongol features cropping up in other unexpected jjlaces in America ; for examjjle,
in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. f But to proceed further. Does any one propose to erect the
Tartars into more than a tribe of the Mongolians ? No : — and it is only when, in passing westward,
we reach the Caucasus, that ethnologists have seen evidences of a distinct — the European — race.
And what are these? — not linguistic peculiarities, for the Sanscrit is the root of all the languages
of Europe and Northern Asia ; as little physical structure, for the beautiful Georgian, whose
almond-shaped and somewhat oblique eye proclaims descent from the Mongols, can scarcely be
separated from the Circassian of the neighbouring mountains. The Laps and Fins are Esqidmaux
according to some, Mongols according to others ; they are both, and Caucasians into the bargain.
The Tartarian extraction of the Russian peasant is scarcely disputed, " Graffcz le Russe," said
Napoleon, " ct voks en tronrerez le Tartar !" neither is there any room to raise up a wall of division
between the Russian and the Pole, or the Russian and Slavonian. In fact, there is no point at
which a line can be drawn, separating the Englishman from the Tartar, as types of great races. Not
as tribes, famdies, or sections ; there is no difficulty in distinguishing these, any more than there
is in distinguishing between the Scotsman and the Englishman — the Gael and the Lowlander —
* "Dr. Pickering referred to two Esquimaux now on with one minor exception, America was originayll peopled
exhibition in this city. From their low stature, florid from the north-west by the sea-going tribes following the
complexion, broad, flat countenance, with the profile very coast, personal inspection now satisfied him that the Es-
slightly projecting, one would be disposed to reject the quimaux are Mongolians, and that there is no distinct
idea of affinity with the general aboriginal population of physical race of man in the Arctic regions." — Proceed-
this continent. But the sea-going tribes of north-west ings of the Boston Society of Natural Uislury, vol. i.x.
America, of which he had seen the Chinooks, are inter- p. 182. (April, 18G3.)
mediate in aspect, having very generally a lighter com- t See the portraits of a Patagonian in "Wilkes' Voyage,"
plesion and less prominence of profile than the interior or and of " Jemmy Button,'' (especially that in sailor's dress),
hunting tribes. In addition to his published opinion, that, in Fitzroy"s " Voyage of the Beagle."
I
58 MAMMALS.
tlie Irishman and the Kentish yeoman. All are tribes which have acquired, from force of cha-
racter, locality, physical conditions of life, or other circumstances, features or dispositions, to a
certain extent, distinctive ; but as great original races, they cannot be distinguished one from
the other.
Next to the Mongol tribes, we have the Chinese and Japanese, which have no claims to
more than tribal distinction ; distinct races they are not. Of the Hindoos, Major-General Briggs
truly says : — " The Hindus arc universally acknowledged to be of that branch of the human family
denominated by Blumenbach Caucasian, and they believe they invaded India from the north-west."*
Neither are the Affghans and Persians any thing more than tribes, and as Kttle are the Greeks,
Turks, Egjqptians, and Arabs of the shores of the Mediterranean.
The Malays, or brown tribes of the Indian Archipelago, are farther separated than any of the rest
from the other inhabitants of the continents of Asia and Europe ; and if any third race, besides the
whites and the blacks, is to be admitted, it should be the Malays. Still, there are points of affinity
between them and the Chinese and other Mongolian tribes which prevent their being so received.
There is as much difference between the South American Indian of the Amazons, and many of the
tribes of North iVmerican Indians, as there is between the Malay and the Chinese; and if we
retain the two former as one, in defiance of their physical dissimilarity, on what parity of reasoning
can we separate the two latter ? I regard the Malays as merely one of the many offshoots or
tributaries of the great white race.
Now there is one thing to be observed regarding all the lands and people over which we
have cast our eyes, viz. that they are conterminous and continuous ; and not only so now, but if
we 'suppose the northern hemisphere to be sunk one hundred fathoms (as shown in Map 2), even
then there is easy communication between all the unsunk portions of this great extent of land.
The Straits of Bhering are sufficiently near to furnish such a people as the Esquimaux with an easy '
means of transit from one continent to the other at any time ; and there is no other physical barrier
of any kind to interrupt the progress of man from Cape Horn to Singapore. No doubt Ceylon is
separated from India ; and Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, all of which are inhabited by the Malay stock,
are separated from Siam and China by straits and seas ; but these are narrow, and would form
no obstacle to the passage of a moderately maritime people, and in addition, a rise of the land to the
extent of 100 fathoms woidd unite the whole of these islands with the continent (see Map 1).
As already said, however, in the East, after we reach the south-eastern extremity of
Borneo, the shallow seas give place to an unfathomable ocean, out of which spring lands, which,
although comparatively near in point of distance, and without geological distinction, bear a different
faima, a different flora, and a different race of men. Those two regions are separated from each
other by the Straits of Macassar and the Straits of Lombock ; Borneo, Java, Sumatra, and the
Malayan Archipelago, lying on the one hand ; Celebes, Gilolo, New Guinea, and Australia, on
the other.
It seems a reasonable inference from these facts, that Borneo, Java, and Sumatra, have
been connected at some former period with each other and the mainland, while Celebes, New
Guinea, and the neighbouring islands, have never been connected with them, or at least have
been separated from them for a long period. The former countries, says Mr. Wallace in a
recent paper on the subject, "are, in fact, stiU connected, and that so completely, that an
* BaiGGS on the Aboriginal Tribes of ludia, in " Reports of Britisli Assoc." 18.00, p. 160.
DISTRIBUTION OV MAN.
59
elevation of only 300 feet would nearly double the extent of tropical Asia. Over the whole of the
Java Sea, the Straits of Malacca, the Gulf of Siam, and the southern part of the China sea, ships
can anchor in less than fifty fathoms. A vast submarine plain unites together the ajjparently
disjointed parts of the Indian zoological region, and abruptly tenninates exactly at its limits in
an unfathomable ocean. The deep sea of the Moluccas comos up to the very Coasts of Northern
IJorneo, to the Strait of Lombock in the south, and to near the middle of the Strait of Macassar.*
May we not, therefore, from these facts very fairly conclude that, according to the system of
alternate bands of elevation and depression, which seems very generally to prevail, the last great
rising movement of the volcanic range of Java and Sumatra was accompanied by the depression that
now scj)arates them from Borneo, and from the Continent ?"t
The fauna and flora of the Malayan islands, too, is closely allied to the fauna of the neigh-
bouring continent. The elephant, rhinoceros, and tapir, found in Sumatra, are also found in
Southern Asia. Every family, most of the genera and many of the species of birds and insects,
which are found on these islands, are also to be met with on the continent. On the other
hand, the species found in New Guinea, Celebes, and the islands to the east and south, are of a
totally different t}'pe, in many respects distinct and peculiar to themselves, but in others showing
Australian affinities.
Reasoning from these facts, geologists have conceived that while Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and
the Philippine Islands, are parts of Asia separated from it at no distant period, Celebes, Timor,
the Moluccas, New Guinea, and Australia, are remnants of a vast submerged continent, traces
of the existence of which appear in the coral islands of the Pacific Ocean, and in the affinities
* It is perhaps right to say that it ia not to be
considered as absolutely settled, that the Straits of Mac-
ussar iire of great depth all through. The western or
Malayan side is shallow all along the coast of Borneo.
The soundings which have been taken show great depth
on the east, both to the north and south, but in the centre
an equal depth is not so well ascertained. In the largest
and most detailed map of soundings which has been
published, viz. that by Jacob Swartz, the soundings taken
at the middle of the straits gradually increase on the
western side from fourteen to thirty-five fathoms, and a
few scattered soundings in mid-channel are noted where
the depth varies from twenty to forty fathoms : these
are continued until within about ten miles of the coast
of Celebes, when no more are recorded.
One is apt to suppose on seeing this, that a bank
of from twenty to forty fathoms in depth extends across
the middle part of the straits ;_ but in the first place
the want of soundings for ten miles across on the side
where we know the water to be deepest, and where a
little to the north and south no soundings are to be had
with a hundred-fathom line, prevent us assuming this ;
and in the next place, on personal inquiry at Mr. Wal-
lace, he assures me of his firm conviction that there is
deep water there as well as on each side of it, and informs
rae that the scattered sounding.? to which I have referred
are not to be taken as indicating the general depth around
the spot marked, but merely the depth at the particu-
lar spot, usually a reef or a sand-bank, where they occur
He had met with residents who remembered the taking
of these soundings, and they informed him that the way
in which the ofl^cer who was charged with the duty pro-
ceeded was this : he allowed his vessel to drift about
during the night with a light anchor attached to a forty-
fathom cable hanging overboard, and when this caught
upon a bank or reef, then soundings were taken and
registered, but his forty-fathom anchor might have been
swinging about all around, without touching the ground.
With this information to guide us in estimating the value
of the soundings in Jacob Swartz's map, it is clear that
they are worth nothing for our purpo.se, unless where
numerous and close together. I therefore have adopted
Mr. Wallace's view, and assumed that the water on the
eastern side of the Straits of Macassar is throughout of
very great depth.
+ See paper by Mr. Wallace in Linn. Soc. Proc, Feb.
1860. See also a communication by Mr. Wallace in the
Ibis for October 1859. On this last point I am not pre-
pared at once to go unreservedly along with Mr. Wallace.
It may be that the surrounding depression was due to a
more extensive general previous sinking, and that the area
in question has been again raised by the volcanic action
referred to by Mr. Wallace, stretching through or run-
ning across the general depression. The theory of alter-
nate bands of elevation and depression may be ])ushed too
far.
60 MAMMALS.
which can bo traced between some of the plants and animals inhabiting widely separated jror-
tions of the supposed continent.
On this subject Professor Owen says, " Certain it was that geologists had conceived that the
islands on the south of the present great Continent of Asia might be remnants of some antecedent
very distinct group of land, and naturalists (and he would more especially mention Sir J. Emerson
Tennent, who had paid so great attention to the fauna of Ceylon), had brought to their knowledge
a host of facts confirmatory of the idea that Ceylon was uot a dismemberment of India, but
part of a distinct and antecedent continent. In confirmation of that idea, they had the result
of the geological researches of Cautley, Falconer, and others in India, which seemed to show
that the Himmalayahs had risen, lifting up the fossiliferous beds on their present slopes
within comparatively recent geographical time, proving that India liad been the site of one of
the latest of these greatest systems of upheaving forces that resulted in the formation of new
continents." *
We find, in the islands and coral islets surrounded by this unfathomable ocean, a race which
will in no respect harmonise with, and by no ingenuity can be made to fit into, the bro\^^l tribes of
the Malayan Peniusida and Islands, and still less the white races of Asia : this race is that known as
the Papuans, or Negritos.
It is a new and distinct race, the like of which we have not previously met with. "We shall find
its like, however, if we turn to Africa, to the south of that point where a barrier as effective as the
deep sea of Celebes has interrupted the continuity of the land, viz. the Desert of Sahara. It does
not much matter whether we look upon that barrier as consisting of the present arid desert or a broad
sea occupying its place. Either barrier would probably be sufEcient to stop the extension of the
northern race into Africa south of the desert. Be that as it may, certain it is that something has
isolated South Africa from North Africa, for north of the desert we have one fauna and flora, and
south of it another ; and as to man, north of the Sahara we have the Arabs — undoubtedly a por-
tion of the white northern race — while south of it we have a new race, the Nesrro, as distinct from
them as at the other barrier the Papuans and surrounding nations are distinct from the Malays
and Chinese.
And strange, too, both of these new races lying on the south side of these respective barriers
have much in common. Pioth are black, both have their haii- frizzled or woolly, both have broad
noses, thick and prominent lips, receding foreheads and chins, and what shoidd be the white of the
eye of a turbid yellow, or, as a recent writer phrases it when speaking of the aborigines of Eraser's
or Great Sandy Island, near Brisbane in Australia, " They appear to be very bilious, for what ought
to be the white of the eye is a dirty yellow." f Both have broad shoidders and deep chests, both
are inferior in the make of their lower extremities, having long lanky legs, sjilay feet, and cui'ved
shins, and of both it may be said, " From every pore of him a perfume falls." Two distinctions have
been attempted to be cb'awn between them, — the one that the colour of the African is black over
brown, while that of the Papuans is blue over black, or black with a bluish tinge, but this is now
known to be a mistake. The blue black of the Pajiuans is due to some artificial application, " pro-
* Owen, in " Proceedings of Geographical Society," vol. that peninsula, than belonging to Sumatra or the Malayan
vi. p. 44, 1862. As we go along, I think we shall see reason Peninsula.
to doubt the suificieucy of Sir J. Emeraon Tenuent's t "Narrative of a Trip from Sydney to Peak Downs,
arguments against the appurtenancy of Ceylon to India, Queensland, and back," bj E. S. H., London, 1864, p. 4.
and rather to look upon it as a dismembered portion of
DISTRIBUTION OF MAN. 61
l.Vcibly the decoction of the bark of a tree, possibly the ' rosamala' of commerce."* The other that
the hair of the ^Vfrican spreads over the whok; surface of the head, while that of the Papuan grows
in small tufts, each of which is separate from the rest. But there are African tribes, the Hot-
tentots and Bushmen, for example, which have the hair growing in this same tufty fashion ;
and I see that M. Du Chaillu observed the same thing in the pigmy race, which he met with in
his last expedition into the interior of West Africa — a race which may possibly be a tribe of the
Bushman variety of the African race. Such distinctions, moreover, even although well founded,
are only of minor significance, and point to a distinction of tribes, not of races.
So far as physical character goes then, the Papuans and Africans are clearly allied. How far the
languages are so is a point which is not yet settled, but in one respect they certainly have an afEnity.
Some of the African tribes make a peculiar clucking noise in their speech. This is a much more
remarkable character than those who have not heard it have any idea of. I remember on one occasion
dining in company with some missionaries destined for CafErland, one of whom was a Caifir who had
been brought to this country in early youth, and had been educated as a divinity student in order to go
back as a missionary to his native land. He gave us examples of the Caffir language, talking in his
native tongue, and the clucking was so like the drawing of corks and poui-rng liquid out of a bottle,
that on one of the English missionaries who was to accompany him sa}dng that he meant to take lessons
from him in the language in his cabin on the way out, one of the guests cautioned him that the sound
of so many corks being drawn would destroy their character for temperance with the rest of the
passengers.
But this clucking would appear to be a character of the language of some of the Oriental as well
as the African black tribes. Mr. Earl, in speaking of the North Australians who have a certain
affinity to the Papuans, says : — "In the Croker Island dialect a cluck occasionally occurs in the middle
of a word, which is effected by strildng the tongue against the roof of the mouth. "t This illustra-
tion shows that there are grounds for looking for proof of relationship between the African and
the Oriental negroes in their linguistic affinities as well as in their physical attributes. I do
not in any way go along with the bold conjecture hazarded by Professor Agassiz that "the lan-
guages of different races of men were neither more different nor more similar than the sounds
characteristic of animals of the same genus, and their analogy can no more be fully accoimted
for on any hj-pothesis of transmission or tradition than in the case of birds of the same genus
uttering similar notes in Europe and in America." J On the contrary, I think that the structure
and roots of language preserve decided evidence of the intellect of man, and furnish valuable
aid in tracing the affinities of nations.
To meet the reqiiirements of the hypothesis of a common origin for the languages of the African
negro. Oriental negro, and Australian, it is only necessary that the radical structure of all the
languages should be the same ; the languages themselves may be widely different and whoUy
imintelligible to the different tribes. A few remote connexions with the main staple of the
language are probablj- all that could be expected, in countries so long and so widely separated ;
but each country, according to the hj'pothesis, should have one t\^c to itself, and each shoidd, in
♦"Ethnographical Library," vol. i. "The Native t Earl, op. cit, p. 222.
Races of the Indian Archipelago— Papuans," by George 1 Aoassiz, in " Proceed. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci-
Wransou Eakl. Loudon, 1863. P. 47. ences," voL iii. p. 7. 1857.
62 . MAMMALS.
some way, however faint, be connected -n-ith the other. That each has a common tj'pe to itself, WG
know to be the case. The Australian languages are all referable to one type. So are the African
(those north of the Sahara alwaj-s excepted). Mr. Burton* says of one of the tribes on the Cameroon
Mountains on the west coast of Africa : — " Their dialect is a branch of the great South African
family whose type is the Kaffir tongue." And Dr. Kirk informs me that the same thing is the
case with the languages of the Zambesians and those of the tribes stretching across Africa. The
Papuan language in like manner has many dialects.
The inquiry leaves an alternative problem for the philologist to solve, viz., either to point out
the presence of some common elements of structure showing connexion between the languages of all
three countries, — ^Africa, Papua, and Australia, or else to show some discrepancy wholly inconsistent
with it. They have this basis to start from — that the foundation and structui'e of these languages
is different from that of the tribes north of tlie barriers above mentioned.
Let us now see what peoples and countries may be referred to this black stock. Taking
Africa by itself, it is scarcely necessary to go into any argument to prove that all the tribes on that
continent south of the Saharan barrier belong to the same race. That may be safely assumed as
proved. Nearest to Afi-ica, and, only separated from it by a comparatively shallow connecting sub-
merged neck of land, lies Madagascar. The present state of its population requires to be sub-
jected to qualification before it can be admitted as relevant to this inquiry — a considerable portion
of it bearing strong evidence of colonization by the Malays. This is of comparatively recent date,
probably within, or not much beyond our own historic times, and of course cannot be taken into
account in speculating on the aboriginal population of the island. The result of this immigration
is not only a certain amoiint of Malay element among a portion of the Malagese, but the oc-
currence in their language of a considerable body of Malayan and Javanese words. That such
a colonization should have taken place is the more remarkable when we look at the great dis-
tance (3000 miles) from Madagascar to Java and the Malay peninsula. Ethnologists have attempted
to account for these peculiarities by supposing that a fleet of Malay pirates had been tempest-
driven on the coast of Madagascar, and, unable to find their way back, had at first been able
to protect and establish themselves, and afterwards becoming absorbed in the general population
by intermarriage, had, besides coimnunicating a portion of their blood, imparted some of their
knowledge, cultivation, and language. Mr. Crawford, speaking on this subject, f says : " The
people of Madagascar (that is, the aboriginal people) are not Malays, nor do they bear any resem-
blance to them. They are, in fact, negroes ; but negroes of a particular descrij)tion. They are
negroes in the same sense that Portuguese, and Laps, and Englishmen, Germans and Spaniard.s,
are European, and in no other." This is exactly what may be said not only of the Malagese,
but of all the other black tribes spread over the islands of the Southern Ocean.
The Mauritius and Bourbon Islands may be dismissed as islands which were probably not
inhabited at the time of the original peopling of the other lands of which I speak. The Dodo
would never have survived to furnish even a solitary specimen or two to our museimis had the
islands on which it Uved been peopled by savages, whether black or white, or, I should rather say,
had they been peopled at all.
Next, looking farther eastward, it will scarcely be disputed that, whatever objections there may
* Burton, in " Proceedings of Geog. Soc." p. 241. (1862.)
t Crawford, in " Troc. Geog. Soc." vol. ii. pp. 69, 70. (1862, 1863.)
DISTRIBUTION OF MAN. 63
be to ranking tlie Oriental negroes with tlie African negroes, all the New Guinea blacks are of one
race, whether natives of Papua itself, or of any of the numerous islands lying around it. Some
authors, doubtless led astray by the apparently parallel, but really most distinct case of the Hill
tribes in India, &c., have attempted to make a distinction between the natives of the hills and those of
the coast, in Papua and other islands. This distinction is shown by the most trustworthj' authors* to be
without foundation, except so far as we have in our own lands a population differing somewhat
according to the nature of their occupation and localities. In like manner, the negritos of the Phi-
lippine Islands cannot be separated from the other Papuan blacks ; and if it be true that there are
negritos in Formosa, (which Mr. Swinhoe's recent observations gives us reason to question), they also
without doubt belong to the same race ;t and, lastly, there is an overwhelming weight of testimony
that all the oceanic tribes of PoljTiesia belong to the same race. The natives of the different
groups of islands, no doubt, have each some pecviliar characters of their own, but all belong to one
type, and that type, the black Pajjuan. Some of the islands, such as New Zealand, are indeed sup-
posed to have been colonized only very recently, and within the historical epoch ; but if so, they have
been colonized from the original black stock.
There is, jierhaps, more difference when we come to estimate the discrepancies and resemblances
between the Papuans and Australians. In doing so, there are various collateral points to be taken
into consideration. In the first place, we must remember that although the Papuan Islands, or
■ Austro- Malayan region and the Polj-nesian have nimierous plants and animals peculiar to themselves,
both their faunas and floras have, to a considerable extent, an Australian character. In mammals, for
example, while the Indian region, including Borneo, Java, Sumatra, &c., possesses no marsupials, but
abounds in forms of the most highly developed mammals, the Aixstro-Malayan or Papiian region
does not, but has several marsupials ; and Polynesia so far accords -ndth it, that its only mammals
belong to an order also found in Australia — the bats. In birds, as Dr. Sclater and Mr. Wallace
have shown, although the actual nmnber of species common both to Australia and Papua be not great
(about twenty-five out of one hundred and eighty-six)J there is a great affinity in many remarkable
genera, and the resemblance extends not only to genera which have been found in both, but also to
those which are absent in both, although present in strong force in the neighbouring Indian district.
Dr. Giinther has come to similar conclusions as regards the ReptUes and Batrachians. In Ento-
mology, Australian relations also occur, some of which (in the Hymenopiera) have been pointed
out by Mr. Frederick Smith of the British Museum, § and similar connexions occur in other
groups. The botany of Australia and Pajjua, so far as the latter is known (which is not much), has
similar points of resemblance.
The inference to be drawn from these facts is, that as a connexion subsists between the
other animals of Papua and those of Australia, there may be one between their human inha-
bitants also. Professor Agassiz holds that the distribution of man wiU be found in the main
to coincide with the regional distribution of other animals ; and so far as man's tribal distribution
goes, the idea is not ^athout warrant. For examjile, the Arctic fauna and flora is nearlj' homo-
* Modera, " Verbaal van eene Reize naar de Zuid-West X Reckoned from " Catalogue of tlic Mammalia and
Kust van Nicw-Guinea." Haarlem, 1830. Eaul, op. Birds of New Guinea, in the Collection of the British
cit. p. 61. Museum," 1859.
t SwiNHOE, in " Proc. Geog. Soc," vol. viii. p. 26. § F. Smmh, in " Proc. Linn. Soc." vol. v. p. 93, et seq
(18G3-64). 1861.
G4 MAMMALS.
geneous; — so, one tribe of man, the Esquimaux, inhabits the same region. The Mediterranean
district has a sub-fauna and sub-flora of its own, composed of a mixture of European and
North African species ; the African coast ha^•ing the preponderance of African, the European
of Eui'opean types. We see something like this in the human inhabitants of the same district ; the
Europeans (Spaniards, Italians, Greeks, and Turks) are more swarthy and liker the Arabs than
their more northerly brethren. Other instances of tribes of men corresponding more or less to
the zoological districts in which they live might be quoted. We may thus fairly use the analogy
of such correspondence, between the regional distribution of man and the other animals, as an
argument, valeat quantum, for holding that there is such a relation between the human tribes of
Papua and Australia, because we find a similar relation between their other animals.
Another circmnstance which has an important bearing on the probable affinity of the Papuans
and Australians is, that a rise of land of no more than two or three hundred feet woiild imite Papua
to Australia. We have already seen that while a rise of the same amoimt would \mite Java, Borneo,
and Sumatra with the Indian continent, it would still- leave them separated from the Papuan
region by a deep channel.
The probability of the connexion of Papiia and Australia, and the fact of their marked separation
from the Indian continent being thus established, we may be more disposed to admit the force of
such resemblances as can be traced between their respective peoples. There is no doubt considerable
difference in their appearance. Most of the Australians have long, unfrizzled hair, and their
hollow cheeks and starved countenances give them less of the features of the African negro. We
have been so long accustomed to think of them as a race by themselves, that any proposition
which tends to destroy their theoretical position goes against our preconceptions. But examined
abstractedl}', we must abate our preconceived notions considerably. First, the homogeneousness
of the Australians is not absolute. Considerable variation occurs in their form. Th,ey have
not all lank, straight hair. The aborigines of Van Dieman's land on the one hand, and some of
the tribes on the north coast and in the interior of Northern Australia on the other, have frizzled
hair, Papuan features, and other negritan characters. So much so, that Mr. Earl* sets himself to
work to devise some theory of Polynesians or Papuans having engrafted Papuan blood on Australian
stock ; " for many circumstances," says he, " which I shall have to state more distinctly below,
would induce the supposition that the aboriginal inhabitants of this part of Australia very closely
resembled the Papuans of New Guinea, or, what is almost the same thing, the aborigines of Van
Dieman's Land." If any one part of Australia is once admitted to be peopled by the same race as
the Papuans, the general character of the race and their geographical position would lead to
the inference that the whole must be so too.
The Nicobar Islanders and the Andaman Islanders are other isolated items of the great
black race. Without attempting to find relations for these. Professor Owen puts very clearly the
negative position that the latter do not belong to any of the neighbouring peoples (that is, the Hindoo,
Burmese, or Malay). He says : — " Why should ethnologists when they come to study the natives
of an insulated group of peoj^le like the Andamaners deem it necessary to determine to what contem-
poraneous people they were allied, on the assiunption that they had been derived from some existing
* Earl, in " Journ. Geograph. Soc." xvi. 239.
DISTRIBUTION OF ^^AN. (55
and neighbouring land ? Geological science had established the fact of continuous and progressive,
though extremely slow mutations of land and sea, and had taught them that the continents of modern
geography were only the last phases of those mutations. How long the himian species had existed
and how far they had been contemporaneous with such mutations were the preliminary questions
which presented themselves in grappling with the problem suggested by a pecidiar insular race like
the Mincopies. . . . Was it not possible that the Andamaners might have come from noichcvc, that
is to say, from no actual contiguous and separate land, but might be the representatives of an
old race belonging to a former continent that had almost disappeared ?"*
* Owen, in " Proc. Geogiaph. Soc," 1S62, p. 82.
K
66
CHAPTER VIII.
DISTRIBUTION OF MAN COiltilllied HILL TRIBES OF IXUIA RANK AND PRIORITY OF BLACK AND
WHITE RACES.
There stiU remains undisposed of one other j)eculiar type of liuinan beings which seems to be very
much in jxfi casu with the Andamaners, excej^t that the latter have their place of abode sui-rounded
hy the sea, while the former are surrounded by di-y land and a sea of strange people. It is what are
called the Ilill tribes of India. A number of isolated tribes, each speaking a language of their own,
and described as the most degraded sj)ecimen8 of humanity on the face of the earth, are found in the
fastnesses of the mountains of India and some of the Malayan Islands, and of the adjoining continent.
They exist in one or two parts of Borneo ; * they are not found in Sumatra,t nor in Java, at least now ; J
but they occur in the Malay Peninsula,^ in Siam, and, it was said, in Burmah ; tliej^ are also said to
be found in parts of Cochin China, || and even in China itself. They are not found, or perhaps it
would be safer to sa,y not noip found, in Ceylon,'|{ but they still remain in a good many of the moun-
tainous parts of India in all the three Presidencies, where they are known under the name of Tudas
or Todars, Badagars, Koters, Kurumbers, Bheels, Kulis,** &c. The more general opinion regarding
these Hill tribes is that they formerly occupied the land round about their present fastnesses, and
that they had been gradually encroached upon by the other nations which now occupy the country
* Earl, op. cit. 144 ; auJ Dalton iu
Notices of tbt! ludiiui Archip." 1831, ]). 49.
Moor's
+ Earl, op. cit., 175.
X Kemains of some ancient race, whicli had used spear-
heads simihu- to those used by the present inhabitants of
North Austraha, are described as having been found in
Java, in the " Natuurkundige Tydschrift voor Nederlaudsch
Indie," 185(1.
§ A woully-liaired race called Lemauys. See Ander-
son, in " Journal of Indian Archip." iv., 425, 1838.
II A savage race of people, very black, and resembling
in their features, the Caflres. Chapman's " Report to the
Bengal Government of a Diplomatic Mission to Cochin
China, in 1778," in Parliamentary Papers relating to India.
IT The Veddahs of Ceylon .?eem only what may be called
a, feral tribe of the other Cingalese.
** Mijor-General Brings gives the following as the
names of soma of these tribes, adding that there are many
others of which he has not sufBcient details, viz. "Minas,
Mers, Bhils, Dhiro Kolies, Mhars, Manga or Mans, Beder.s,
Dhera, Gowlies, Barka, Tallary, Carumba, Cherumars,
Morawa, CoUary, Pnlly, Pariah, Yenedy, Chenchy, Gond,
Kond, Sawara, Banderwa, Cheru, Bengy, Kooki, Garro,
Kassia, Hajin, Bhar, Dhanuk and Dhome." And he adds,
" Among these tribes the etymologist may, without diffi-
culty, trace the names of many of the territorial divisions
which have been assigned to several portions of India by
the Hiudfts. Thus, Kolwan, from the Koles ; Bhilwan
and Bhilwara, from the Bhils ; Mhar-rashtra, by contrac"
tion Mharatta, from the Mhars ; Man Desa, from the Mans
or Mangs ; the city of Beder, from the Beders ; Gondwara,
from the Gouds ; Oria-Dcsa, or Orissa, from the Orias ;
Kolwan and Koliwara, from the Koles."
Doubtless, many of these may be mere sub-races of the
Hindoos ; my argument applies only to those whose p>hy-
sical and other characters approach those of the Negritos.
See " Report on the Aboriginal Tribes of India," by Major-
General John Briggs, in Reports of the British Association.
1850, p. 159.
HILL TRIBES OF INDIA,
G7
around lliem, and driven into the hills or retreated to them for shelter.* Others, as Mr. Crawford,
believe that " they are no other than natives of the conntrj', mere mountaineers who had escaped
from the bondage, and hence from the civilization, of the plains." The accounts which we read
of their physical attributes, of the low scale of their intellectual and moral perceptions, and the
degraded level which they occvipy in the scale of humanitj% forbid us, I think, to acccj^t Mr.
Crawford's explanation. The more generally received view is less 023en to objection, but there
is usually a hj-jjothcsis appended to it which does not appear to me to meet the facts of the case, viz.
that the tribes of which we speak are of Tartar or Thibetan extraction. Major-General Briggs
* The following data, quoted from Major-General Briggs'
report above cited, support the view that these aboriginal
tribes were ia possession of the whole of India prior to
the incursion of the Hindoos, and that tbey had beeii
gradually driven into their jiresent fastnesses by their en-
croachments.
"About twenty-seven centuries ago, according to the
Vodas or Holy Scriptures of the HindCxs, it would appear
that the Hindfts had not yet penetrated further south
than the twenty-second parallel of north latitude, beyond
which (the work states) there then existed " extensive
forests, inhabited by a wild and impure race speaking
barbarous tougues."'
" At wliat precise period the Hindd invasion from the
west first occurred it is impossible to say, bi^t the geo-
graphy of India indicates at once that that race neces-
sarily came through Afghanistan and the Punjaub ere it
turned the borders of the Great Desert and penetrated in
the direction of Dohli. There is every reason to believe
that the Hindil race gradually overspread the territory of
Upper India east and west between the Himalaya Moun-
tains and the Great Desert, without penetrating to the
south for many centuries ; that it enslaved the aboriginal
races as it subdued them, compelling them to till their
own lands as serfs, and took from the latter the whole
produce, except what was actually required as food for
the tillers of the soil.
"The historical as well as the religious works of the
HindCis, of a comparatively modern date, together with
monumental remains existing iu sculptured edifices and
rock oaves, all tend to show that no portion of the Penin-
sula of India was subdued by them anterior to the fifth
century of the Christian era. About that tiiiie it is sup-
posed that the Peninsula became gradually overspread
by the Bramanical race. They seem to have entered in
two directions ; the one from Guzerat gradually extending
over Khandeish and Berar till they reached to the forests
which frin;e the banks of the river Wurda, where it meets
with the Godavery ; the other invasion, according to
tradition, occuired about the same time. It passed from
the valley of the Ganges and penetrated southward along
the line of coast of the Bay of Bengal, keeping within the
range of mountains on the east and the ocean, till after
reaching the embouchures of the Godavery and the
Kistna the invaders spread out over the plains and pro-
ceeded southward.
" It has been assumed that about the same period, the
Bhudists, a peculiar sect of the Hindis, reached the
shores of Ceylon and Southern India from the opposite
coast, and thence proceeding northward, spread their
religious doctrines among the aborigines. About the
ninth or tenth century the Bhudists and Bramaus appear
to have met fi-om opposite directions, which led to deadly
conflicts, and ended iu the Bramaus putting down the
Bhudist tenets.
" We have historical proof that the island of Bombay was
not subjugated to the Hindfl rule till the fourteenth cen-
tury ; and that in the beginning of the next century the
Mahommedans found princes of ths aboriginal race oc-
cupying in force several strongholds not far from Poena.
The town and district of Sorapoor, lying between Hydra-
bad and the western mountains, is still held by an abori-
ginal chief with a portion of his tribe ; and within the
memory of man the kingdom of Mysore contained several
principalities of the Beder race.
" Further south, the Morawas and Collars obtained cele-
brity ia modern times by their adhesion to one or other
of the European belligerent powers (France or England),
and evinced fidelity, and even devotion, to the cause of the
party which each espoused.
" The aboriginal races differ, one and all, in every respect
from the Hindfls. Their government is strictly patri-
archal ; all crimes are punished and disputes settled by
the award of the elders or heads of tribes assembled.
They have no prejudices against animal food of any kind,
whether the animal be .slaughtered or die a natural death.
In those parts still unsubdued, such as a great part of
Gondwana and the contiguous tracts of Goomser and
Bustar, and in some portion of the country lying farther
eastward among the Assam Hills, they continue to make
human sacrifices ; a practice to which these races have
been prone, according to Hindfl records, from the earliest
ages. They also worship power in every shape to avert
danger ; hence aU beasts of prey, such as tigers, bears
and leopards, venomous serpents and ot'.ier reptiles ; as
also the elephant and rhinoceros in a wild state." —
BiUGGS, op. cit. p. 1G9.
68 MAMMALS.
says that their domestic habits aud institutions have a strong affinity to those of the great Tartar
family ; they may serve as a specimen of the whole race. In some parts both men and women
bore their ears, and wear heavy rings to extend the lower lobe. Captain Newbold, of the Madi-as
army, who has written on the Chcnchies of the Nalla Malla, or Black Mountains, represents those
he saw as having long bushy liair, thick lijDs, high cheek-bones, and small piercing eyes.* Sir
Richard Jenkins and Colonel Agnew confirm this description in speaking of the Gouds ; and I
believe no instance will bo found of those residing entirely on the hills having the aquiline nose
or the delicacy of feature of the Caucasian family. General Briggs thinks that they partake rather
of the Tartar or Thibetan physiognomy, than of the Hindu. He adds, however, a sort of apolo-
getic explanation which does not show great faith in their Tartar parentage : " The remote period
of their settlement in India, and the possibility of an occasional intermixture with the Hindus,
may, in some cases, have somewhat changed their physiognomy from that of their ancestors, so as
to render it doubtful whether or not they are derived from that branch of the human family, though
in theii' habits and institutions they certainly bear a strong afiinity to the Tartar branch. "f The
■view which has occurred to me as most reconcilable with facts is, that, like the Andamaners, these
tribes are remnants of the iuliabitants of the great submerged continent above alluded to by Pro-
fessor Owen.
This continent at some time or other, not all at one time, or in the same direction, but from time
to time, and with breaches of continuity which interrupted commimication between various parts of it,
lorobabljr included all the oceanic Archijoelagoes, Papua, Australia, ilfrica south of the Sahara, East
India south of the Himmalaj^ahs, the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, Burmah, Siam, the Malay
Peninsula, Cochin China, part of China, and the whole of the Philippine Islands, Borneo, Java, and
Sumatra. That all this vast space was at any one time a united continent I do not suppose nor
maintain ; on the contrary, there is everj'thing to lead to a different conclusion ; there appear to
have been at least two continents ; as now we see the very same area of the southern hemisphere
rising in some parts and falling in others, no doubt this happened in former times also, and its size
and configuration would constanth^ vary. Opportunity of access might thus be given for one
tj'pe to traverse and penetrate every part of this vast area ; but by long interruptions and suspension
of commimication, many might never be able to avail themselves of it, and these long lapses of
time might give ojjportunity for the develoj^meut of new sj)ecies or varieties from others which had
only reached half way, as it were, on their journey, and who, while the way was still open to them
to ijenetrate deeper and spread themselves further in one direction, had perhaps their retreat
cut off by a subsidence of the continent behind them, and no opportunity of spreading their off-
spring of newly developed forms in the direction from which they came.
Lastly, I assume that these continents were peojDled by a black race of many tribes, of which
the Negritans arc the descendants ; that as the Chagos Bank, the Laccadive Islands aud Maldive
Islands have sunk, so did Ceylon and India ; so did the land in the Bay of Bengal ; so did the other
lands in which Hill tribes are found ; in fact, that the whole or certain parts of the supposed land
sunk more or less gradually ; we know that almost the whole of Africa and Madagascar, and a
* Can the clucking sound in the language of tlie Ne- without difficulty by any but a native of the province in
groes liave anything to do with a palalal peculiarity in which the language containing them is spolien." He adds,
the speech of these aboriginal tribes ? Di-. Reinhold Host "These sounds are unknown in Sanscrit."
of Berhii, remarks, " that llic palatal sounds of the letters t Biuocis, o[k cit. pp. 172, 173.
r, d, j, t, arc confiued to India, aud cannot be pronounced
IIILL TIUBES OF INDIA. 69
portion of Australia, were not submerged ; but the most of the rest, at one time or other,
was.
As under the gradual sinking of the land, which I su^jpose to have taken place, the ocean
encroached upon the great tracts submerged there would be a deluge and a loss of life, such as
we can onl)' faintly imagine ; something to which we have no parallel. It may perhaps have
been the Noachian deluge, which still dwells in the traditions of every race or tribe on the
face of the earth. As the ocean slowlj- and gradually invaded the plains, the inhabitants
must have retreated to the high mountain-tops, — become Hill tribes, in fact. Doubtless great
tracts of this supposed continent, as is the case in all other continents, consisted of vast plains,
which, graduallj' converted into muddy marshes, may have taken thousands of years to sink beyond
the depth of man ; and when this was the case, he must have there died off by hardship, exposure,
and want of food, long before the sea rose so high as actually to drown him ; but where there
were mountains, lulls, or even trifling elevations, a small remnant would be saved, but not without
enduring great hardships. On the mountains, so long as other animals, which may have shared
the refuge, lasted, they would have a jn'ecarious supplj- of food ; but as the space, and with it the
food diminished, bloody struggles must have taken place for space and means of life ; and if we
could delve into the heart of some of the atolls we might perhaps find there mute evidence of the
strength and desjDair of the combatants, in mutilated relics of humanity.
Let us assume that all were not so cut off; that before the last familv on the islet was extii'-
pated, the gradual downward motion ceased, over a portion of the district of which we have spoken ;
that volcanoes and earthquakes spoke of change, and that bjr-and-bye the laud began to rise, or, as
the poor inhabitants would think, the sea began to fall, and their lives were saved to puzzle the brains
of another race with their afiinity and descent.
As the land rose above the sea, and the fertile ooze of these tropical seas becaihe rich in
verdure, the inhabitants woidd descend and take possession of the land : but by-and-bye, when
the northern hemisphere rose in its turn, and was peopled with a fauna, flora, and human in-
habitants of its own, the events indicated by General Briggs probably took place. A portion of
these northern Asiatics (that is, the Hindoos) invaded India.
Now what would be the eflbct of such an invasion upon the aboriginal inhabitants who
had been previously in very much the same position as that in which the Andamancrs are now
left? Let us try to realize it by apph'ing the test to them. Suppose the Indian Ocean
to be raised, so as to unite the Andaman and the Nicobar Islands to the mainland on both sides
and throw open the plains wliich were but lateh^ at the bottom of the Bay of Bengal, and now
were rich in vegetation, to the grasp of the Hindoo and Bm-mese — I shall say nothing of the
European, for what would happen were he, with his civilization and knowledge of science and arts,
to come in contact with a tribe of savages, furnishes no fair parallel to what woidd take place with
a less highly endowed people. Let us turn loose the aboriginal Hindoos and Burmese in milliong
to compete with the few Andamaners for the possession of the rich bottoms of the Indian Ocean.
The contest would not be long. The fertile plains would soon be seized and appropriated by
their more numerous, stronger, and comparativelj'^ more intelligent competitors. The Andamaners
would be di-iven back to their old fastnesses — their original mountain-tops. And what woidd happen
then ? woidd the Hindoos try to exterminate the Andamaners in order to seize what would be
the impregnable tops of the Andaman mountains, or woidd they allow their inhabitants to
live as the HiU tribes now do, still, as on an island in the midst of the sea, surrounded by a sea
70 MAMMALS.
of new people, not increasing, perhaps gradually diminishing, but for long iDieserviug the memory
of a different and bygone state of things ? I imagine they would neither covet their fastnesses
nor seek to deprive them of them. The labour of toiling to the top of mountains is distasteful
to these races, not to speak of the aimless warfare they would hav6 to encovmter, and the black races
would be allowed to enjoy their sterile fastnesses unmolested. Such is the fate which I believe has
befallen the Hill tribes ; and these are the groimds on which I think that if there is nothing
but their geographical distribution to prevent us referring them to the great black race on
the ground of their physical attributes, we maj' venture to follow that course.
There are other facts founded on the distribution of animals and plants, in India and the Austra-
lian region, which give support to the explanation of the position of the Hill tribes which I have above
suggested. From the fact of a large proportion of the animals which are found in Borneo, Java,
and Sumatra, being identical with those found on the mainland, there is little or no doubt that
these islands must at some former period have been united to it ; so that it appears that before
the present upward movement, which these are now undergoing, there must have been a down-
ward one, and before that again an upward one, as we have seen is probably the case with
other countries. The islands must have been first united with the mainland to allow the inter-
communication of species. A subsidence must then have taken place to throw them into
something like tlieir present configuration, and there is now again a gradual rise reuniting them
slowly to the mainland.
Now, Dr. Joseph Hooker, in his Flora of Australia,* gives a list of nearly 500 plants
found in that country, which are either identical, or very nearly so, with continental or insidar
Indian spjcies ; but, on the other hand, he states that there is scarcely a single Australian tj'pe
to be found in India, and the few that occur are in Eastern India. It would appear as if there
had been * no reciprocity, that all the mutual types have been borrowed from India, and that
Australia had given none in return (for 10, which is the number, against 500 can scarcely be called
reciprocity). Now, this is quite in accordance with the course of events, which I have supposed
to have occurred. If Australia and India v^-ere united for a time, a mutual communication of their
respective floras must have followed, as a necessary conseqiieuce. If, when India sunk, the tops
of the mountains, whore the Hill tribes still exist, were not submerged, a certain jjroportion of
the flora would bo there preserved. When, long afterwards, India again emerged from below the
waters, a new Indian flora woidd graduall}- be developed out of the remnant left on the tops of
the mountains to supjilj' the new lands : but as the new emergence went no further soutli than
Ceylon, the new types could not find their way to Australia. There appear to have been only
ten Australian plants which have found their way by flotsam and jetsam from Australia to India,
against 500 Indian plants which remain in Australia by ancient continuity. If there is any
foundation for the above speculation, the connexion between India and Australia must have been
very ancient, and at a time when one or other of them was not in a condition to supply the other
with mammals, although it could with plants.
I must not occupy the time of the reader here with botanical speculations, which will come
better wiien we reach that branch of our subject, but I cannot refrain from citing one instructive
instance in favour of the existence of the connexion already indicated between Africa and south-
west Australia. It is long since a connexion between the vegetation of these countries has been
* " Flora of Australia," liy Jos. L). IIo )KE:{. Inti-oductory Essay, p. xlii. (18.09).
KANK AND PRIORITY OF CLACK AND V/IIITE RACES. 71
suniiiscd. Lambert, iu his " Genus Piniis," forty j'ears ago, said of Podocarpus S^vligxa, that it
afforded cue of many examples of coincidence between the vegetation of Chile with that of New
Holland, and tlie southern extremity of Africa ; * and Dr. Hooker, in the essay above quoted,
mentions various botanical facts confirmative and indicative of an ancient coimnunication between
south-west Australia and South Africa. Besides great differences in the genera and species of south-
east and south-west Australia ; he foimd many new forms, and types, and curious analogies between
the flora of the latter and that of South Africa. On this Dr. Hooker remarks, " There is
another way of viewing the whole question, but one. so pureh' speculative, that I hesitate to put it
forward. It is, that the antecedents .of the pecuKar Australian Flora may have inhabited an area to
the westward of the present Australian continent, and that the curious analogies which the latter
presents with the South African flora, and which are so much more conspicuous in the south-west
quarter, may be connected with such a jDrior state of tilings."*
Here, too, the relationship between many of the plants in the south-v,-cst of Australia and
the Cape of Good Hope does not extend to the mammals. Thei'efore, it is not illogical to
infer that the former continuity of land by which these African tj^es found their way to
Australia must have existed before mammals in Africa had appeared there, at all events, in any
umnbers, or it would have contributed them too. The period of continuity must therefore have
been very ancient. Africa here contributed types ; Australia, few or none. If it contributed none,
then another inference follows, viz., that the connecting land could not have been united with both
at the same time. The bridge must have been begun on the African side, and bj' the time the in-
vaders had reached a certain distance on their way, it must have been broken down behind them ;
but as it continued to be formed or to rise from the ocean in the direction of Australia initil it
reached its south- vi-est corner they completed the passage, and their descendants have remained
there after the land which formed the passage has sunk out of sight.
There still remain one or two accessory points of great difiiculty regarding the distribution of
man which had better be here disposed of.
First. TV!] at is the rank of the two races ? — the blacks and the whites. Ai'o they to be
reckoned as species, or are they merely tribes, in the same waj% although better defined and more
"widely separated from each other than the tribes into which they themselves branch off?
The difiiculty of separating species increases as we ascend the scale of life. Professor Agassiz
has drawn attention to this in monkej's, in the lion, the bear, and other highly organised vertebrata,
and it seems to reach its culminating point in man. It would appear as if the action of the
developing power had, in its long course, undergone some change, not in natiu'c but in degree, some
modification such as we see typified in the actual growth and life of man and his fellow-creatures ;
its steps were wider apart and more decided in earlier days, and its ideas, so to speak, simjjler and
less matured : in age its action has become more precise and more imjjortant, and as the creatures
developed have acqmred a higher and higher grade, the steps in advance have been shorter and
more frequent.
It may be, for example, that had the influence of development, or creation, to which we owe the
two races of man, or any of the doubtful species of monkey, been exercised on less highly
organised animals, the product would have been more absolutely distinct species. I incline to
regard the two races not as the result merely of ordinary generation and variation, but of the
* L.uiiJiRT, "Gciius Finns,'' iuA edition, 183;J, ii. Ko. 71. t H.0OKEK, op. fit. p. Iv.
72 MAMMALS.
action of the law of development tlirougli which new species are derived ; and I account for the
product being something less than what would be reckoned a species in other orders by the high
organisation of the creature developed.
Still in whatever light we regard them, or by whatever means we attempt to account for
the difference between the two, we must trace the one to the other ; and two other questions
arise — viz. "Which race is descended from the other, that is, which is the oldest? and
through which of its known tribes, supposing us to know them all, (which, by the way, we can
scarcely suppose that we do,) did the other draw its origin ?
These are questions which we have not sufficient data to enable us to answer. Such as we
have, however, seem rather to point to the white race drawing its origin from the black, than the
black from the white. In the first place, it is in the direction of progress. In the next place,
according to the alternations of elevation and subsidence on which we have been specidating,
while the great continent of the southern hemisphere was in its prime and peopled by the black
race, the northern continents were almost wholly under water, and possibly without hiunan inha-
bitants. (See Maps 2 and 3.)
The second question is not less difficult : Where has the passage from the one race to the other
been made ? We maj^ coast along the barrier line, and try everywhere for a point of resemblance
which may guide us in saying, " Here is the point where the crossing took place," but we can find
absolutel}' none ; the line is everywhere clear and defined ; and this is another reason for thinking
that here there has been an exercise of the developing power similar to what we see in the case
of new species. "Wliere nature really takes a step from one species to another she leaves no trace of
her passage ; and this, as the reader knows, is the recalcitrant fact which, by refusing to be backed
into the line of Mr. Darwdn's argmnent, chiefly disarranges its array ; we seek in vain for the passage
from an elephant to a rhinoceros, or from a monltey to a man ; as Prof. Huxley says, " The fossil
remains of man, hitherto discovered, do not seem to take us apparently nearer to that lower Pithecoid
form by the modification of which he has probablj^ become what he is ;"* no such transitional forms
appear ever to have existed, and if so of course none can be found.
The only indication which occurs to me as likely to lead to even an approximation to the
truth, is perhaps to be looked for in the habits of tribes. Where two tribes of the
different races have similar habits or weapons, that fact may perhaps be taken as e-vidence
of proximity or acquaintance at some period long since gone by; for instance, the suinpitan, or
blow-pipe, is used by some of the tribes of New Guinea, and also by those of the Amazons and
Orinocko, and by no other race in the whole world. It is rather a peculiar weapon, not one likely
to occur independently to two minds ; may they not both have derived it from a common source ? Dr.
Daniel Wilson on other groimds supports the conclusion to which this would lead, — he says that
" many analogies confirm the probability of some portion of the North American stock having
entered the continent from Asia ;" but that " while theoretically the northern passage seems so
easy, yet so far as any direct proof goes, the Polynesian entrance into the south across the wide
barrier of the Pacific is the one most readily sustained. "f Another point not to be overlooked is,
that at some period in the past history of these regions, South America was most probably united to
Australia, if we may draw any inference from the presence of alKed forms of life common to both.
* Huxley's " Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature," Civilisation in the Old and New World," by Daniel
1863. Wilson, L.L.D.
I Prehistoric man — " Researches into the Origin of
"t
^J
73
CHAPTER IX.
MONKEYS EXTIA'CT AND LIVING.
The kind and extent of tlie distinction between Man and the higher Apes, has formed the
subject of much discussion of late years, especially iipon some premises laid down by Professor
Owen. The Professor, while admitting that the distinction between ilan and the Apes could
not be considered as "other than a difference in degree," maintains that the difference in degree
is so great that Man must form a separate and independent section of equal importance to the other
great sub-classes into which zoologists have divided the animal kingdom. In support of this he
adduced certain anatomical peculiarities M'hich he thought he had discovered in the brain of Man,
sufficient to distinguish it in characler from that of the nearest Apes.* His views have been
controverted by Professor Huxley f and other eminent zoologists ; and the general verdict of anato-
mists would seem to be that the difTorcnces mentioned by Owen either do not exist or are not
of the importance he supposed, and consequently that the distinction io not well founded, so far
as it rests on them ; and Professor Huxley has, I think, satisfactorily shown that Man (considered
purely as an animal, which is all that the zoologist has to do with) cannot be regarded as more
widely separated from the Apes, than the different families of them are from each other.
The first quadrumanous fossil which has been discovered was foimd in the Himmalayahs by
Lieuts. Baker and Dm-and in 1830.* It has proved to belong, like subsequently discovered quadru-
manous fossils in the same district (the Sewalik (Miocene) tertiaries), to the Indian genus Semnopi-
THECus. The next discovery was made by William Colchester, in 1839, in a bed of whitish sand,
beneath a stratum of tenacious blue clay situated by the side of the river Debcn, about a mile
from "Woodbridge in the parish of Kingston, in Suffolk. This deposit is referred by all geologists
to the eocene period, and the fossils were determined by Professor Owen to belong to a genus
of Monkeys which he called Eopithecus, and which had its nearest affinities with Macacus. Since
then, however, he has (1862) retracted this opinion, and with more ample materials at his command
has pronoimced it to belong to the genus Hyracotherium, an animal allied to the Pae^eotherium.
This is a very important correction, for " there is now no eocene iMonkey known to palscontologists,
unless M. Riitimeyer is right in referring to this family a small fragment of a jaw with three molar
teeth foimd in the upper eocene strata of the Swiss Jura."§
* OwiTN, on "The Characters, Principles of Division, t Fi>r an account of the various discoveries of the
and Primary Groups of the Class Manunaliau." In " Linn. fossil remains of Jlonkeys, see a paper by Prof. Owen on
Soc. Proc." 1857. the Gorilla in "Proc. Zool. Soc," 1859, p. 18.
t HnxLEY in "Nat. Hist. Rev." Jan. 1861, ct seq., § " Elements of Geology." By Sir Charlis Lyell. Sixth
and "Evidences a.s to the Man's place in Nature." Py Edition, London, 1805. p. 292.
TnoMAs IIexry Huxley. London, 1803.
74 MAMMALS.
A monkey's molar tooth was taken from the pliocene beds of Essex, which has been determined
to be most closely allied to the Macacus Sinicus (a common species in captivity, whence doubt has
been thrown on the authenticity of the fossil, but it is believed by Owen to be perfectly genuine).
The remains of a monkey of gigantic size (four feet in height) were, discovered in 18:39,
Mith other bones, by Dr. Lund, in a bone-cave in limestone in Brazil. Its molar dentition showed
it to belong to the platyrrhine family now peculiar to South America ; the New- world monkeys
having four more teeth than the Old-world, a supernumcraiy' molar in each side of each jaw.
It was described as a new genus under the name of Protopithkcus. This belonged to the pliocene
period.
The lower jaw and teeth of a small quadrumane was discovered by M. Lartet in a miocene bed
in the south of France, and described bj^ him and De Blainville. These remains are so closely allied
to those of the Gibbons, as scarcely to justifj'^ the generic separation which has been made for the
genus to which it belonged under the name of Pliopithecus.
A portion of a lower jaw with teeth, and the shaft of a humerus of a quadrumanous
animal (Dkyoptthecus), equalling the size of those bones in man, have been discovered by M.
Fontan of Saint-Graudens, in a marly bed of upper miocene age, foi'mlng the base of the plateau
on which that town is built. From this species, certain inferences have been drawn to the effect that
this was a transition form between the Chimpanzee and Man, but on this point Professor Owen says :
" There is no law of correlation, by which, from the portion with teeth of the Dryopitheccs, can be
deduced the shape of the cranial characters determinative of affinity to man. All those characters
which do determine the closer resemblance and affinity of the genus Troglodytes to man, and of
the genus IIylobates to the tailed monkeys, are at j^resent unknown in respect of the Dryopithecus.
The statement by Sir C. Lyell, that the parts of the skeleton of Dryopithecus as yet kirown,
' are sufficient to show that in anatomical structure, as well as stature, it came nearer to man than
any quadrumanous species, living or fossil, before known to zoologists,' is without the support of any
adequate fact, and in contravention of most of those to be deduced from M. Ijartet's figures of the
fossils. Those parts of the Dryopithecus merely show — and the humerus in a striking manner
— its nearer approach to the Gibbons ; the most probable conjecture being that it bore to them, in
regard to size, the like relations which Dr. Lund's Protopithecus bore to the existing Mycetes."
Mr. Albert Gaudry conducted some government excavations in Greece, which produced no less
than twenty skulls of Monkeys, several jaws, and bones from different parts of the body sufficient
to enable him to make a drawing of the whole skeleton. This Grecian Monkey belongs to the genus
Mesopithecus. It resembles in its skull the Semnopithecus, but in its limbs the Macacus, and is
thus an intermediate form between these genera. Whether it was a traimtional type, as Mr. Gaudry
seems to think, is another thing altogether. All that I say is that the two are by no means sj'uonj'mous.
Besides these, ten other supposed species have been recorded, but all upon very imperfect materials.
Such as they are, two species are from South America, three from Asia, and five from Euroije.*
With reference io this. Dr. Vogt says :—" Twenty years ago fossil Monkcj^s were unknown,
now we have nearly a dozen : who . can tell that we may not in a few years know fifty ? A year
ago no intermediate form between Setmiopithecus and Macacus was known : now we possess a whole
skeleton : who can assert that in ten, twenty, or fifty years we may not possess intermediate forms
between man and ape?"t
* Voai's " Lootures oa Man." Traii^latoJ by Authropol. Soo. p. 45 1. Longman auJ Co. 18G4. + Unci. loc. cit.
MONKEYS. 75
So thought Dr. J. W. Dawson, principal of M'Gill College, Montreal, an acute zoologist. He,
like Dr. Vogt, predicted that if any osseous remains of antediluvian man should be discovered, they
woidd probably present characters so different from those of modern races, that they might be
regarded as belonging to a distinct species.* But in a recent f)aper, he confesses, somewhat
despondingly, that " this anticipation has not yet been realized. "f To be sure he qualifies the
confession by the phrase, "with perhaps one exception," and that is the Neanderthal skull; which is
not an exception (at least is not thought so by those who have no theory to support).
The geographical distribution of the recent species of Monkeys ranges everywhere between,
and does not extend far beyond, the Tropics. The only district where the}' do reach beyond a
tropic is Paraguay.
The same question which met us in considering the original starting-point of ^lan again occurs
in the Monkey. We had tv.o races of Man, the black and white. We have in like manner
two sections of Monkeys, those of the New World and those of the Old, which latter are in various
resjiects more nearly allied to Man. When guessing at the relative antiquity of the two races of
Man, I gave the preference in ago to the black man, and indulged in the speculation that that race
peopled the supposed submerged Pacific continent, and that the point through which the passage
from the black man to the white had been made was to be sought in the direction of South America.
There are objections to tracing the Monkeys in the same way. If we make the species found in
Africa, India, and the Indian Archijiclago, the corresponding equivalent of INIan in that region,
and therefore older than the species in South America, we reverse tlie order of dispersal which we
have supposed to have occurred in Man ; we place the highest Monkeys where the lowest Men are.
But the cases are not parallel. Supposing Monkeys to have had their- origin on the same ground
as Man, and to have colonized South America, as he may have done, the introduction of species there
may have taken place before the advanced forms of IMonkej-s had come into being. If, by the power
of an enchanter, we coidd see everything as it stood at the jieriod of that colonization, we might find
that the colonists were then more advanced than their Old-world ancestors, and that the higher
tyjjcs have come into being in the African region subsequentl}^ to that date.
As already mentioned. Professor Agassiz has pointed out the close degrees of affinity which
exist between allied species of animals possessed of a high degree of organisation. He remarks
that the Orang Outangs, which have been divided by some into four species, have been considered
by other naturalists as forming but a single one ; and the genus of long-armed Orangs, Hylobates (the
Gibbons of English naturalists), is considered by some as containing eleven sjjecies, while others make
but two or three.J A like remark may now be made on the Chimpanzees, of which five so-called
species have been described. The same is to be observed of the ilonkeys in the New World. The pre-
hensile-tailed species have been reduced by one author (Wagner)!^ to two, of which he regards the
second as doubtful, while Reichenbach || describes and figures no less than thirty-seven. Dr. Slack has
drawn a better medium between the extremes of these authors, and reckons them at fifteen.
The Monkeys furnish several illustrations in favour of the former existence of a now .submerged
Pacific or Indo- African continent.
* Dawson, J. W. "Archia," p. 237. § AVAOSEn, A. "Die Vollstandigate Naturgescbichte
t Dawson, J. W. in " Edin. New Phil. .Tour." Jan. dor Afl'en," part i.
1864, p. 53. II Schreber's " Saugethiere." Supplemcut Band. vol.
t "Proceed. American Acad. Arts and Sciences," vol. i. p. 207. 1840.
iii. p. 7. 18.57.
71) . MAMMALS.
For example, the Anthropoid Monkej'S are foiuid both in West Africa, and Borneo and Sumatra ;
and although the species which come from tliese two so widely separated countries difi'er a good deal
iu appearance they are undoubtedly pretty closely connected. It is impossible to avoid supposing that
when India was connected with Africa, some other forms of anthropoid Monkeys existed in the
sujiposed continent, now the Indian Sea, and stretched across it all the way to Zanguebar, and from
thence to the Gaboon, through the tropical or equatorial band of forest, which, it is almost certain,
spans Central Africa ; and although far from likely, other forms of anthropoid Monkeys may yet
be found there, wherever the climate is suitable for tlicm. In other classes of animals recent
researches have detected, on the east coast, and far in the interior, new species of genera, which
had previously been supposed confined to the west coast, as, for example, new species of the
Goliath beetle, a remarkable West African form, which, moreover, has also affinities with species
found in the Indian Archipelago.
The Baboons furnish another instance of Monkeys nearly allied to each other beiag found both in
Africa, and on the relics of the sunken continent in the east, and nowhere else. Map 9 shows
first, that the true Baboons are all found south of the Saharan barrier, supporting the conclusion
arrived at in last chapter, that the old Africa of which we speak, or Africa proper, was bounded
on the north by the Saharan barrier, whether that were desert or sea ; and next that one, if not
two, allied species of Baboons also exist in Celebes. They are true Baboons, but are well distin-
guished from the African tj'pe, in that the latter have their nostrils at the end of their muzzle
like a dog, while the Celebes species have them on the front of their face like other monkeys,
without a projecting muzzle.
If it be true that a single straggling species of Cekcopithecus (a genus peculiar to Africa, and
more especially West Africa) exists in the Philippine Isles or iu Celebes and Timor, as stated by
Dr. Sclater,* the evidence of relationship between the species of Africa and the eastern remnants of
the submerged continent wul be still stronger. Mr. Wallace, however, who has had excellent
opportunities of observation, doubts the accuracy of Dr. Sclater's information on this point.
The section to which the species of Monkeys belong, and the locality whence they come, are
easily distinguishable by the phj'sical characters of the individuals. The Old-world Monke3'S have
a narrow septum, or division, between the nostrils, whence they have been called Catarkhini ;
the New-world species, a broad division, hence their name Platyrriiini. None of the New-world
species have cheek-pouches or callosities ; none of the Old-world species have prehensile tails.
\7henever we see an individual with a prehensile tail we may be sure it is American ; when-
ever we see one with cheek-jiouclies it comes from the Old World. As already mentioned,
also, the Old-world species have a tooth less on each side of each jaw, and they have the " yellow
spot " on the retina, wliich is found in Man, which the New- world Monkeys are said not to have.f
Catarrhini — Old-world Monkeys. (Maps 8 and 9.) The most important members of this
family are the —
AismiROPOiu Monkeys. (Map 8.) They consist of the Orang Utangs, the Chimpanzee, and
* Dr. Sclater in "Proceed. Linn. Soc." vul. ii. p. 153. could never obtain materials. I suggest the examination
1868. as an interesting inquiry to any naturalist or medical man
+ I made several ineffectual attempts to get my friends who may have opportunities in the country itself. There
to examine or to send me home eyes of the South Ame- is little doubt that the "yellow spot" will be present, but
ricau Indian tribes themselves, iu order to afsocrtain whether if it were not, what a curious new source of speculation
the yellow spot is present in the retina of their eyes, but would be opened to us !
D*yi SobtLunia^) ^^U'
\
MONKEYS. 77
Gorillas. The native habitat of the Urang Utang is Borneo and the eastern part of Sumatra,
and, like the Malay of that country, his colour is brown ; that of the Chimpanzee and Gorillas, the
tropical west coast of Africa ; where, like the native Negro, the animal's colour is black. Agassiz
suggests that these coincidences have some bearing on the origin of the different species, but I rather
look upon them as belonging to a different category of facts elsewhere, namely, that which I have
discussed under the title of "Disguises of Nature,"* due to some principle by which the colora-
tion of species seems regulated by certain qualities in the place where they live. The Gorilla
and Chimpanzee formerly' reached to the coast south of the Niger, but have now been driven
further back into the interior. Altliough now rare to the north of it, they are still to be met
with there, and were found in abimdance in that country not very long ago. Bowdich distinctly
describes both as occurring in Ashanteef in his day (1824).
The long-armed, tailless genus Hylobates (the Gibbons), may abnost be reckoned Anthropoid.
Agassiz and Huxley so consider it, but it seems rather to be the transition form between them
and the other Catarrhixi. It is peculiar to the East. It does not occur in the Peninsida of India,
but two species are found on the eastern side of the Bay of Bengal, and others in Sumatra, Java, &c.
The number of species, according to my view, is four.
The Pkesbytes, or Semnopitheci (so called from the Greek words eii/.nc, venerable, and c;^?if , a
monkey, in reference to the veneration paid to them in India), have all long but not prehensile tads.
Their distribution is nearly the same as that of the Gibbons, but differs in their being well represented
in the Peninsula of India. They are also found in Ceylon, but the fauna of Ceylon shows in some
respects differences from that of Southern India, and one of these is, that not one of the Monkeys
living upon the island is identical with those of India. There are found on it four species of this
genus (Wanderoos, as they are there called) and one ilacaca; and as Sir Emerson Tennent says,
each separate species has appropriated to itself a different district of the wooded country, and
seldom encroaches on the domain of its neighbour,^ or, as I would put it, some difference in the
physical condition of each of these districts has resulted in producing a different species for each.
The four-fingered genus CoLOiiUS, also with a long tail, is pecidiar to Africa, more than two-
thirds of the species being found on the west coast, and the remainder in Abyssinia, Seuaar, &c.
The Cercopitheci are also whollj'- African ; it might almost be said wholly West African, for out
of rather more than a score of species there is only one from Abj'ssinia and two from Caffraria. All
the rest are from the Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, &c. The doubtful species in Celebes has
been already referred to.
The Macacus is an East Indian genus ; with the exception of one or two species, foimd in "West
Africa. The only short-tailed species (M. Innuus), often incorrectly called tlio Baboon, is from North
Africa, and is also found wild on the opposite coast on the Eock of Gibraltar. The genus stretches
from thence to the East Indies, Indian, Archipelago, and China, whence come the Bonnet Monkeys,
Macacus cyxomulgvs, M. Sinicus, and M. Rhesus, the favourite companions of the organ-men, and
commonest inhabitants of menageries.
C\ivi0CEPHALi. (Map 9.) The Baboons and Mandrils, with one or perhaps two exceptions of
the aberrant form above mentioned from the Philippine Islands, Celebes, Batchian, and Lorabok, are
* " Di.sgui.ses of Kature," in Ediu. Kew Phil. .Journal, X Sir J. Emerson Tennent's "Ceylon." 1859, and E. J.
January, ISCO. Kela art, '• Proilronius Fauna; Zrylanica;." 1652.
t Bowdkh's " Mi.'jsion to Ashantee," 1824.
78 MAMMALS.
peculiar to Africa. There are three species in Iforth Africa, tlireo in West Africa, and one (the
Chacma) in South Africa, besides a species, the Gelada, forming a subsection in Abyssinia.
So far as the Old-world Monkeys are concerned, their distribution between tropical Asia and
tropical Africa is singularly equal, there being almost exactly the same number of different species in
each. That number, according to some, is forty, but from what has been above said as to the difficulty
of distinguishing the species, it is scarcely possible to arrive at a correct estimate on that subject.
Platyrrhini — New- WORLD Monkeys. (Map 10.) The next section, the Platyrkhini, is
entirely American. It is composed of two families, the CEBiDiE and the Hapalidje. They ex-
tend from the Atlantic on the cast to the Andes on the west, and from Central America on the
north to the southern limits of Paraguay on the south.
CEBiDiE. — Dr. Slack, who has well monographed a portion of this section, divides it into
three groups, the Lagotheices, the Cebi, and Pitheci^. The first, Lagothrices (under which name
he includes the Cebi of older authors), are distinguished by their truly prehensile tails, and are
found in tropical South America wherever it is covered with forests ; I say truly prehensile tails,
because there is another group of this family which have the tail, to a certain extent, prehensile,
but hairy all round, and not like that of the Lagothrices, which is furnished on the under side with'
a naked, flattened, palm-like termination, studded with papillaj analogous to those of the palm of
the human hand ; and which, from experiments made upon the living animal, appears to be even more
sensitive than the hand itself. The structure of the species provided with it bears strict relation to
a forest life. Admirably adapted to such a condition of existence, they can gather their food on the
loftiest trees, and dart with inconceivable rapidity along the frailest branches, and by their agility
put the most powerful enemies at defiance. On the ground, and away from their natural habita-
tion, they are slow, weak, and helpless. Where the woods cease, there cease the Cebid.b.
The extent of their domain is stated by Mr. Bates at 1260 miles from west to east, its breadth
varying from 600 to 800 miles, towards the east continuing with grassy breaks for 700 miles further,
terminating only on the shores of the Atlantic. "But," he adds, "as there is no complete break
of continuity, the statement of Humboldt (who liad a glimpse of the immeasm'able wiklcrness only
from its western commencement in Peru) still holds good, to the effect that a flock of monkeys might
travel amongst the tree-tops, were it not for the rivers, for 2000 miles in a straight line, v*-ithout once
touching the ground ; namelj^ from the slopes of the Andes to the shores of the Atlantic."*
One genus of these Monkeys, Aluatta, or Mycetes, the Howling Monkej's, is provided
with a special drum-like structure of the hyoid bono, which enables them to make the most deafening
noise when they howl, which they do night and morning most persistently, except when in captivity,
when they lose their voice, or rather do not exercise it, probably from want of vigour. As a
sick patient, or a man in a delicate state of health, does not indidge in vociferous shouting or
irrejiressible bursts of song, so our poor consumptive quadrumanous weaklings keep a languid
silence in our menageries.
These are the most unattractive, and even repulsive, of all tlic si^ccics of American monkeys.
A large pyramidal head placed iipona thick unwieldy body, contrasts strongly with the globular
heads, and comparatively light bodies of the other genera. They extend through tlie whole of the
forests from New Grenada to Brazil. They are also found in Bolivia, but do not cross the Andes.
* Jjates' " Notes on Aiiiuuil Life in a Pnraeval Forest," in " Good Words," .Juno, 18G4, p. (;6.
MONKEYS. 79
Species liavo been described under at least a dozen different names, but Dr. Slack admits only
five species as genuine.
The Spider Monkeys, Ateles (Sapajou of Dr. Slack), are about as numerous in species, but their
range is a little more extensive. In addition to the countries where the Howling Monkeys arc
found, at least three of the species of Spider Monkej^s extend into Peru, east of the Andes.
The second group of Cebio.e are less remarkably fitted for an arboreal life than the prehensile-
tailed species. Dr. Slack has divided them into those having the incisor teeth erect (the Cebi), and
those having them oblique and proclive (the Pitheci^^e). Their tads arc not prehensile, although long
and hairj' ; and although their quadrumanous structure still makes the forest a congenial abode, they
can also live on the ground, and some of them are specially adapted for a life among rocky
precipices. Some are active and diurnal ; others, as the Nyctipitiieci, are nocturnal, and pass
the day in sleep. About a score of species belonging to this section have been described, all
inhabiting the same range as the previous genera, but perhaps extending a little further south.
Considering the vast extent of land in South America, its mammalian fauna is singularly meagre
and homogeneous. The Monkeys furnish a greater number of species than any other genus, and even
these we see are much fewer than is generally supposed. The most of them are found over a very
wide extent of territory, a circumstance no doubt due to the uniform character of the whole country ;
with exception of the high lands in Guiana and Brazil, and of course of the Andes, there is
little difference in the conditions of life of any part of the land, from the Gulf of Mexico to
the south of Brazil.
Map 2 shows how slight a depression would make both Guiana and Brazil islands, and there is no
doubt that at some former period, not very distant in geological time, they were surrounded bj^ sea.
As the seas which then surrounded them are now replaced on the inland side by great rivers, one
woidd have expected a more decided difference between their j^Iammalian fauna than really exists.
The species differ, but the genera arc for the most part the same. ^Vlien we come to the lower
animals, we shall see that the insidar antecedents of these countries are more fully borne out by
their faunas. If the reader refers to the table of the geographical distribution of the Lagothrices
in the Appendix, which is copied from Dr. Slack's monograj^h,* he will see that out of four species
which inhabit one of these former islands, Guiana, there are three found in the adjacent part of
the other island. North Brazil, none of which, however, extend into South Brazil. We also see
that three out of the four extend from Guiana into Venezuela, and that two of them reach Ecuador.
One of these is also found in Peru and Bolivia. The same thing occurs with the Hystricid^e, every
species found in Guiana being also found in Brazil. On the other hand, the instances of separation
by the Amazon, already cited from Mr. Wallace's travels, and on the authority of Mr. Bates — and
others which will meet us as we go along — sufficiently show that a certain amount of isolation is
produced by these great rivers.
Perhaps it may be said that the rivers should be no barrier to the Monkej's, insamuch as if they
cannot swim across them, they can tiu-n them by ascending to their sources, there being an uninter-
rupted highway of trees and branches all the way to the Andes. While the stream was still
small, it had entered the forests, and the trees would meet overhead, or where a giant fell he
would bridge the river. This is true, and the inference would be sound, but for one circumstance.
Supposing a nation of Monkeys to set out from Guiana to the sources of the Rio Negro, and thence to
* Slack in '■ Proc. Nat. Scieu. rhilad." Nov. 18()2.
80 MAMMALS.
those of the Amazon, there is nothing to hinder them, or more jDroperly their descendants (for the
journey would be one beyond the lives of many Monkeys), from doing so ; but as they journeyed
they must have been gradually rising above the level of the sea, for a;lthough the ascent is gentle
and imperceptible, still in hundreds of miles a small rise tells. By the time they have reached
the upper waters of the Eio Negro, they have got into the granitic high lands which extend
from Guiana across the soiirces of the Rio Negro towards the Andes, and having entered into
new conditions of existence, the alteration would begin to have its usual effect, and induce a change,
which would gradually end in producing a new sjDecies ; and if the species thus transmogrified
pursued its journey down the other bank, the change from high land to low land would again
operate, and a second change would take place, but, unlike our old metamorphosed friends in the
" Arabian Nights," the changeling would not be disenchanted back into its old form, but woidd
undergo a now change into a third species. So that, although the Guiana species may reach
the opposite shore by turning the sources of the river, it would have ceased to be itself by the
time it had done so. The facts which have been observed seem quite consistent with this hj--
pothesis. Mr. Wallace says, " Towards the sources, rivers do not form a boundary between distinct
species ; but those found there, though ranging on both sides of the stream, do not often extend
down to the mouth."* And as instances he mentions the Ixiet that on the Upper Rio Negro and
its branches, are found the Callithrix torquatus, Nyctipithecus trivirgatus, and a species of
Jacchus, none of which inhabit the Lower Rio Negro or Amazon. Where they do extend on
both sides of the river the circmnstance may be due to one of Mr. Darwin's exceptional modes
of accidental colonization.
There are two points relating to the limits of the South American Quadrumana, in which many
of our physical- geography maps are incorrect. Dr. Sclater f has' pointed out one of these, viz. the
inaccuracy in the limit of their northern range. This is given in Johnston's Phj^sical AtlasJ by a
line drawn across Honduras, which is supposed to mark the northern limit of Mycetes seniculus.
Dr. Sclater has shown by reference to authorities both published and unpublished, the most important
of which is a communication from M. Auguste Salle, that the line must bo drawn considerably
to the north of this, viz. in the neighbourhood of Tampico, or about 23^ of north latitude : in other
words, the tropic of Cancer, which is as nearly as jjossible the northern limit of the quadrumana in
the Old World. WTiat species are found in this part of their range is not exactly known, but
some of them would appear to be the species which are most widely distributed to the south.
Dr. Sclater has thrown out the suggestion that some singidar new species may yet be found in
these regions of Central America, on the ground that in birds he has foimd it " a general rule that
this northern portion of the great South American (his neotropical) region possesses specifically
distinct rejDresentatives of all the more important groups which characterise the ornithology of
tropical South America, and that it not unfrequently happens that these northern outliers of the
genus are the finest in colouring, and the most outre or exaggerated in form, of the whole group."
No confirmation of this conjecture has yet been obtained, but it must add an intelligent interest
to future explorations in that country to see whether the rule observed by Dr. Sclater in birds
also holds good in other classes of beings. As yet we can scarcely say that it holds good in mammals.
The othei' point which I do not observe correctly stated in any Pliysical Atlas is the western
* Wallace, op. cit. J The map in Schmakija's " Geographisclie Verbrei-
t Sclater, in "Nat. Hist. Rev." Oct. 18C1, p. 507. tung," is more correct.
»y > £ij\» LlBfl''^ ' (jiti
MONKEYS. 81
limit of the South American Quadrumana. Peru being often loosely given as the locality of some
of the species, it seems to have been taken for granted that the range of such species extended over
the whole of Peru on both sides of the Andes. Now the truth is, that when Peru is given as a
habitat of Monkeys, it is that part of Peru which lies east of the Cordillera that is meant. I
can find no evidence of any monkey having been found west of the Andes, until, going north-
wards, we reach Guaj^aquil. Tschudi describes twenty-two species as found in Peru, but ho
carefully defines the different regions in which all his species are found, and the whole twenty-
two occiu- only in the forest region east of the Cordillera. Mr. Fraser, also, than whom there can
be no better authority, assures me that west of the Andes none are to be found south of Gua-
yaquil. One or two species occur to the north of it, but he neither met with, nor heard of any
further to the south between the Andes and the Pacific.
HapalidvE — Marmosets. — The other South American family, the tiny Marmosets, Ha pale,
(Arctopitheci of older authors, i.e., bear-like monkeys), about as numerous as the preceding group,
inhabit the same regions ; a few are recorded from Guiana and Surinam, but by much the greater
number of species is found in Brazil, which seems to be their metropolis ; some are also found in
Eastern Peru. These little creatures live together in numerous troops in the great foiests. They
feed on fruits and insects, and have much of the habits of squirrels.
82
CHAPTER X.
LEMURID^ — FAUNA OF MADAGASCAR.
This singular and interesting group of species is confined to the African and Indian districts,
and none of the true Lemurs, or Makis, have hitherto been found beyond the limits of Madagascar
and the Commoro Islands. The Louis, the Nycticebus, and Tarsius, represent them in Ceylon,
Sumatra, and the Indian Archipelago ; and one species (Nycticebus Javaxicus, Geoff.), a slow
nocturnal animal, has an extensive range, extending from Bengal to Sumatra, Java, and Siam.
The Galagos are entirely confined to the continent of Africa. A considerable number of species
is now known, forty-three having been described by Dr. J. E. Gray, in his monograph of the
Family.* In it he enumerates the whole of the species of this family which have been dis-
covered up to this date. Their numbers and localities are as follow: —
Sjiecies
Species
Indri
1
Lepilemur
4 Madagascar.
Propithecus
1/
Callotus
1 Angola.
Varecia
^ ; All from Madagascar.
Gambia.
Lemur
10)
Galago
3
Senegal.
Otogale
2 Natal.
Fernando Po
)>
2 Fernando Po.
))
1 South Africa
Macrorhiniis
1 JMadagascar.
»
1 Senaar.
Hapalemur
2
(doubtful)
1 ^Madagascar.
Cheirogaleus
3
Several admirable additions have been made to our knowledge of this family and its allies
within the last few years. In addition to Dr. Gray's monograph, Mr. St. George Mivart has given
an excellent paper on their dentition and classification, f and I have adopted his arrangement
in the list of species in the Appsndix. He divides them into the Indrisin.e, Lemurin^e, Nycti-
CEBiN.E and Galagin.e, and includes Tarsius and Cheiromys in the order, making separate
sections for them. Professor Huxley has also given a valuable monographic description of a
new species of this family, Arctocebus Calabariensis, from Old Calabar.J
The possession by Madagascar of so many species of these remarkable animals naturally leads one
to speculate upon the circumstances to which this specialty is due.
That country is distinguished not only by the peculiar endemic types which it possesses, but,
perhaps, even moi'e so, by the absence of other forms, which we might naturally think that it ought to
* Gray in "Zuol. Soc. Proc." 21 April, 1S63.
r "Proc. Zool. Soc." Nov. 1864, p. (ill.
% " Proc. Zool. Soc." 1864, p. 314.
LEMURS — MADAGASCAR FAUNA. 83
contain. Its vicinity to Africa, and the fact that there is a comparatively shallow suhmarine nock of
land, which woidd on a small rise connect it with that continent (see Map 1), mark it prima facie as an
African dependencj', and its fauna and flora in many respects bear out the expectation ; but there is
still much that is difficidt of explanation on this assumption. If it were formerly connected with
Africa, why are so many of the special types of the neighbouring land wholly wanting? — Where
are its Antelopes and its Pachyderms ? It may have been that they were not yet in existence at the
period when the separation of Madagascar from Africa took place, or it may have been due to the
physical character of the land, and not a phenomenon involving any difierence in the fauna of the
noighboiu-ing continent, from what now exists there. I have already suggested that its separation
probably took place at the commencement of the miocene epoch. Imagine the fauna of South
Africa, with Madagascar united to it, to ha^■e been at that time of the same type as now (with the
possible exception of the Carnivora, as to which I shall speak in the next chapter). "SYe may,
without extravagance, assume the character of the fauna of Africa to have continued the same since
the miocene epoch ; for if the only other country (Australia) of which a considerable portion has
remained above water and without much change since that date, has preserved its Mammalian type
unchanged, there seems no reason why Africa, similarly circiunstanced, should not have done so likewise.
If that was the case when the subsidence came, it woidd obviously depend upon its extent and the
character of the portion of Madagascar not submerged, what animals would be present and what
could survive. If all but wooded peaks were xmder water it is plain that there could be none of
the Antelopes which feed on grassy plains : they would not bo there at all. All but those animals
adapted for a mountainous or forest country would be destroyed, and South Africa has few of that
class of animals. The Mammalian Fauna of Madagascar is singularly limited ; b\it such as it is, it
is all related to Africa and India ; there is not a Mammal in JIadagascar which does not belong to
families whose types are both Indian and African ; thus confirming the idea of the former connexion
between these two lands.
Chetromyid.e — CiiEiROMYs — Aye-Aye. This cxtraordinarj" aniinal is a native of ]\Iadagascar,
■and only one species of the genus is known. Its place in the natural system has been the subject of
much discussion ; some, especially the older authors, placing it among the Squirrels,* others classing
it with the Lemurs. Some modern authors of eminence, and among them Dr. Giebcl,t also place
it next the Squirrels. Tlie reader will find full details regarding its affinities, in a paper by
Professor Owen in the Transactions of the Zoological Society.^ Its dentition is absolutely that of
a Squirrel or Beaver, and I may add two minor characters which I have not seen noticed, viz., its hair
and its dung, which are both those of the Squirrel. Notwithstanding this, however, on balancing the
characters on each side, its Lemurine relations seem to preponderate. Its appearance is that of a
Lemur, and one very marked peculiarih', which is shared by some of the Ijcmurida; and the Aye-Aye,
is entitled to much weight, viz., that one of the fingers (in the Aye-Aye tlie ring-finger) of
the fore or hind paws is specially altered in form and adapted in structure for picking insects out
of their holes in timber. This structure is very conspicuous in the Aye- Aye, but there is no in-
stance in which it occurs in the Squirrels or any other of the Rodents. Such a jwculiarity as this
* See Cltvier's arrangement in the Appendix. Dr. t Giebel " Die SaugeUiicrc."
Shaw also, who first described it, named it " Sciuars X Owen, in Trans. Zool. i-'oc. 18G2.
Madagascariensis."
84 MAMMALS.
found in two different animals, does more to impress the mind with a conviction of their affinity,
than other more important, though less specialized, characters. To the students of geographical
distribution the additional fact that the Aye-Aj'e is a Lemur-like animal, inhabiting a country where
Lemui's abound and Squirrels are not, wiU be conclusive in favour of its belonging to the Lemurs,
and not to the Squirrels. Its rodent characters will be to them more especially interesting in rela-
tion to specidations on the origin of that family.
Galegpithecid.*;. The curious genus, Gai.eopithecus, is found in Java, Siam, Sumatra, Borneo,
and the Philipi^ine Islands. Some authors make a distinct Order of it ; others \Aa.cc it among the
Bats ; more recently an inclination has been shown to rank it among the Insectivora proper,* but
I agree with the majority of Naturalists that its place is next the Lemurs. It has no doubt some
affinities to the Insectivora, especially the Bats ; but those to the Quadrumana preponderate. There
have been five species described, three in Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and Siam, and two in the Philippine
Islands ; but there is little doubt that they are not all distinct.
* See GiEUEL, Die Saugethiere, 653, 1859 ; also Wag- Peter's "Ueber die Saugethiere's gattuug Solenodon Abb.
nek's Supplement to Schrcber's "Saugethiere," vol. v., and Ac. Wiss." Berlin, 1863.
85
CHAPTER XI.
CARNIVORA. AFFINITIES. EXTINCT FELINE SPECIES. — ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION. BONE-CAVES
IN BRAZIL. MAUVAISES TERRES.
The Carnivora consist of the Cats and Dogs (Digitigrada), the Bears (Plantigrada), and
Seals (Pinnigrada). Professor Owen places them in this order, doubtless in accordance with
what he considers tlieir respective degrees of development. Other authors have preferred to place
the Pears at the head of the Carnivora, from the idea that by the plantigrade walking feet
of some, and by the prehensile feet of others, they showed more relationship to the Quadrumana
than the other members of the order, and so formed the most natural transition from them
to it; but proximate affinity is not to be looked for in these two orders, and it is straining
parallel resemblances too far to construe them as evidences of connexion : at the same time
there is no harm in keeping in mind that resemblances in various points may be traced between
the Arctopitheci among the Quadi-umana, the Racoons among the Bears, and the Squirrels among
the Rodents.
The oldest form that we can trace of each order is as perfect and advanced as any of the species
of the present day ; and if we trust to nothing but the evidence of fossil remains, we are compelled to
admit that each had started into being lOce Minerva from Jove's head, fully armed, with all
the attributes of our present species. The fossU monkey from the caves of Brazil Is of the
South American type, and has the characters of that type as fully developed as the most modern
improvement upon them aU ; so it is wdth those of the Old-world section, remains of which have
been fovmd in Europe. The earliest Carnivore did not apj)ear in the shape of some less perfect
animal or intermediate modification, from which a lion, a dog, or a bear, may have successively
sprung ; but in as perfectly developed a carnivorous form as any subsequent species of that order.
These are the extinct animals described under the names of Paljeocyon, Amphicvon, &c.
The Carnivora, however, do not appear as a well-establislied family until the pliocene
period, although scanty remnants of a few species have been foimd in the eocene and lower miocene
formations. It is to the fossiliferous caves and diluvial deposits about the time of, or succeeding
to the glacial epoch, that we are indebted for the most of our knowledge of the extinct species
of this order. The caves examined by Lund in Brazil, which belong to the pliocene cijoch, have con-
tributed some most interesting materials to it. The only localities in which carnivorous remains
have been discovered of an older date than the glacial epoch are — 1. Some of the European eocene
and miocene deposits ; 2. The deposits in the Mauvaises Terres, east of the Rocky Mountains in
North America, which again belong to the miocene epoch ; and 3. The miocene beds of Sevalik,
in the Himmalayah. All the prc-glacial remains belong to a different type from that of the existing
Carnivores, which only first appeared during the glacial epoch. Map 12 shows their distributiuu
previous to the elevation of the bed of the Saharan sea.
86 MAMMALS.
If these data can be held to represent at all fairly the former range of carnivorous animals,
they suggest the possibility of a remarkable difference between their ancient and their modem
distribution ; viz., that their origin is northern, and that their ijresence in Africa, one of the
regions in which they now chiefly flourish, is possibly of comparatively recent date.
In the first place, if the assumption is correct that Africa had always been wholly detached
from Exu'ope until after the glacial epoch, the occurrence of a species in the one country would
be jjfima facie evidence against its being found in the other, because it could only inhabit both,
either by some communication having existed between the two (which is against our special
premises), or by a double creation, or duplicate specific centre (which is against our general
premises) .
It is a natural assumption that, because feline remains have been foimd in the SevaKk beds,
feline animals must then have lived in India, and, probably, ranged over the whole suj)posed
continent between India and Africa, and so supplied Africa. We cannot prove that they did not.
No one can prove a negative ; but we can show that the Sevalik remains do not prove the
affirmative.
A Sevalik sea separated India from Northern Asia, in the line of the Himmalayahs, Avhich had
not yet appeared ; for the beds, which they were to tilt up, were only then being deposited. Now,
a mioceue sea, like every other sea, must have at least two sides ; and the question comes to be,
from which side, not all the animals found in the Sevalik counti'y, but this particular form of
animal, tmublod in. The inference sui'ely ought to be, from the side on which Carnivora were
known to exist — not from that where their remains have never been found. We know that they
existed in the northern hemisphere previous to the glacial epoch, not only because their remains have
been there met with, but because they must have been the stock out of which the present type was
develojDcd when the glacial change came. But, moreover, if tlie subsidence of the supposed con-
tinent between India and Africa was simultaneous with, and part of, the same action as that which
sunk a bed for the Sevalik sea, (which is possible) Africa may have been disunited from India
prior to the apj^earance of the miocene Carnivora whose remains are found in the Sevalik beds ;
and thus, even although they inhabited the south of the Sevalik sea, as well as the north, they
may have been equally excluded from Africa.
The converse of this is the case with the Antelopes, which have marked Africa for their own.
Only a few stragglers, of perhaps recent date, are found beyond its bounds and those of India ; and
I have not met with a single well-determined and undisputed instance of fossil remains of Ante-
lopes being found in the northern hemisphere.
AVe have thus apparently the singular fact rendered probable that Africa, at least, was free from
carnivorous animals until after the glacial eijoch, and that the herds of Ruminants and Pachyderms
enjoyed an Elj^sian existence — a sort of Garden of Eden, into which death never penetrated; at
least in the guise which they now most dread. I have heard very excellent discourses on the beauty
of the balance of life, whereby the excessive increase of one animal is kept within bomids by the
destructive instincts of another ; and very generally the Lion and the Ruminant wound up and
gave point to the argument. But we see that no such compensation-balance is now needed orused
in South America, where the herds of cattle and horses roam unchecked by the Puma or the Wolf,
which are unequal to the task of subduing them. I have, therefore, less hesitation in believing that
the same may have hajjpened in former times in Africa.
As a communication subsisted in tliose times between Europe and North America, and between
&
EXTINCT FELINE SPECIES. 87
Nortli and South America, there is, of course, no difficulty in explaining the presence of the same
type of early Carnivova in all three countries in that epoch.
Felid.e — Great Cats, Lioxs, Tigers, Leopards, &c. (Maps 12-lG.) The Great Cats are
so eminent members of this family, that I may be excused for treating of them separately — not
as a zoological section, distindt from the small cats, but — as objects to which more human interest
attaches than to their smaller and less dangerous cousins.
ExTi>fCT Species. —The Cave Lion or Cave Tiger, Felis SrEi,.EA, whose remains have been
found in almost every bone-cave in Europe, differed in little but size from the living tiger or
lion ; and even in size the difference is not great. By some it has been supposed to be the
species of tiger still living in Asia ; by others, it is thought to have been the existing lion.*
De Blain\dlle attributed to it a mixture of the characters of the Lion and Tiger. Owen,
in his " British Fossil Mammals," named it the Cave Tiger, ha%-ing at that time had only imperfect
specimens to examine ; the maxillary bones, the most essential materials for the inquiry, not having
then come into his hands. lie pointed out, however, that the comparative prolongation of the
nasal processes of the maxillary bones was a good character for distinguishing the skull of the
existing lion from the tiger, as well as from the jaguar and its allies. The nasal i^rocesses of
the superior maxillary bones extend as far back as the nasal bones in the lion, but not
so far in the tiger. On the examination of perfect specimens of the Cave animal subsequently
obtained, he found that they did extend as far back, and he thence concluded that the animal was
not a tiger. Tliis opinion is, however, not imiversal. Dr. Giebel still (1859) sjjeaks of it as the
"Cave Tiger, falselj' called the Cave Lion." " Althoiigh," says he, "this Cave Tiger has a
most decided affinity to the tiger in skuU, skeleton, and dentition, and more widely remote fi'om
the lion than the living tiger ; still it has, even in the latest times, been falsely given out by
Gervais, Pictet, Quenstedt, and others, as a Cave Lion." The range of the living tiger is
certainly jnore akin to that of the deceased animal, than is that of the lion.
Notwithstanding this, it has even been doubted whether it might not have been a leopard,
a spotted cat instead of a striped one. Shorter processes of the maxillary bones are present in
the skull of the jaguar as well as the tiger, but Cuvier speaks of the Cave species resembling the
leopard more than the tiger or lion, in the uniform and gentle curve of the skull.
The animal was no doubt suited to a cold climate. Its remains have been found in abundance
in England, and our climate in its days must have been even more severe than that which we
now have. Wo infer this, not only from the very ample protection against cold, with which the
mammoth, in whose times it lived, was provided, but from the reindeer and musk-ox having been
contemporaneous inhabitants with it of England. Its other associates are either extinct, without
leaving us the means of judging what climate was best suited to them, or they were of that accom-
modating habit which can bear considerable extremes of heat and cold, and consequently furnish
by their presence no indication, either one way or other. But the same .species of musk-ox and
reindeer which then furnished food for the Cave Lion, still survive, although the former is now
confined to the Arctic regions, and the latter onlj' thrives in scarcely less northern lands, wliile
it will not live at all in our menageries. Their presence, therefore, infers a considerably .'older
climate in England than we now possess.
* "The great Fki.is of the Tjriti.sh cave deiiosits is now hclicved to he no other than F. Leo." FjIA-ti!, op. cit. 53.
88 MAMMALS.
Some authors, indeed, have attempted to distinguish the fossil reindeer from that now living in
the North of Europe and Asia, and have supposed that it was a species peculiar to Central Europe, and
separated from the Northern species by a geographical lacune. This view is not adopted, however, by
the majority of palasontologists. Greater variation exists between different individuals of the
existing reindeer than between them and the fossil sjsecies ; and as to the geographical lacune
in their distribution, M. Lartet * points out that nearly a century ago, when Pallas travelled in the
south of Russia, he found them advancing southwards along the Ural mountains, and speaks of
them being killed every year near Mount Caucasus. Besides, this objection does not apply to the
still stronger case of the musk-ox.
On this subject it is not irrelevant to state my belief, that whatever may be the cause, the
climate has improved, and in a general way still continues to do so, ever since the days of
the glacial epoch (always excepting occasional, perhaps cyclical, variations which may have been
due to general causes affecting the whole globe). The glaciers in Switzerland, with some oscil-
lations, are retreating on the whole. The accounts which Tacitus, Caesar, and other ancient
writers, give of Germany, France, and Britain (Ireland is spoken of as "frozen Erin")t suggest
a less favourable climate than these comitries now possess. There seems to be a diminution,
too, in the energy of the people of Southern Europe, since the days v.'hen their ancestors carried
all before them ; and we know that energy and the vis vidrix are the attributes of climates with
a certain degree of cold. Heat relaxes the human machinery, not only in those born in cold
climates, but still more in the natives of warm ones ; cold braces it up. That conquering power
has gone forth from the Greeks and the Romans, the Moors and the Spaniards, and migrated
to more northerly people. It is a fair and an open question, though all too large for discussion
here, and there is no lack of argiunents on the other side, such as that the temples and buildings
left by these nations are all conformable to such climates as now subsist in their coimtries, that
wine was formerly made from the grape grown in the open air in the south of England, and that
corn grew in Iceland ; but, as at present advised, I incline to think these excej)tions are capable
of being explained away, and that the arguments in favour of a continued amelioration of
climate are strongest.
Besides the above-mentioned animals, the Cave lion lived contemporaneously, probably, with all
the following species, viz. with the Cave bear, the Cave hyoena, the mammoth, the so-called woolly-
haired rhinoceros, a large hippopotamus, the Irish elk, and various smaller animals. M. Lartet
divides the recent or quaternarj^ ejioch into four periods, each characterised by these animals, thus, —
1. The period of the Cave bear, which he thinks appeared first, and became extinct first.
2. The period of the mammoth and rhinoceros.
3. The period of the reindeer ; and
4. That of the aurochs.
Remains of the Cave lion have been found in caves associated with remains of the animals
which lived in all the three first periods.
It appears, also, to have continued alive in Eurojae until a comparatively recent period, although
* Lahtet's " Aunales des Soc," 1841.
t " — - Maduerunt Saxone fuso
Orcades, inoaluit Pictorum sanguine Thule,
Scotorum cumulcs flevit ijlacialis lerne'' — Claudi.\n.
FELINE SPECIES. 89
whether down to the age of the Aurochs and Urns is not so clear, but probably subsequent to the
appearance of man there ; for Messrs. Christy and Lartet record a metacarpal bono of the species
found in the cave of Les Eyzies, bearing evident marks of knives (flint), which marks they imply
were produced by cutting off the meat from the bones. It has left evidences of its presence in
England, Belgium, Germany, Russia, France, Italy, Sicily, and Greece.
It is not proved that it extended into Asia ; according to ray view it must have come
thence. Still earlier than its appearance in Europe, the Tiger, before referred to (F. cristata),
about the same size as the living tiger, already existed in Asia, remains of which have been
discovered by Falconer and Cautley in the miocene formation of the Sivalik Hills.*
Remains of a still older miocene Tiger (F. aphanista Kaup) have been met with in the tertiary
sands of Epplesheim. Some ver}^ imperfect remains of an animal about the size and habit of
a panther have been found in the miocene beds at Sansans, in the south of France. It was described
by Gervais imder the name of PsEUD.5:LURrs QiADRiDENTATis.t
Another feline animal, perhaps of even more destructive character than the Cave Lion, belong-
ing to an allied but distinct and very remarkable genus named Machairoutjs, lived in Europe
in the miocene epoch, and not long before the Cave species, and has also left traces in America.
The most distinguishing feature in the structure of the animals of this genus was the enormous
development of the upper canine teeth, which were much longer than those of the lion or tiger, more
compressed, and flattened like a sabre, whence their name. The remains of European species have
been found chiefly in caves. So have those of one of the American species, a most extraordinary
animal, with some resemblance to the hyaena, but larger, discovered by Lund in caverns in Brazil,
and named !Machairodus Neog.iius or S:milodo>;. In it the upper canines are nearly as long as
the entire lower jaw, and, as suggested by Professor Owen, are an instance of the mutual cor-
relation of the structure (for offence and defence) of animals inhabiting the same region — the
powerful jaws and enormous upper canines of this animal being apparentlj- purposelj' adapted for
tearing up the large Armadillos (Gt.yptodox), whose carapaces are found in the superficial deposits
of South Amei'ica of the same age, which, on the other hand, are provided with an almost im-
penetrable tortoise-Hke armour.
The Jaguar, which in these countries now fills the place and performs the destructive task
of the MACiiAiRODrs Smilodon, has a less difficult labour to perforin. Humboldt, in his " Per-
sonal Narrative," says, ""We were shown large shells of turtles emptied b}' the Jaguars. These
animals follow the Arraus towards the beaches, when the la3'ing of eggs is to take place. They
surprise them on the sand, and, in order to devour them at their ease, turn them in such a manner
that the under shell is uppermost. In this situation the turtles cannot rise, and as the Jaguar
turns many more than he can eat in one night, the Indians often avail themselves of his cunning and
malignant avidity. ^\Tien we reflect on the difficulty that the naturalist finds in getting out
the body of the turtle without separating the upper and under shells, we cannot enough admire
the suppleness of the tiger's paw, which empties the double armour of the Arrau, as if the adhering
parts of the muscles had been cut bj' means of a surgical instrument." J Mr. "W'allacc speaks in
similar terms of the clean and perfect manner in which tlie whole of the interior is scooped out.^
* Falc. and Cautl. " Asiatic Researches,'' xix. a 13.5. J Ho.mboidt's " Personal Narrative," iv. p. 492.
t Gervais, "Zool. Pal. Fr." p. 127. § Wallace, Alfred, " Travels in Brazil."
90 MAMMALS.
In the Jaguar the instrument used is the paw, but we may fairlj' assume that the canine teeth,
half a foot in length, would take their part along with the paw, when the Smilodon came to play
at such a game.
One iufercjice from this supjjosed similarity of function may be that the Jaguar is a legitimate
descendant of the Smilodon, and that the latter was a great spotted cat.
The caverns and deposits in which Dr. Luud found remains of these, and many other most
interesting animals, are situated in the mountain - chains between the Eio das Velhas and the
Eio Paraopeba. This country forms an elevated plain 2000 feet above the level of the sea, and
is traversed in its centre by a chain of mountains 300 to 700 feet in height, which is formed of
secondary limestone stratified in horizontal beds, and possessing all the characters of the Zechstein or
Hohlen Kalkstein (cavern limestone) of the Germans. It is entirely perforated with caverns, and
traversed in all directions by fissures, which are more or less filled with red earth, identical mth that
forming the superficial stratum of the district. This bed, which varies from ten to fifty feet in
thickness, covers indiscriminately, and without interruption, the plains, valleys, hills, and even the
gentle slopes of the mountains. It consists principally of clay, containing subordinate strata
of gravel and quartz pebbles, and is frequently ferruginous to such a degree thai the particles of
iron are converted into j)istholitic ii'on ore, resembling that which fills the fissures of the Jura.
The soil which fills the caverns has undergone some modifications, arising from its introduction
and sojourn in them. It contains angulose, or roimded fragments of limestone. It is also hardened
by the particles of lime deposited in its interior by the waters charged with this substance filtrating
through the fissures of rock, and it is impregnated with saltpetre, and is on this account explored by
tlic inhabitants of the country.*
It is in this soil that the fossil bones are found ; they are deposited pell-mell, are fragile, very
white in their fracture, and adhere strongly to the tongue. Fi'cquently they are petrified, more often
converted into calcareous spar. In general they are broken or mutilated, and, lastly, they frequently
bear the impressions of teeth, leaving no doubt that the animals to which they belonged had been
dragged into these caverns by ferocious animals then inhabiting them. The larger ones have been
introduced by various carnivorous maminifera, and the smaller ones probably by a diurnal bird. At
the present day not a single ferocious animal of the mammifera sojourns in these caverns, and none
accumidate masses of bones comparable to those which are found in the dihivial deposits. At the
utmost, all that is found in the modern excavations are bones of small animals scattered at the surface,
which had served as prey to a nocturnal bird, the Terror (Efiraie) of Brazil (Strix perlata).
Of these caverns, that called Sappa Nova de Marguine, in the Sierra de Marguin(^, is one of the
most remarkable. The mountain consists of clay-slate, flinty-slate, and transition limestone, in which
last is the principal cavern. Its total length from north to south is 1440 feet, the height being from
thirty to forty feet, and the breadth from fifty to sixty. It is separated by masses of stalactite into
twelve divisions, of which only three were known before Dr. Limd explored them. The others,
especially the innermost, were of such extraoi'dinary beaut}', that his attendants fell on their knees
and expressed, the greatest astonishment. Lund examined nineteen caverns in all, in three of which
he found the remains which have thrown so much light upon the ancient forms of life in Brazil.
An interesting fact relating to these caves is mentioned by Dr. Mantell as having been commu-
nicated to him by Mr. Waterhouse. M. Clausen, from whom, as well as Dr. Lund, many of the
remains from the caves now jn-eserved in the British Museum were obtained, in the course of his
* "Comptes Reiidus," No. 15, Avril, 18.39.
BONE-CAVES. 91
researches discovered a cavern the stalagmitic floor of which was entire. On penetrating the sparry
crust he found the usual ossiferou.s bod, but pressing engagements compelled him to leave the deposit
unexplored. After an interval of some years, M. Clausen again visited the cavern, and found the
excavation he had made completely filled wp with stalagmite, the floor being as entire as on his first
entrance. On breaking through this newlj'-formed incrustation, it was found to be distinctly marked
with lines of dark-coloured sediment alternating with the crj'stalHne stalactite. Reasoning on the
probable cause of this appearance, M. Clausen sagaciously concluded that it arose from the alternation
of the wet and diy seasons. During the drought of summer the sand and dust of the p)arched land
were wafted into the caves and fissures, and this earthly layer was covered during the rainy season by
stalagmite, from the water that jjercolated through the limestone and deposited calc-spar on the floor.
The number of alternate laj-ers of sjiar and sediment tallied with the years that had elapsed since his
first visit ; and, on breaking up the ancient bed of stalagmite, he found the same natural register of
the annual variation of the seasons. Every layer dug through presented a uniform alternation
of sediment and spar ; and as the botanist ascertains the age of an ancient dicotyledonous tree from the
annual circles of growth, in like manner the geologist attempted to calculate the period that had
elapsed since the commencement of these ossiferous deposits of the cave ; and, although the inference,
from want of time and means to conduct the inquiiy with precision, can only be accepted as a rough
calculation, yet it is interesting to learn that the time indicated bj' this natural chronometer, since the
extinct mainmalian forms were interred amounted to many thousand 5'ears.*
The aee of the remains found in ihe caves is the same as that of those found in the honc-
caves of Britain, namely, the later pliocene, that iS, subsequent to the glacial epoch. It is remarkable
that aR the bone breccias and bone caves throughout the world belong to the same period. They
may be called phenomena of the glacial epoch. How or why none have been discovered ajiplicable
to the miocene epoch is not easy to account for. The deposit of bone breccias is doubtless still going
on in various parts, where rivers disappear in limestone countries ; but I cannot help thinking that
the manufactory is less flourishing than it was in times nearer to the height of the glacial epoch.
It would be a convenience, in considering questions relating to this period of geological historj^,
if eeoloffists would — instead of their older and newer Pliocene and Pleistocene formations — give
us a nomenclature bearing direct reference to the progress of the glacial epoch — one phrase to
indicate its access, another its establishment, and a third its recess. At present its access (although
not less important than its recess, seeing that during it the chief changes from miocene to modern
types of form probably took place) is scarcely recognised as part of the epoch at all.
The locality in North America which has supplied the greatest amount of e\idcnce of the former
existence there of species of the genus of which we have been speaking, as well as of many
other extraordinary extract animals, is the band of tertiary deposits extending, with interrup-
tions, in the line of the Missouri and Mississippi, from the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico
to the Arctic Ocean. The most prolific portion lies along the river Missouri, and is known as tlu;
" Mauvaises Torres," or Bad I^ands of the hunters. These occur at irregular intervals all along
the Missouri, more especially on the Nebraska or Platte River, and the Niobrara and otliers of
its tributaries, and ia some places are of great extent. Thej^ are composed mainl}^ of a soft half-
formed sandstone or mud stone, which criunbles under a slight pressure, and is washed by the rains
* Mantell, O. a., " Petrifactions aod their Teachings ; or, a Hand-book to the Gallery of Organic Kcmains in
the British Museum." London, 1851. p. 481.
92 MAMMALS.
into the most fantastic shapes, and as it is washed away discovers fossils and lignites of a large
size, and is sometimes heard falling in large masses, with a dull, muffled sound.
The accounts given of these suigidar districts, and of the columnar and grotesque forms of the
more indurated portions which have withstood the denuding action of the weather, might be used as
descriptions, on a small scale, of the scenery which we might expect would be seen were the
coral islands of the Pacific raised above the level of the sea. The follov\'ing description of them
is taken from Dr. Evans' account of them in Owen's " Geological Survey of Wisconsin : " —
" To the surrounding country, however, the Mauvaises Terres present the most striking contrast.
From the uniform, monotonous open prairie, the traveller suddenly descends one or two hundred feet
into a vaUey that looks as if it sunk away from the surrounding world, leaving standing all over it
thousands of abrupt, irregular, prismatic, and columnar masses, frequently capped with irregular
pyramids, and stretching up to a height of from one to two hundred feet or more. So thickly are
these natural towers studded over the surface of this extraordinary region, that the traveller threads
his way through deep, confined labyrinthine passages — not unlike the narrow, irregidar streets and
lanes of some quaint old town of the European continent. Viewed in the distance, indeed, these
rocky piles, in their endless succession, assume the appearance of massive artificial stmctures, decked
out with all the accessories of buttress and turret, arched doorway, and clustered shaft, pinnacle, and
finial and tapering spire. One might almost imagine oneself approaching some magnificent city of
the dead, where the labour and genius of forgotten nations had left behind them a multitude of
monuments of art and skill.
" On descentUng from the heights, however, and inspecting in detail its deep intricate recesses,
the realities of the scene soon dissipate the illusions of the distance. The castellated forms which
fancy had conjm-ed up had vanished, and around one on every side is bleak and barren desolation.
Then, too, if the exploration is made in midsummer, the scorching raj's of the sun pouring down in
the hundred defiles that conduct the wayfarer through this pathless waste, are reflected back from
the white or ash-colourcd walls that rise around, unmitigated by a breath of air or the shelter of a
solitary shrub.
" The drooping spirits of the scorched geologist are not, however, j)ermitted to flag. The fossil
treasures of the way well repay its didlness and fiitigue."*
These beds have been denominated the "White River Group by Mr. ileek and Mr. nayden,t in a
paper on the Nebraska deposits. They belong to the older deposits of the lower miocene. It is in
another series of beds called by them the Loup River Beds, which have been deposited after the
upper surface of the Wliite River grouj] had been worn into ravines, that remains of species of
the genus Felis occur, which they consider to be very closely allied to recent species. These
beds probbaly belong to the more recent period of the upper miocene.
These prolific beds have been deposited in the lakes or freshwater estuaries into which the
remains of animals living on the neighbouring lands were washed, and deposited and preserved.
No marine estuary deposits have been found anywhere on or near the flanks of the Rocky Mountains.
The range of these extinct feline animals in North America probabh'- extended for a consider-
tible space along each side of the long tertiary belt in the midtUe of North America and eastwards
to the Atlantic sea-board.
No remains of true, or rather non-marsupial Carnivora have been found in Australia.
* Owen's " Geological Survey of Wiscocsiu," p. 196. t " Proc. Acad. Nat. Soc. Philad. 1861," p. 4;J5.
93
CHAPTER XII.
CARMVOUA COIlfinUed existing feline species TIIEIR DISTRIBUTION IN BORNEO.
Existing Species. — (Felis Leo) (Map 13.) The Lion, the chief of the existing Carnivora, is
now confined to Africa and the south-west of Asia, extending as far eastward as Guzerat. It is rare
in most of Asia, and in some parts of Africa, and has whoUy disappeared from many districts
where it was formerly a resident. Within the historic period it existed in Europe. Aristotle (no
doubt on the authority of Herodotus) states that the lions of Thessaly attacked the beasts of burden
attached to the army of Xerxes, and mentions the circumstance as occuiTing between the Achelous
and the Nestus.
Within the present century, it was distributed over much of Central, West, and Xorth-
west India. It is now almost confined in that country to the peninsula of Guzerat. Blyth
says, that there is reason to believe that it formerly inhabited the plains of Upper India generally,
if not also the table-land of the peninsida. In the early part of the sixteenth century, Baber
mentions that it inhabited the Benares district. It was extirpated at Hurriana in 1824. A
female was kiUed at Rhyli, in the Diunaoh district, Sagur and Nerbudda territories, so late as
in the cold season of 1847-48, and about the same time a few still remained in the valley of the
Scinde river in Central India. The species would appear to be now exterminated in that district,
unless a remnant still maintains a lingering existence in certain particularly inaccessible haimts
in the neighbouring district of Bundelkund, which Mr. Blyth (in 1803) mentions that he had
received recent intelligence was the case.* It does not occur to the northward or eastward of the
north-west provinces of the Bengal Presidency.
It is plentiful in some parts of Persia, and not rare in Asia Minor.
In Africa it is almost entirely extirpated from the more populous parts of Egj^pt and tlie shores
of the Mediterranean. It is still in tolerable numbers on the Mount Atlas range, but does not
penetrate into the .Sahara, although a straggler from the Tunisian Mountains may occasionally be met
with on its northern boundary. It does not now occur in the Gaboon and Niger districts, and is
driven far back into the interior from the Cape of Good Hope ; but in the other parts of the Continent
of Africa it is more than sufficiently abundant. At one time or other it must have ranged into every
part of Africa ; for, as I am informed by Dr. Kirk, he knows of no nation or tribe which
has not a name for it.
Slight differences exist in the appearance or characters of individuals from these various districts,
or at least some of them ; differences sufficient to have led naturalists to hold that there is more than
one species. Thus the manelcss Lion of Guzerat, and the Gambiau lion, have been described as
* Blyth, "Catalogue of Slamtnalia in Museum of Asiatic Society," 186.'?, p. 54 and C5.
94 MAMMALS.
separate and distiuct from the common African Lion ;* but the supposed blacker mane of the
Gambian variety is not a specific character, but merel)^ due to age or individual peculiarity, and the
absence of a mane in the Guzerat variety is not constant, nor is that peculiarity confined to the
individuals from that quarter.
This is another illustration of Agassiz's view, that the more highly organised a family or genus
is, the shorter are the steps between the different forms which compose it. But while the facts
support him in this observation, I think they give an intelligible qualification or restriction to another
of his too sweeping propositions, — viz. that most animals and plants must have originated primi-
tively over the whole extent of their natural distribution ; that, for instance. Lions, which occur
over almost the whole of Africa, over extensive jjarts of Southern Asia, and were formerly found
oven over Asia Minor and Greece, must have originated primitively over the whole range of these
limits of their distribution, f
Now, while I agree with hiui that species have been developed simultaneously over a considerable
extent of country, I do not think that the present extent of their distribution is an absolute
gauge of that of their original starting-point.
Agassiz assumes that the species has always kept within its original bounds. I hold, on the
contrary, that it may sj)read from its original field, and yet retain its general specific character,
pro^dded the conditions of the new field are materially different from those of the old ; but that
whenever it does so spread, such extension of its limits is marked by some degree of alteration
in its minor characters ; for the qualities of condition of life are so subtle that the constitution
of few animals are sufficiently blimt to allow them to pass into a new territory without being sensible
of them, and having the impulse to change of species brought more or less into action through
them. Wherever, therefore, we see varieties of a species, I think we maj' at once lay it down as
probable that here the species has wandered beyond the limits of its original specific centre.
Now, we have already seen that there are geological groimds for holding that the original
specific centre of the carnivora was the northern hemisphere, neither the Cave Lion nor what was
doubtless its descendant, the modern Lion, having aj^peared until the retreat of the glacial epoch
had commenced,^ and Africa and India having been until then disunited from Europe and Asia.
By the time our Lion appeared, Europe was dismiited from America, and united to Africa and
Asia, and the way was free to pass from the former into the latter. I have already explained my
grounds for thinking that at the height of the glacial epoch almost the whole of Europe was covered
either by ice or water, and organic life destroyed from ofi" its face, with the exception of a few
miocene species which may have still survived in its extreme south, where not submerged and beyond
the influence of the cold. ^Yhen the ice retreated, and the land began to be raised, Europe must
have been re-peoplcd from Asia, in which the previous flora and fauna had found refuge, doubtless
in the nearest habitable part, which might perhaps be Persia. Thus much premised, I imagine
* Jlr. Blyth says that the Guzerat lion is fully mancd, of Asiatic Society, 1863, p. 63. The mane is certainly
and not a nearly maneless vanity, as .stated by Captain sometimes absent in the Guzerat variety. I have seen the
Smee, whose figure represents an immature animal. Mane- skin of a full-grown male maneless specimen brought by a
less individuals, however, whether or not constituting a friend from that country,
particular race, occur also in Mesopotamia, and even in f Agassiz, op. cit. p. 10.
Africa. Vide "Earth's Travels," 1. 482, v. 971, 270. J I do not adopt the common phrase, the cfose of the
Wlierever found the species appears to be subject to much glacial epoch, altliough I may sometimes, from habitude,
individual variation of colouring of mane and general be betrayed into using it : for I do not think wc have
aspect. See Blyth's " Catalogue of Mammalia," in Museum reached the close of it yet.
TIGEK. 95
the genealogy of the Lion to have been this : — xVt the commencement of the cold,* the Machaiuodus,
or some other Carnivore, has been changed into the Cave Lion ; and when mild weather began to
return, the Cave Lion became the common Lion. At this time life had notretui-ned to Europe, and the
specific centre of the new animal was probably in Asia ; thence it would spread into Europe and Africa.
TiGEK : Felis TIGRIS (Map 14). The Tiger begins to appear where the lion begms to die
out. It has been observed that two large species of the same family of animals are rarely found in
the same district, and those who are fond of referring everything to laws have inferred a law of
distribution antagonistic to their co-existence in the same area. I have no great favour for the
practice of referring to the operation of special laws phenomena which can be equally well accounted
for by the ordinary working of general laws, and in one sense, and that, perhaps, the sense in which
the supposed law is most commonly understood, this may be said to be the case with the present fact.
Looked at merely as a question why two large nearly allied species rarely, if ever, co-exist in the
same area, it seems only one of the ordinary results of the struggle for life, the stronger driving the
weaker before them, and in time extinguishing them. But looked at a little deeper, the struggle for
life wlU not explain everything. How did the struggle for life ever allow a second species to get to
such a head as to need to be di'iven out ? Being allied, the one species most probably was derived
from the other. How came the weak one ever to get a footing at all ? The hypothesis hj which I
have attempted to explain the stability of estabKshed species, the origin of new species, and the
existence of special faunas in special pro's-inccs in many cases explains this. The second species cannot
take its origin in the same district as the first, because it is oulj^ by the species undergoing change
of condition that it can be developed into a new species. This applies to two species which have
sprung the one from the other. In other cases as the present, where two neighbouring species may
have originated in diffei'ent regions, from a common ancestor, and from different points of its range,
and come in contact hj extending their limits, the ordinary efiect of the struggle for life wiU
come into operation, and the stronger wiU destroy or dispossess the weaker.
The common notion, with regard to the Tiger, is, that it is a tropical animal which requires a
warm climate to live in. The researches of late explorers reveal a veiy different state of things.
Beginning at lofty Ararat and the frosty Caucasus on the west, and ending at the island of
Saghalien on the east, its range stretches across the whole of Asia, with the exception of the
high Thibetan table-land of Central Asia. Mr. Blj^th mentions that a few are annually killed in
Tm'kish Georgia. It is found in greater numbers in the Elburz mountains, south of the Caspian Sea
(the ancient Hyrcania) . North of the Hindu Kosh it occurs in Bokhara, and proved troublesome
to the Russian Surveying Expedition on the shores of the Aral in mid-winter.f It is also found on
the Irtisch and in the Altai region, and thence, eastward to Amur-land, where it is very destructive
to cattle, and so round, by China and ludo-Cliina, to India, southward of the Ilimmalayahs ;
* The reader will bear in mind that it is part of my operate. During the whole of tlic glacial epoch, however,
theory that all changes in form take place soon after the as the cold advanceil or retreated, perhaps ofteucr than
. alteration in condition is experienced. I hold that we once, and subjected new subjects to a change of one kind
must look for all changes at the commencement of a or otlicr, there must have been a succession of change
period of alteration ; not after it has been some time in as the altei-ation successively reached new individuals ;
operation. Of course, when I say soon, I do not moan but that does not interfere with the general principle that
in the twinkling of an eye ; but what, in comparison the altei-atiou of species must always take place compa-
to the time of which we treat, is not much larger — say a rativcly shoitly after the change of condition,
few hundred, or thousand years. Such a speck as leaves + Blvth, op. cit., p. 182.
no trace in time, but long enough to allow the medicine to
96 MAMMALS.
but it does not extend into Cej'lon, although Humboldt, probably per liiciiriam, speaks of it as found
there.* It inhabits the Malayan Peninsula, Smnatra, Java, and Bali, but is not met with in
Borneo-t Although thus found on every side of the high Thibetan region of Central Asia, it does
not penetrate into it ; but occasionally it visits its margin, speedily retreating, however, into the
warmer wooded valleys and ravines by which it came. The Rev. Mr. Everest J says that he met
with the tracks of the Tiger on the snow near his house, above the valley of the Dehra Boon in the
Himmalaj^ahs, 6800 feet above the sea, and whilst shooting in the oak forest around it, had one of his
people carried away by one.
The few comparisons- which have been made between the individuals from different parts of
this vast area show considerable differences, but like those of the lions, rather of the nature of
climatal variation than specific characters. Herr Radde§ informs us that the Amourian individuals
are paler in colour, having more white on the under part of the body, and less red above ;
and he has compared skulls of examples from the Amour, from India, and from the Caucasus,
and found those of the Indian animals considerably larger than the others, and the Caucasian
specimen (he had onlj^ one) remarkable for the small size of its upper canines. There is no
doubt, however, that the species attains its greatest size, beauty, and ferocity, — in other words, is
m.ost highly developed, in the East Indian region. Blyth saj-s, that he has reason to believe that
the stature of the largest tigers considerably exceeds that of the largest lions. An experienced
lion-hunter in South Africa assured \m\\ that he never saw a lion-skull a^jproaching in magnitude
to the largest tiger-sludls in the Asiatic Society's Museum at Calcutta. ||
The absence of the Tiger in Ceylon may be due to one class of causes ; its absence in Borneo
to another ; probabl)^ some cause specially applicable to that island. We shall find, as we go along,
that these are not the only large animals which make Borneo remarkable by their absence.
A greater interval no doubt exists between it and the nearest land than between the other
islands where they are found, but scarcely sufficient to account for the difference, especially if we
suppose, as can hardly be doubted, that Borneo, as well as Java and Sumatra, was united to the
mainland at a time subsequent to the appearance of these animals, and that it was before the
separation of Java and Sumatra from the continent, that they became domiciled in them. This
separation there is every reason to believe was a comparatively recent event. The geological
events affecting Borneo must have been of the same date as those of Java and Sumatra, and these
islands possess the animals which are absent in Borneo.
The cause of their absence from Borneo is perhaps to be sought for in some peculiarity in the
condition of that island when the land sunk so as to separate it from the mainland.
If we imagine the island to have sunk so much as to have become an impassable morass,
covered with an impenetrable thicket of trees growing in the mud, such as is to be seen now on
some parts of the coast of New Guinea, it woidd perhaps explain the absence of large animals.
* Humboldt, " Asie C'entralc," i. 340 ; edit. 1843. formerly there were a few tigers on the North-east coast,
t "At one place two rocks were pointed oyit to me in probably let loose by stranger.s, as the ancestors of the
the stream, about thirty feet apart, called the Tiger's Leap. elephants were." — St. John's Life in the Forests of the
I made many inquiries about these animals. They insist Far East, ii. 115.
that eight came to their country, — that they were not J Everfst, in "Annals of Natural History," vol. viii.
tiger cats as I had suggested. If such animals were ever p. 327. 1842.
here, they might have escaped from cages in the capital, as § Gustav Radde, "Reisen im Suden Von Ost Sibcricn
it was a common custom among the far Eastern Princes to in den Jahren 1853-59." St. Petersburg, 1862.
keep these ferocious creatures, though I never heard of || Eltth, op. cit., p. 55.
Bornean princes doing so. I have read somcvvlierc that
BORNEAN MAMMALS. 97
Mr. Windsor Earl thus describes this character of the New Guinea Coast: "The sea-coasts
of alluvial regions are invariably lined by belts of mangroves, which sometimes extend into the sea
for miles beyond the level of high water ; and in New Guinea, as well as on the northern coasts of
Australia, the mangroves assume the character of forest trees about the upper parts, while the lower
consists of a, network of strong fibrous roots, which is absolutely impenetrable without the aid of the
axe, and even then it is impossible to proceed unless the mud has sufiicient consistency to support
the weight of the body, which is rarely the case, cxcej)t at dead low water. As the coast tribes,
who derive their chief sustenance from the sea, have to cross this belt almost daily, they naturally
prefer scrambling througli the upper branches, which are strong enough^ to afford secure footing,
while at the same time they entertwiue with each other in so peculiar a manner, that with a little
practice this singular mode of travelling can even be adopted by Europeans. Indeed, the writer on
more than one occasion has seen a file of marines, with muskets on their shoulders, steadily making
their way over mangrove swamps in this manner, although they certainly did not display the
monkey-lUve agility that M. Modera has so graphically described."
The grajjhic account by M. Modera to which Mr. Earl refers, is as follows : " On the afternoon
of the day in which the encounter took place, the naturalists, well armed, returned to the creek at
high water, and saw a spectacle which was also witnessed by those on board with the aid of
tclcscojics : laamely, the trees full of natives of both sexes, who, with weapons on their backs, sjirang
from branch to branch like monkeys, making the same gestures as in the morning, and shouting and
laughing in like manner, without our people beiog able to tempt them out of the trees by throwing
presents towards them, so that they returned on board again."*
Although there are lofty mountains in Borneo (probably all volcanic), the greater part of
that immense island is low and flat, and the mountains may have risen too late to have saved from
extinction tlie animals which required solid footing and dry land for their existence.
An examination of the ^lammalian fauna of Borneo shows, that, with a very few excei^tions
(which may perhaps be capable of individual explanation), the mammals are either arboreal in their
habits, or amphibious, or flj'ing, or in some way or other capable of subsisting in a half-drowned land.
On analysing its Fauna I find nine monkeys, all arboreal ; three lemurs, all arboreal ; twentj'-seven
bats, which may also be called all arboreal, at least none of them terrestrial ; four Cladobates,
small insectivorous animals which Kve like squirrels, and are known by the same name (Tujjaias) by
the Malays (also arboreal) ; one shrew-mouse ; the Ptilocercus Lowii and Hylomys Suillus,
the latter small insectivorous animals, found about 1500 or 2000 feet above the sea, are arboreal ; the
Bornoan bear (arboreal) ; one polecat (also arboreal) ; two otters (ampliibious) ; a Cynogai.k (web-
footed and amjihibious) ; either the leopard or a small panthcr,t and one or two small felines
* " Verhaal van eeue Reizc naar de Zuid-wcst Kust van that Schmarda is wrong in omitting it. Mr. St. John, op.
Nicw-Guiuea," door I. Modera. Haarlem, 1830. cit. ii. p. 252, mentions a small Panther among the prin-
t Schmarda, in his " Geographische Verbreitung dcr cipal animals which frequent the forests of Borneo, and
Thiere," vol. ii. p. 504, does not mention the Leopard as one gives something like circumstantial evidence of its pre-
of the Bornean felines, and before I looked particularly into scnce. " I never saw," says he, " the Tree Tiger in its wild
the question I trusted to his authority, and supposed that state ; but, as I have before noticed, its skin is large enough
my hypothesis was at fault so far as regarded it ; for it is an ^ to form a lighting jacket for a man. The Tiger Cat and
expert climber, and resorts to the branches of trees either other felines are not uncommon." Mr. Blyth quotes a
in pursuit of game or when it is itself pursued, — in fact, paper in the " Singapore Chronicle," for December, 1824, in
passes much of its life on the branches of trees ; conse- which it is stated that " a species of Leopard, but not the
quently there was no reason why it should be excluded royal Tiger," is found in the northern peninsula of the
like the Tiger, which cannot climb. It turns out, however. Island.
o
98
MAMMALS.
(arboreal) ; two civet cats and two Paradoxuri, allied animals, which, like most of the cat tribe, are
at least good climbers, and so may be regarded as arboreal ; one dog, which may have been
introduced by man, and afterwards become wild ; eleven squirrels and flying squirrels (arboreal) ;
one porcujnnc ; one manis (arboreal) ; one elephant (introduced and disputed as aboriginal) ; one
rhinoceros (disputed) ; one tapir (disputed and half amphibious) ; one sow (possibly introduced and
degenerated into a wild variety) ; one mvisk deer ; three small deer, and one ox (probably introduced).
We have here eighty-two species, of which sixty-six are arboreal, and four amphibious, leaving
only ten terrestrial animals, of which two are disputed, and four probably introduced, so that there
remain only four small deer, a porcupine, and a shrew, which can be said not be to independent of actual
dry land. Deducting the doubtfid (disputed or introduced) species, we have thus only to account for
the presence of six small animals, four of which have the lightest tread for their size of any order of
animals, and might be able to skip over quaking bogs or shaking swamps which would not support
heavier creatures, and none of which would require any great space of solid land for their
preservation. It is different with the large Pachyderms, the elephant, rhinoceros, and tapir. If
these really did exist there, large tracts of country would be required for their sustenance, and
my hypothesis would have its feet knocked from under it. But their presence is disputed or capable
of explanation. It is not, indeed, disputed that the Indian elephant is now found there, but it is
known to have been introduced, and it is more than doubtful whether it was ever aboriginal, and
the same doubt extends both to the rhinoceros and the tapir. The arguments for and against their
aboriginal existence in Borneo, &c., will be found in the chapter which treats of the distribution of
these animals. The sow is the only one of the larger animals which is not recorded as being found
in some of the neiglibouring islands, and this in itself is an argument for its being a wild variety of
the domestic kind, which may have been introduced, especially as, with two exceptions, the different
species of sow described as found in the vaiious islands of the Indian Archipelago may all be
varieties of one species descended from escaped individuals of the domestic sow of these countries.
The inquiry suggests a comparison of the proportion between the arboreal and terrestrial
species of Borneo with that of the neighbouring islands, as well as the mainland of India, but
as these countries also may have originally undergone something of the same phase which I suppose
Borneo to have passed through before it acquired its present form, a further comparison with some
other countries which are not liable to this objection is necessary to obtain a fair view of the
relative character of their inhabitants. The following table shows this approximatively : —
Occasionally
Total
Terrestrial,
Permanently
Bats.
Arboreal or
Arboreal or
More or less
not dis-
Total.
Proportion of Terrestrial
Arboreal.
of Doubtful
Aquatic.
puted or
to the whole.
Habits.
introduced.
Borneo
32
27
7
66
4
6
76
One-thirteenth.
Sumatra
24
27
9
57
2
20
82
One-fourth.
Java
17
3.5
3
60
1
21
77
One-fourth.
East Indies \
33
17
11
57
■2
85
148
1 Four-sevenths, or
i more than cue-half.
West Africa 1
41
IS-
5
61
1
53
114
( Five-elevenths, or
1 luorethan one-half.
Middle and
•J
j' Thirteen-.si.\teenth«,
South Africa V
9
IS
2
29
2
128
159
S or more than
t three-fouiihs.
LEOPARDS. 99
The most striking thing in this table is, not the greater number of arboreal and aerinl forms in
Borneo, for that we see is quite equalled in India and West Africa, but the absence of terrestrial
species. Wliilst the terrestrial species form only a thirteenth of the whole in Borneo, and a fourth in
Java and Sumatra (which, b}- the waj', shows that these islands have been subjected, in a certain
degree, to the same controlling influences as Borneo), in India and West Africa, they amount
to a half, and in Middle and South Africa to more than three-fourths of the whole. It is as
if the number of arboreal species had not been increased bej^ond what would appear to be the normal
proportion under similar conditions (as why should it ?), but that the number of the terrestrial species
was diminished ; swept away or never gained a footing.
Leopakds (Map 15). The great Spotted Cats have an especial interest from the existence of
living representatives in the New as well as in the Old World. The Old-world Leopard or Panther
has many varieties, there being no fewer than nine synonyms attached to its name ; there are,
however, only two now recognised as sufficiently distinct to merit separation, — the Leopard and the
Panther, the former being supposed to range over Africa, India, the JIalayan region, Java and
Sumatra, the latter to be confined to the Asiatic districts, and not to be found in Africa ; and the
opinion of many naturalists is that there is in realitj^ only one species. The chief character relied
on by those who acbuit two species is the relative length of the tail. The distribution of bolh
(if they be two) is general throughout Southern Asia, and in the Indian region is almost the
same as that of the Tiger. Unlike the Tiger, it inhabits Ceylon and Borneo.
A distinct species of Leopard is said by Mr. S^vinhoe to be found in the island of Formosa.
Remains which cannot be distinguished from those of the common leopard have been found
in the diku'ium of Middle Europe.
Felis Ireis. The Ounce or Snow Leopard represents the Leopard in the high regions of Thibet,
being, along with Felis Manul and Caxis Corsac, the most characteristic animals of the district.
It extends into Amourland, but is not so common there as the Tiger. It is also found in the island
of Saghalien. Herr Radde states that it is rather abimdant in AVestern Siberia. It is less so in
Eastern Siberia, although occasionally met with in the Bureja Mountains.
Felis Onca (Map 15). The J.a.guaii is the representative of the Leopard in America, and their
physical resemblance to each other is too great to allow any one to doubt that they have been derived
either from a common ancestor or one from the other.
How, then, are we to account for their being found on opi^osite sides of the Atlantic or
Pacific ! The closeness of their resemblance naturally suggests a recent divergence from the couuuon
stock, and we might expect that their distribution is due to the ancestors of the one or the other
having found their way across from Europe to America, or from iinierica to Europe, after the retreat
of the glacial cold, and before the bridge afforded by the miocene Atlantis had been broken down.
But unfortunately for this view we know that this bridge was severed before mammals had become
established sufficiently far north to avail themselves of it. It is only northern plants and insects
which have found their- way from Europe to America after the return of warmth. If it had been open
for the Leopard, it was also open for the Cave Lion and the Cave Hysena ; and their absence in
America is a strong presumjjtion against such a bridge being then open. We are thus driven to refer
the origin of these Leopards, in both hemispheres, to a fieriod antecedent to the glacial epoch.
Lund referred one or two of the bones found bj' him in the Caves of Brazil to the Jaguar. This
determination has been questioned, but if true, it would not affect the question, as the bone deposits
in these caves are of pliocene date, that is, post-glacial.
100
MAMMALS.
Felis CoNCOLOii. (Map 16.) I notice the Puma here on account of its size, although it is,
perhaps, more nearly related to the Lynx than to the Lion, Tiger, or Leopard, and forms the
passage between the large cats and lynxes. It is confined to the New World, but its range there is
extensive, reaching from the Straits of Magellan to about 50° or 60° north latitude, especially in
the line of the mountains.*
It has been recorded as also extending into Tierra del Fuego.f But although there seems
no reason why it should not, I can find no trustworthy record of its having been actuallj' found there.
Most of the larger Cats swim across rivers, or arms of the sea, with ease. The Jaguar crosses the
Amazon ; the Leopard takes readily to the water ; and Tigers have often been taken by the
fishermen at Singapore, entangled in their nets while swimming across diu'ing the night.
Felis JUiiATA. The Chetah, or Cheetah, is found in Syria, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Persia, South
Siberia, West and South India. It is a moot question whether the Cheetah is found in Ceylon or
not. KelaartJ and Sir E. Tennent§ say no; the Panther is there known by that name, but they
distinctly state that the Cheetah is not found in any part of Ceylon. Baker, again, [| speaks of
* " United States General Report on the Zoology in
the Explorations for a Railroad Route from the Llissis-
sippi to the Pacific," vol. viii. p. 84. 1857.
t Captain Fitzroy, in his "Voyage of the Beagle," re-
fers to the following passage from Byron's " Loss of the
Wager,'' as proving that the Pnma inhabits Tierra del
Fuego :
" In one of my walks, seeing a very large bird of prey
upon an eminence, I endeavoured to come upon it unpcr-
ceived with my gun, by means of the woods which lay at
the back of that eminence : but when I had proceeded so
far in the wood as to think I was in a line with it, I heard
a growling close by me, which made mo think it advisable
to retire as soon as possible. The woods were so gloomy
I could see nothing ; but as I retired this noise followed
me close till I had got out of them. Some of our men did
assure me that they had seen a very large beast in the
woods ; but their description of it was too imiierfect to
be relied on."
" As this tent was not large enough to contain us all,
I proposed to four of the people to go to the end of the
bay, about two miles distant from the bell-tent, to occupy
the skeleton of an old Indian wigwam which I had dis-
covex-ed in a walk that way upon our first landing. This
we covered to windward with sea-weed ; and, lighting a
fire, laid ourselves down in hopes of finding a remedy for
our hunger in sleep : but we had not long composed our-
selves before, one of our company was disturbed by the
blowing of some animal at his face, and upon opening his
eyes was not a little astonished to see, by the glimmering
of the fire, a large beast standing over him.
" He had presence of mind enough to snatch a brand
from the fire, which was now very low, and thrust it at
the nose of the animal, who thereupon made ofl' . . . .
In the morning we were not a little anxious to know how
our companion had fared, and this anxiety was increased
upon our tracing the footsteps of the beast in the sand in
a direction towards the bell-tent. The impression was
deep and plain of a large round foot, well furnished
xoith daws. Upon acquainting the people in the tent
with the circumstances of our story, we found that they
too had been visited by the same unwelcome guest, which
they had driven away by much the same expedient." —
ByrovUs Narrative of the Loss of the Wager.
This reference, however, gives no support to the notion
of the animal alluded to having been a Puma. In fact,
the description of its footprints, which I have italicized,
clearly shows that the animal could not have been a Puma.
None of the Cat tribe leave any trace of a claw in their
footprints. The claws being retractile, are furled back out
of all risk of being blunted when the animal walks, and
are only extended when used as weapons of offence. The
Dogs, on the other hand, leave a very well-defined claw-
mark. The Hyoenas, which partake of the characters of
both Dogs and Cats, and are transitional between them,
leave a very faint trace. Dr. Kirk, by whose great experi-
ence in Africa I have desired to fortify my abstract
opinion, tells me that "it is well known to old hunters
that the only distinction between the spoor of a Lion and
Hyoina is to be found in the mark of claws. The two are
of the same size (nearly) ; but the Hytena shows to the
skilled eye the imprint of a claw, which the Lion never
docs."
Commodore Byron and his party, therefore, had suf-
fered a false alarm. The creature which had disturbed
them was, doubtless, one of the harmless domestic dogs of
the natives.
X Kelaart, " Prodromus Fauna; Zcylanicpe," 1852.
§ Teknent, Sir J. E., " Ceylon."
II Baker, "Eight Years' 'Wanderings in Ceylon," 1855.
LYNXES. 101
butli, and Blyth thinks that ho clearly distinguishes between them.* It is cither found also in
Africa, or rc'ijresented there bj' an almost identical species (Felis c;uttata), which is found in
Abyssinia and Senegal, and to the south of both.
It has been made into a separate genus under the name of Cynailvrus.
Smaller Cats, — Ocelots, Serval, Lynxes, &c. The smaller Cats are nearly equally distributed
between Southern Asia and South America. In the former they assume much of the appearance
of the common domestic Cat, which probably took its origin in Nepaul, and are doubtless the
relations of the Leopard, while the Ocelots are equally clearly connected with the Jaguar. The
Ocelots are all from trojiical America, some species reaching as far north as Texas. The Cats, with
the exception of the Serval, which is found in Africa, are from trojjical Asia, extending through
the islands of the Malayan Archijjelago as far as Timor.
Remains of some species about the size of the Panther have been found in the miocene and
pliocene beds of Europe.
Lynx. The Lynxes are, with three or four North American exceptions, all Old-world sjDecies.
There are three European species ; the more common of which is found in all the northern
parts of the Old World ; and there is diflFercnce of oinnion as to whether the European species is
the same as the Canadian or not, and to which the latter should be referred, supposing it to be the
same as one of them. Thunborg's Scandinavian species, F. borealis, has been thought to be it, but
the preponderance of opinions seems opposed to this. If it is the same as any, it is with F. cervaria,
the larger and not the commonest, that it shoidd be amalgamated. In the time of the Romans
the Lynx appears to have been tolerably frequent in France, whence considerable numbers were
brought for the games of the Circus at Rome. Nowadaj's it is very rare, if not extinct there ;
it is said, indeed, that it may still be met -ndth in the Alps and the Pyrenees, whence it some-
times descends- into the southern departments of France. It likewise occurs in Spain, but is
commoner in Germany, and still more so in the countries of the north, where its fur forms an
article of commerce. It also inhabits the forests of Caucasus and Asia. The third and rarer species
(F. pardina) is found in the warmer countries of Europe, such as Portugal, Spain, Sicily, Sardinia,
Turkey, &c.
There are four species of Lynx in North America. The large Lynx Canadensis ranges across
the whole of the north of that continent ; then a smaller species, the Bay Lynx (L. rufus) stretches
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, throughout nearly the whole latitude of the United States, and is re-
placed in Oregon and Washington territory by the Red Cat (L. fascl^tus) ; a more southerly band
of territory, reaching from Texas to Southern California, is inhabited by another species, the Texas
Wild Cat (L. maculatus), which however may prove to be only a variety of the Bay Lynx. No
lynx has been found in South America.
The Caracal and the Chaus are found in South Asia and xVfrica. Two species, F. ^LVN^L
and F. isabellina, inhabit Thibet.
Hyenas. (Maps 17 and 18.) As the Hyaena has points of resemblance both with the Dogs and
the Cats they were for long bandied about from the one to the other, but Mr. AVaterhouse's
determination, by which he places them next the Civet Cats, is that most generally adopted.
Like the other carnivores, the Hyaena, although now confined to the warm regions of Africa and
* Blyth on Asiatic Fclidae, in " Proc. Zuol. Soc," 1803, p. 182.
102 MAMMALS.
Asia, had a imicli more northern range during the earlier recess of the ghicial epoch. The remains
of a large Cave sijecies, Hy.^na sPELiEA, are found often in England, France, and Germany, in the
same caves as those of the Cave Tiger or Lion, and the other extinct animals associated with
it. It was most nearly allied to the fierce Spotted HysBna (XIy.exa crocuta) of the Cape, and there-
fore may, like it, have been a spotted one. It seems not to have extended further south than the
middle of Em-ope.
The two species now living in Africa, the Striped Hyaena (II. vulgakis) and the Spotted
Hj^sena (H. crocuta), are supposed to have inhabited Europe at that time ; some fossil remains
found in the Pyrenees, and also in Auvergne, having been referred with doubt to the former ; and
the latter advanced probably as far north as the south flank of the Pyrenees. Fossil remains of it
have been found in Sicily and Algiers. There is nothing in the climate of the south of Europe to
prevent it living there now. This would give a range of the existing Hyaenas south of the
Pyrenees and Aljjs, leaving the more northern parts of Europe for the cave species ; according
to some palaeontologists many extinct species have existed in Europe, but on a rigid examina-
tion they have by others been reduced to three. It therefore was probably unknown in Africa
proper imtil after the elevation of the Sahara.
Lund found bones which he referred to this genus in the caverns of Brazil, but this is now
ascertained to have been an erroneous determination. "With this exception (which is no exception)
I am not aware of any statement of the Hyajna having been found in the New World. It
does not occur amongst the extinct species which have been detected in the Nebraska and Nio-
brai'a Miocene deposits ; remains of the HyjENODon, indeed, have been found in the Niobrara deposits
as well as in Euroi:)e, but that is an animal which, although it bears a name akin to the Hyaena, has
no more relation to it tlian to any other feline or carnivorous species of the same size, if it even
belongs to them at all. I)e Blaiuville classed it among tlie dogs ; but the opinion of Cuvier and
Laurillard was, that it was rather allied to the opossums.
Remains of a fossil species of H3''aena have also been discovered in the Ilimmalayahs. All
trace of the Cave Hyaena and Cave Lion disappears in the upper dejDosits of diluvium ; as M. Lartet
points out, none are cited by M. Desnoyers among the bones of the Reindeer, the Spermophiles,
the Hamster, and Lagomj^s, which he collected in the wells around Paris.
Deducting varieties or doubtful species there are only three existing species of Hytena. Of
these the Striped Hyaena ranges through India, Persia, Turkey, Abyssinia, Egypt, Nubia, Libya,
Algeria, Barbary, West Africa, and the Cape of Good Hope. In Johnston's " Physical Atlas,"
the range of this Hyaena is made to extend far up into Indei:)endent Tartary, on the east of the
Caspian, but not to reach India. I cannot find any evidence of its being found so far to the north
as it is there represented, and it is certainly found everywhere in India, with the exception of the
lower part of Bengal, near Calcutta, which it now rai'ely reaches.* It is even found in the
Himmalaj-ahs, although very rarely. Mr. Everest mentions that he met with it there. The other
two, the Brown and the Spotted Hyaenas, are both from the Cape of Good Hope.
There is an animal (Proteles cristatus, or Lalaxdii), the Aard Wolf, or Earth Wolf of
the Cape Colonists, whose proper place seems to be here. It is an aberrant form, which partakes
of the characters both of the Civets and the Hyaenas. It looks like a small Hya?na, with tlic teeth
* Blttu, " Catalogue of Mammalia," in Museum of Asiatic Society, 1863, p. 44.
Z'syL^^\ilimise^>U.<h
M Ar xvin.
EXISTING H Y-t N A S
Spotted' f/ycentv " !
J ,f -DC Jt (}i€ bi'ovfn —
\ ifyirtui / fh^frh's /.(da/iMi
S U 1' 1 M K H N
CIVET CATS. 103
of a Civet, and Dr. Gray, consequently places it with the Viverrid^.* It inhabits the Cape,
Natal, and other parts of South Africa.
The Lycaox pictus or Venaticus, whicli occupies an intermediate position between the Hj^ainas
and Dogs, I place among the Dogs.
YivERRiD.E — Civet Cats, Ichneumons, &c. (Map 19.) With one solitary exception, the Civets
are confined to the Old Woild. The exception is, the Cacomixle, Bassaris asttjta of Lichstenstein,
from Mexico, which has been jjlaced by most naturalists among the Yiverrid^. It is a puzzling
aberrant form, and being the only Viverra found in the New World, its right to a place in that
family has been viewed mth suspicion by naturalists. There is, however, little doubt that it truly
belongs to it. Its feline character is recognised by the American miners, who call it the "Civet"
and Mexican or Ring-tailed Cat.
" This beautiful animal," says Dr. Newberry, " which was formerly supposed to be peculiar to
Texas and Mexico, has since been found somewhat abundantly in California. The district in which it
occurs, if not exclusively, certainly most abundantly, is that including the foot-hills of the Sierra
Nevada, on the eastern side of the great trough of the San Joaquin and Sacramento. In this half-
wooded region, the home of the gold-hunter, it is well known. The miner calls it the ' mountain
cat ; ' it frequently enters his tent, and plunders his provision bag. AVhen caught, as it often is, it
becomes so familiar and amusing, and does so much to relieve the monotony of the miner's life, that it
is highly valued and commands quite a large price.
" The Bassaris is, perhaps, equally efficient as a mouser with the common cat, is much more
playful, and, to a large nimiber of the members of every community who are cat-haters, might be a
desirable substitute." f
Putting aside this animal there is not a single Civet in the New World, while of Weasels
and Martens there are plentj'.
Dr. Gray has lately published a careful revision of the Viverridte, + containing the result of
much study and observation, the group having for long been a favourite one with him. He divides
it into no fewer than thirty-six genera ; but for our present purposes it will be sufficient to divide
them into two groups, which Dr. Gray distinguishes as cat-footed and dog-footed. The former
contains the Civets, best known from the perfume secreted by one or two of them, from which
the whole group has been named, and the Paradoxuri, so named in reference to their habit of
carrying the tail cuiIed up, which justifies the meaning of its derivation, " miexpected-tailed ; "
and the latter the Ichneumons, celebrated for their exploits in destroying venomous snakes and the
eggs of crocodiles.
Fossil remains of both groups have been found in miocene strata in the south of France. The
living species are nearly equallj' di\dded between iVsia and Africa, but no species is found in both,
unless the animal caUed the Tunga, which is common on the island of Anjuan, one of the Commoro
Islands, near Madagascar, shoidd prove to be the same as the Javan Viverra rasse of Dr. Horsfield,
which Dr. Gray mentions that Dr. Peters, of Berlin, considers probable.i^ Dr. Peters observes that
the fauna of these islands agrees more with that of Madagascar and India than with that of
* Gray, in " Proc. Zoolog. Soc," 1864, p. 507. J Gray, in "Zoological Society's Proceedings," 1864,
+ Newberry's " Report on Mammals, in U. S. Pacific p. 502.
Railroad Exploration," vol. vi. pp. 40, 41. § Ibid. p. 515.
1 04 MAMMALS.
Continental Africa.* So far fis regards the neighbouring Commoro Islands and Madagascar, it
does not appear that there is any such preponderance in favour of India. They seem to be
equally allied to India and Africa. A strong current certainly runs from India to the Commoro
Islands, and east coast of Africa, and, as might be expected, a number of Indian plants are
found there which are undoubtedly due to this source ; individual specimens of one sex only, and
growing solitary on the sea-shore, being sometimes the sole examples fouud.f The presence of such
fragments of the Indian flora can of course be only accounted for by colonization from India. But
so far as regards the Mammals, with one exception (the Indian and Australian Fox-bat, Pteropus
EnwARDSii), which is found in the Commoro Islands and Madagascar, and not on the Continent of
Africa, the affinities of all the types are as much African as Indian.
The locality of the true Civet is the north of Africa, extending as far south and west as
Fernando Po. With the exception of it, all the true Civets inhabit India, China, and the Malayan
Archipelago. The other African Civets belong to the section called Genettes, and they are met
with from the Cape of Good Hope to Egypt, occurring in Abyssinia on the east and Gambia on
the west. Genettes are not found in Asia, and only one species, G. felina, occurs in Europe.
The Cynogale is a web-footed, amphibious, otter-like Civet, found in Borneo. . An animal from
the Gabon, first doubtfully referred by M. Du Chaillu to this genus, proves to be a new Insectivore.
Two genera, Galidictis and Galidia, which have been thought to belong to the Pole-cats,
but are now properly included by Dr. Gray in this family, are confined to Madagascar. Four species
of these are all that are yet known.
The Paradoxuri are, with one exception from West Africa (P. binotatus), entirely Asiatic, and
limited to India, China, and the Malayan Peninsida and Archipelago ; some six are confined to
continent of India.
The Herpestes, or Ichneumons, have the same distribution, as the Civets, upwards of forty
occur in Africa, and of these more than thirty are only recorded as having been met with in East and
South Africa and Madagascar. To the African portion of them no doubt belongs a small species, a
straggler into Andalusia (H. Widdrikgtonii). The remainder are distributed over the Indo-Malayan
region, with the exception of two which reach Persia and Cashmere. The well-known species (H.
Ichneumon), which destroys the eggs of the crocodile, is found in Egypt and the north of Africa.
The enemy of the Cobra (H. griseus) is found from Nepaul to the soutli of Ilindostan.
* Peters, "Reise Nach. Mozamb. — Mammalia," 113. he said), all females, growing on the shore near the mouth
t Dr. Kirk, for example, mentioned to me the in- of the Zambesi, and no males,
stance of four solitary trees of an Indian Cycas (I think
DnylLSem'lUaiaii b-ii
CHAPTER XIII.
DOGS AND FOXES, EXTINCT AND LIVING.
Canid^ : (Maps 20-23). — Extinct species. Fossil remains of animals belonging to this
family have for nearly one hundred years been known to exist, Esper having first recognised
them in remains from the caverns of Franconia in 1772. But it is at a much more recent date
that the remains of genera have been distinguished. The skeletons of the Dog and the "Wolf
arc so nearlj^ alike, that it is scarcely pC».»ible in dealing with remains belonging to an unknown
canine species to say to which of them j^ belongs. It has, however, been pretty satisfactorily
established by M. Schmerling, that certain bo/.es belonging to an aninnil weaker than the Wolf
and larger than the Fox, which were found iji cavos iii the neighbourhood of Liege, belonged to the
domestic Dog ; and this determination is of the more value that it was made in 1833, long before
the present views regarding the antiquity of man had begun to be accepted. The domestic Dog
so discovered was at that time supposed to be a wild animal from which the " friend of man " was
afterwards derived. A different signification is now placed on its occurrence. It is now sujiposed
to have been a specimen of our existing Dog, — a domestic Dog belonging to the savage man of the
period ; and its presence is adduced as one of the proofs of the then existence of man, as it is
assumed that where the domestic Dog was, its master, man, would not be far off. But the separa-
tion of the Dog from the Wolf is not the only difficulty which palecontologists have had to overcome
in dealing with the fossil remains of this family. ^Vhen certain bones were recognised as belonging
to the Wolf they were at first referred to an extinct species, which was named C. sPELiEus, or the
Cave Wolf, but more careful examination has since shown that they do not differ from those of the
existing Wolf. That animal was therefore already in existence at that period, a circumstance
which strengthens the probability of the Dog, too, being the same as the existing Dog. It is a
remarkable circumstance that none of our truly domestic animals have ever been found but in
company with man ; it is as if they have not appeared until he was ready for them, and that
when they did appear they came endowed with such a craving for his society that the process of
domestication was short and easy.
Probably no objection will be taken by any one to the assumption that in whatever way the
domestic breeds have come under the control of man, a certain amount of modification has been its
result. But the chief point on which a difference of opinion will occur is whether the original
progenitor of the modern animal was a distinct species, or is merely a captured and tamed indi-
vidual of one of the wild species which are still in existence.
So far as regards the Dog, the authorities in favour of its being a taine variety of the
Wolf or the Jackal chiefly depend on the numerous peculiarities which arc common to both,
and on their coupling together and having fertile progen)'. The authors who have taken an
p
lOG MAMMALS.
opposite view are divided in opinion as to v/lictlier all are the descendants of one sjjecics, or
whether they have not been derived from several. Their variability, their universal commixture, the
perfect fertility of the jaroduce of the most widely separated varieties, are arguments in favour of
their being only one sjiecies. The remarkable difference between some of the varieties is the
argument usually most relied on for the jjlurality of stocks.
Remains of the Dog have been discovered by Limd in the caverns of Ihazil, and it is interesting
to find that the extinct species (Speothos i'acivorus) to which they belong has much analogy to
species now living in the same country, viz., C. caxcrivorus and C. prim^evus, — not the Nepalcse
C PRTMiEVUS of Hodgson, which, by the way, on the strength of native traditions, he thinks,
may be the original from which the domestic Dog has descended.
Existing Dogs and Wolves. The distribution of existing species is pretty equally divided
between Asia, North America, and South America : Africa has fewer, and Euroj)e least of all. The
difference of opinion as to what constitutes species in this family is so groat that it is not easy
to make a fair estimate of their number. But, according to my reckoning, Asia possesses fifteen ;
North America, ten ; South America, nine ; and Africa, eia'ht. And a number of these species are
found in more than one of these countries. Europe ha\ five, four of which are also found either
in Asia, Africa, or America. Australia has only one, the Dingo, which, being the sole placental
animal of any size in that country, has been supposed to have been introduced by man ; — not an
untenable proposition, if we admit the existence of a great Pacific Continent peopled by men far
buck in geok)gical time ; it is thoroughly Vv'ild, but approaches the domestic Dog, and is ju'obably
more nearly allied to tlie Jackal of India and the Indian Archij)elago than any other species.
It, or a variety of it, is also found in New Zealand; and, according to Polack (i. 320), "it has
been an inhabitant there some two oi' three centuries ; " but it is said to have been introduced
from Australia. " The Dog of the natives," says Dieffenbach, " is not the Australian Dingo, but
a much smaller varietj^, resembling the Jackal, and of a dirty yellowish colour. It is now rarely
met with, as almost the whole race of the island has become a mongrel breed."*
Professor M'Coy, in a recent comparison between the ancient and modein natural history
of Victoria, t states that he had identified remains of the Canis Dingo in the bone caverns lately
opened beneath the basalt flows at Mount Macedon. They were found associated with those of
Macropus Titan, and of recent species of Hypsiprymnus and Hvuromys. He infers from this and
other arguments that the Dingo is an indigenous animal. But, as Mr. Falconer says, there is no
evidence that man may not then have been an inhabitant of Australia, and the Dingo introduced
along with him, long anterior to the eruptions at ]\Iount Macedon. J
The range of the "Wolves stretches quite across Europe and Asia, from the German Ocean to the
Pacific. Temminck describes a species in Japan as distinct under the name C. hodophylax, but it
will, no doubt, be also found in Eastern Asia. The true Wolves are confined to the northern portion
of the northern hemisphere.
The common Wolf (C. Lupus) was, until a comparatively late period, a denizen of the forests
in England. In the early history of England there are various laws relating to them which testify
* DiEFPEXBACU, "Ti-avels in New Zealand," p. 181. pp. 1 15, 147.
t M'Cor on "Ancient and Modern Natural History, J Falconer, in "Natural History Review," Jmuiry
1860," in Ann. " Nat. Hist." 3rd Series, 18C2j vol. ix. 1863, p. 96.
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WOLVES. 107
not only to their number, but also to the injury which thej- inflicted on the inhabitants. King
Edgar commuted the punishment of various crimes into the delivery of a certain numlicr of wolves'
shins ; and he cleared Wales of them by commuting a tax of gold and silver imposed on the Welsh
princes by Athclstane, into an annual tribute of 300 wolves' heads. They must have been felt to be
a serious scourge before this step would have been taken, and we are through it enabled to ascertain
how many wolves go to make a serious scourge, for in four j-ears they were all rooted out ; therefore
there must then have been 1200 Wolves in Wales. I suspect a less number turned loose in tho
principality nowadays would be thought a very sufficient scourge. In England, however, they
flourished for long afterwards. In Edward I.'s reign they were so bad that a wolf-hunter-general
was appointed ; and it would appear that the coimtics which were most overrun with them were
Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, Salop, and Stafford; for, on the 14th May, 1281, a mandamus was
issued commanding all bailiffs iu those counties to assist " Peter Corbet," the wolf-hunter-general,
in their destruction. Various estates are still hold on the tenure of hunting and keeping the
neighbouring districts free of Wolves ; WormhUl in Derbj'shire, and Harbottle Castle, and
Otterburne, in the north, are so specified. In the reign of Athelstane they had so abounded in
Yorkshire that a retreat was built at Flixton in that county, " to defend passengers from the Wolves
that they should not bo devoured by them." The date of their final extirjjation in England is not
known, but they still infested Sherwood Forest in the reign of Henry VI., for in the eleventh year of
his reign Sir Eobert Plumpton obtained a bovate of land called Wolf-hunt Land, in the county of
Nottingham, "by service of winding a horn and chasing or frightening the Wolves in the forest of
Sherwood." The last Wolf in Scotland was killed by Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel, in 1680. They
also inhabited Ireland, and seemed to liave lingered longer there than in cither England or Scotland.
The last presentment for killing them in the county of Cork was made in 1710.
Whether the European Wolf is the same as the North American Wolf is a much- vexed question.
The preponderance of opinion in former times was rather iu favour of their identitj% while nowadays
the opposite view prevails. The same difficulty occurs mih regard to all tlie Wolves found in North
America. There is no middle ground between considering them all distinct species or aU varieties
of one species. There is the pure white Wolf of the Upper Missouri ; the dusky, blackish, plumbeous
Wolf of the Missouri ; the entirely black Wolf of Florida and the Southern States; and the entirely
red or rufous Wolf of Texas, all varying in shape as well as in colour, the more southern ones
ajjpearing usually more slender and standing higher on the legs, partly perhaps in consequence
of the comparative shortness and compactness of their fur. These, however, are local in their
distribution, the more common and generally distributed colour being grey, which is found all
over North America, from tho Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic regions. How ftxr if extends into
Mexico we do not exactly know. Dr. Spencer Baird is of opinion that, putting aside the Prairie
Wolf or Coyote, which he thinks intermediate between the Wolf and the Fox, there is only one
species of Wolf in North America, and that distinct from the European Wolf.*
Tho whole of the South American Canid.^j; belong to the Dogs and not to the Foxes, as some
naturalists have thought. This is i)roved, not only by their not possessing the foxy smell of tho latter,
but by anatomical distinctions, such as the conformation of the post-orbital process of the frontal
bone, pointed out by Burmeister as one of the most characteristic differences between the Wolves and
the Foxes. Like the Wolves, too, they have tho pupil of the eye circular, whUe in the Fox it is
* Daird iu " UnituJ States' Pacific Railroad Exploration," lf>J7 vol. viii. p. 10.").
108 MAMMALS.
elliptical. Oil the other hand, thcj' have the character of tail of the Foxes, their tails being even
longer than theirs, but this is not a point of importance as a character, many of our domestic Dogs
having bushy, long, fox-like tails.
Of the South American species the C. jubata of Brazil is the largest and fiercest. It is
provided with a mane, and has points of resemblance to the Hytena. Buriueister* describes a new
dog C. EXTKERiANUs, of the section Lycalopex, apparently peculiar to the province of Entre Rios,
isolated in form as in position by the two great rivers which form the natural boundaries of that
province. After passing the southern tropic we find a new form of Dog — the Antarctic Wolf,
C. Magellaxicus — which lives in holes like a fox, and subsists chiefly on birds. It is found
throughout Patagonia and in the Falkland Islands.
The Jackals range over the whole of Africa and the southern parts of Asia. It is to this
section, too, that any species of Dog found in the Indian Archipelago are to be referred. To
it also belongs the Australian Duigo.
Dog-Hy^na : Lycaon venaticus or pictus. This is a very remarkable animal, which inhabits
South Africa, and partakes of the characters both of the Hyasna and the Dog, but, as already
said, approaches most nearly to the Dog. It has the teeth of a Dog with the feet of a Hjaena, four
toes on both anterior and posterior legs, instead of five on the anterior and four on the posterior
as in the Dog. It has the Hyaena's taste for foul feeding as well as the Dog's for fresh game.
It hunts by the scent like Dogs, and in packs like Wolves. f They have more than one ciy — one
like the bark of a Dog, and another like the laughing chatter of the Hysena.J It has the ears
and the transversely-striped coloration of the Hyiena, and a similar remarkable admixture of the
characters of the two animals in other respects. They live in holes in desolate open plains. The
advocates of the formation of sjjecies by hybridization could not find a more satisfactory illustration
for their purpose ; while those who, like myself, do not admit hybridization as a direct instrument
in the formation of species, will see in this animal one of those instances which are occasionally,
but not often, to be met with, where a species seems to stand exactly midway between animals which
are still existing. It does not follow that it is the descendant of the one and the parent of the
* Bdkmeisteu, " Reise durch die La Plata staatcn mit | " Their voice consists of three different kinds of cry,
besonderen Rucksiglit auf die Physische Beschaffenhcit each being used on special occasions. One of their cries is
und die Culturzustaud der Argentinischen Republik-aus- a sharp angry bark, usually uttered when they suddenly
gefiihrt in den Jahren 18.37-1800," 2 vols. 8vo. Halle, behold an object which they cannot make out. Another
ISGl. resembles a number of monkeys chattering together, or
I "These animals invarialily hunt together in largo men conversing when their teeth are chattering violently
organized packs, varying in number from ten to sixty, and from cold. This cry is emitted at night, when large
by their extraordinary powers of endurance and mode of numbers of them are together, and they are excited by any
mutual assistance, they are enabled to run into the swiftest, particular occurrence, such as being barked at by domestic
or overcome the largest anil- most powerful antelope. dogs. The third cry, and the one most commonly uttered
Tlieir pace is a long, never tiring gallop, and in the chase by them, is a sort of rallying note to bring the various
they relieve one another, the leading hounds falling to the members of the pack together when they have been scat-
roar when fatigued, when others, who have been husbanding tcred in following several individuals of a troop of ante-
their stren^^th, come up and reheve them. Having sue- lopes. It is a peculiarly soft and melodious cry, yet
ceeded in bringing their quarry to bay they all surround nevertheless may be distinguished at a great distance. It
him, and he la immediately dragged to the ground, and in a very much resembles the second note uttered by the
few moments torn to pieces and consumed." — Gordon cuckoo, which visits our island during the summer months ;
CuMMiNO, A Hunter's Life in South Africa, vol. i. p. 169. and when heard on a calm morning echoing through the
The description might also do for an account of the doings distant woodlands it has a very pleasing effect." — Gordon
of a pack of hungry Wolves. Gumming, op. cit. vol. i. p. 170.
— Ofhrv fiPftrtvi
L jy ft Tui f uiPBtcd • Liih
FOXES. 109
others. The homologies of an allied species may be reproduced along with the qualities of the
direct progenitors of the species.
Foxes. The Foxes are a well-marked section of this family, differing from the Wolves and Jackals
in various characters, but always at once recognisable by the peculiar odour whicli tliey emit. 'So
Dog ever has the foxy smell, no Fox is without it. All the stories as to crosses between Dogs and
Foxes I believe to be unfounded.
The range of the Foxes is verj^ similar to that of the common Wolf ; in fact, it is the same, with
the addition of a more southerly extension, which, in the Old AVorld, does not go further south than
the Mediterranean district, including North Africa, and iu the Now not beyond Central America.
The Arctic fox is found in the boreal or arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and America, being one of
the very few circumpolar animals whose characters are everywhere identical. It occurs in Sjjitz-
bergen and in Iceland,* as well as upon all the Arctic mainlands. This and the Deeming are
the only mammals which can be considered aboriginal in Iceland, but it is fully as likely that they
may have crossed from Greenland by means of sea-floes or icebergs.
A doubt similar to that entertained regarding the Wolves exists as to the identity of the
common red Fox of Eastern North America with the common Fox of Europe. Dr. Giebel con-
siders them the same,t but in this family, perhaps, eveti more than in others, I think he carries
the suppression of species to an excessive extent. He throws together no less than twenty sup-
posed species. Some from the lofty Ilimmalayahs and the frozen Steppes of Central Asia, and
others from Nubia and Dm-four. I cannot agree with him in this. Such differences in localities
are almost sure to be attended with a difference in character ; and altliough in some families the
distinction of characters is slighter than in others, when we know that they are so we must
make corresponding allowances. As to the American Red Fox, for instance, although verj- much alike,
there are, certainly, appreciable differences between it and our common species. In the American
Fox, the texture of the fur is longer, softer, and silkier ; its tail is more bushy, and its longest
hairs are three inches instead of two inches long ; its colour is brighter, and has more of a golden
hue, which gives the American species much beauty ; the muzzle is shorter, and the ej-es closer
set, and there are a number of other distinctions of about the same value. Wagner refuses to
admit the distinction of species, and asserts that the differences are owing to the climate, the
sf)ecimens which he examined having been boreal; but the distinctions, such as they are, are found
in examj)les from all latitudes, and it is always easy to separate the American from European
specimens. Notwithstanding this, so close are the two species, that there is a prevalent impression
that the American species is the descendant of individuals of the European red Fox, imported into
America many years ago, and allowed to run wild and overspread the country ; an impression
which receives unexpected support from the fact that there have been as yet no remains of the
red Fox detected among the fossils derived from the Carlisle and other bone-caves. The grey
Fox is abundantly represented there, but not a trace of the other.J
* Mr. Ncwtou makes the following remark upon the analogous to the circumstance of the Alpine hare (Leptis
colour of the Arctic Fox in Iceland : — " I have never seen timidus Linn, non av.ct.), always becoming white iu winter
it remarked, though it is unquestionably the case, that in Scandinavia, generally so in Scotland, but seldom in
nearly all the Icelandic examples of Caais lagopus arc Ireland." — Alfred Newtox, in " Proc. Zool. Soc." Dec.
blue' foxes ; that is to say, their winter coat is nearly 1864, p. 497.
the same colour as their summer coat. This fact, I think, t Giebel, " Saugethierc," 18.")9, p. 827.
must be taken in connexiou with the comparatively mild % General F.eport on Zoology in " United States' Pacific
climate which Icclaud enjny.s in winter, aud if so, is Railroad Exploration," vol. viii. p. 130, Washingtcu, l»b~ .
110 MAMMALS.
Dr. Nowborry mentions some other facts regarding the distribution of these two species. He saj^s,
" that in Ohio, Kentucky, and Michigan, the most densely wooded of the middle States, the pioneer
settler found only the grey Fox, or at least that species occupied the territory so nearly exclusively
tliat they considered any others as, like themselves, interlopers. As the forest gradually fell before
the axe of the woodman, and broad and continuous stretches of waving grain replaced the thickly-set
trunks of oak, asli, and hickory, the grey Fox became gradually more rare, while the swifter, stronger,
and more cunning red Fox by degrees almost entirely usurped its place. Hence the farmers supposed
they had themselves introduced this farm-yard pest, and that it had been the companion of their
migration from the east ; and as it was then confounded with the common Fox of Europe ( V. viilgnrk)
it was supposed to be an importation, which ultimately would drive off its weaker relative and possess
the continent.
" Since, however, the red Fox has been found in various j)laces in the Far West, and spread over
all the region west of the Rocky Mountains, and the red Fox of America has been pronounced different
from the red Fox of Europe, this theory falls to the ground, and we must look for some other cause to
accoxmt for the usurpation of the habitat of the grey Fox by the red.
" The grey Fox is evidently best fitted by nature for the occupation of a wooded country ; he even
has to a certain degree the power of climbing trees not possessed by the Ttcd Fox, while he rarely or
never forms burrows, having no cover but such as the forest furnishes, and thus is comparatively
tmprotected in an open country, where the red Fox would be quite at home. To these difierences of
habit, rather than to any other cause, I woidd attribute the change of distribution noticed in the two
species." *
On the subject of the red Fox being possibly of recoit introduction. Dr. Baird remarks that
the fact of their present abundance and extent of distribution is no barrier to the reception of
this idea, as the same has been the case vsith horses brought over and set at liberty by the
SjDaniards, after the discoveiy of America. As is well known the immense herds of these animals
in Mexico, Texas, and the "Western plains, are the lineal descendants of the imported horse,
l^or is there any serious difficulty to be met with in the diiferent characteristics of the American
animal, as the finer fur, brighter colour, narrower and more delicate head, sharper muzzle, &c.,
as it is in precisely such peculiarities tliat the Auglo-Amei'ican race differs from its English
stock.
The establishment and spread of the common brown rat, wherever man has gone, might be
cited as another instance of rapid colonisation, but neither of them is quite a parallel case. It is
not as if there were no other North American species similar to our Fox, from which
the American spe'.-ies miglit have been derived. There is another species very closely allied to
it, which is found in Central America, and is not imagined by Dr. Baird to be other than a
good native species. He calls it a magnificent Fox, "the finest species known," but so like the
common species "that it is difficult to describe it intelligibly except by comparison mth the
other species." Another difficulty is that C. ruLvus, the species supposed to be derived from
the English Fox, is said to be also found in Japan, where certainly the English Fox was never
imported nor turned loose. It m;iy be that the determination of the Japanese species by
Temminck is erroneous, the ratlier that he records it under the name of C. augexteus (which is
that of the silverj^ variety of the American Fox), and moreover specifies the common English Fox as
* Xewue[i:;v, Report, in op. cil. vol vi. p. 'A'.).
FOXES. 1 1 1
also found in Japan. It is proper to add, liowevor, that while the fact of the same species being
found in Japan is not entirely free from doubt, a similar doubt, although one of greatly less
weight, apijlies to its absence on the west coast of America. Lewis and Clarke, who, however
trustworthy as explorers, can scarcely be cited as authorities in natural history, do state that
the red Fox is found on the coast region of Oregon. Dr. Baird, however, has satisfied himself
that the species to which they refer is different.
There is another American fox which possesses some interest in regard to distribution — the
small Kit Fox, C. velox, from nearly the very centre of North America, viz. the region about
the Nebraska and Missouri district. Its peculiar habitat is the dry desert-like country lying on
either side of the Rocky Mountains, extending to the Cascade range on the west, and to the timbered
lands of the lower Missouri on the east. In the basin of the Upper Columbia it is more common than
any other species. It is said to be possessed of great swiftness, whence its name, but this is now
found to have been greatly exaggerated. It is no swifter, indeed it is not so swift as the red or grey
Foxes.* This is the nearest approach to the Jackals which occurs in either North or South xVmerica.
It is, however, a true Fox.
Its analogue in the Jackals is the Corsac or xidive, which inhabits similarly elevated regions
in Central Asia. It is not qixite so large as the domestic cat, but a little larger than a stoat,
and is a very handsome animal, so tliat in the reign of Charles IX. of France it was the
fashion for the Parisian ladies to make a pot of it instead of little dogs ; f and it is said
to have been then common in Paris, although brought from Asia at great expense. Tlio American
C. Velox is a little larger, being about two feet in length. If the central position on highlands
iu the heart of the two great continents were anything more than an analogical resemblance, we
might apply the phenomena of the glacial epoch to explain their occurrence, but it is not
called for. The distinction between the Dogs (that is to say, the Dogs, Wolves, and Jackals)
and the Foxes, is too well marked to allow of the circumstance being regarded as more than a co-
incidence.
To this section belongs the Zcrda or Fennec from North Africa, which Mr. Tristram describes as
an amiable and interesting pet. J
Prince Charles Lucian Bonaparte described a Fox from Italj', under the name of Caxis
MELANOGASTEK. He considered it to resemble the American C. fblvus more nearly than any other
Fox, II but it is not generally accepted as more than a variety of our common Fox. The limits of its
habitat are not yet very exactly defined, but woidd appear to comprise the northern half of the
* Newberry, in " United States' Pacific Railroad Es- size of a cat, it has all the wiles and actions of a fox ; and
ploration," 1856. when alarmed by the sight of a stranger will run under a
t CHEis'nE, "Encycl. d' Hist. Nat." Carniv. vol. ii. p. 75. chair or into a corner, and vociferously give forth its tiny
1853. bark. My little favourites were fed on milk and morsels of
I "This little animal burrows througliout the whole of meat, but showed great fondness for dates. The large ears
the rolling sand deserts which extend from Warcgla to and long bushy tail of this lovely creature give it somewhat
Souf, in the north of Africa. We used to see them brought the appearance of a squirrel." — Tkistr.vm, H. B., The
into market by the Arab boys at Waregla, Tuggurt, and Qrcat Sahara, p. 38.3, 1860.
Souf. I had two for some months which became very || " Iconographia della Fauna Italica," di Carlo Luciano
tame, and nestled every night by my side. No pet can Bonaparte, Principe de Musignano, Fol. Kome, 1837.
rival the Feuucc in grace and interest. Not above lialf the
1 1 2 MAMMALS.
Mediterranean district, viz. Italy south of the Apennines, Greece, the south of Spain, and the islands
of the Mediterranean. It uiiglit have been expected that, as is the case with many other animals,
it should, seeing it extends over so much of the Mediterranean district, have also ranged over the
whole ; but this is not the case, for C. Niloticus of the French Institute takes its place on the
south of the Mediterranean. That species, although very like it, differs fiom it in the osteology of
the head.
113.
CHAPTER XIV.
CARNivoRA cnntiiuicd — mu.stelid.t; — weasels, polecats, otters, badgers.
It lias been proposed to divide this family into various sections, which, when limited to the
more marked species, are excellent divisions, but when other (transition) species are taken
into account will not answer, as the transition species fill up the intervals between the proposed
sections so comi^letely as to destroy the characters ou which they are founded. De Blaiuvillc, for
instance, proposed to separate the Badgers, the Polecats and Weasels, imder the name of Siibiirsini,
or little Bears. This looks very natural, the Badger having much more resemblance to a Bear
than a "Weasel, but then, by means of the genus Mephitis, or the Skimks, the Badgers glide
imperceptibly into the Polecats, so that it becomes a better arrangement to keep them all in one
group. TJiat group for our present piirposes, however, may be conveniently divided into the Otters,
the AVeasels, the Polecats, the Skunks, the Badgers, and the Wolverenes or Gluttons.
About half of this family is found in Noith and South America ; a sixth in Southern Asia,
that is to say, in India, Malacca, and the Indian Archipelago ; a ninth is found in Europe
and North Asia, or Asia and North America ; another ninth is confined to North Asia ; and
the remaining ninth belongs to Africa and the Mediterranean district. None are peculiar to
Europe alone ; but about nine species are spread over the whole extent of the north of Europe
and Asia. One species is found botli in Europe and North America, and two in both
America and Asia. The family is better represented in cold and temperate climates than in
warmer countries, and even in the latter many of the tropical species are only found in moun-
tainous districts or at high elevations, or in some way or other indicate that they arc not
naturally tropical in their character.
Fossil remains of extinct species have been found in recent deposits both in the Old and
New World in the same districts as arc now inhabited by existing species.
Otters. (Map 23.) The common English Otter is found all over Europe and the north of Asia
as far as Jajian, but is becoming scarce, it being much sought after for its fur ; a good skin is worth
as much as 3/. or 4/. on the spot. It must have abounded in former times in Ireland, as we read of
their skins being an article of commerce, felting forming a large part of the exports of Ii-eland in
very early times.* Besides the common Otter and the Sea Otter, Enhyuris marina, which is
* " III 140a we find John, sou of DermoJ, cliarged with This, which is the last entry accessible relative to the
two otters' skius for his rent of Radon (Rathdown) for family of Gillamoehohnog, is recorded in an unpublished
the same j-ear ; five otters' skins for the two years and a Pipe Roll of 10 Henry IV." — See the "History of Dublin,"
half preceding ; and one hundred and sixty-two otters' by J. T. Gilbert, quoted in a paper by Mr. Wilde, on the
skins for the arrears of their rent for many years then past, Unmanufactured Animal Remains belonging to the Aca-
making a total of one hundroJ and sixty-uinc otters' skius. demy, in "Transactions of Royal Irish Academy," May, 1859.
Q
114 MAMMALS.
coufiuod to tlie northern shores of Asia and North America, there are five or six species from
China, India, or the Indian Archipelago (one, if not two, of ■which are from Sumatra and
Borneo), three from Africa, two good species from North Ajnerica, and eight, some of which are
doubtful, from Central or South America.
We know of none from New Guinea, and, of course, none from Australia ; but some years ago
Mr. Walter Mantell called attention to the possibility of an indigenous quadruped called by the
natives " Kaurcke," which he supposed to be either a badger or an otter, existing in New
Zealand ; and a naturalist in that country lately announced the fact that although he had not seen
the animal in question, he had observed certain tracks on the mud fiats near the source of the
River Ashburton, which exactly resembled those of the Otter of Europe, and which he considered
to afford indications that such an animal existed in the Alpine lakes and rivers of New Zealand.*
Such a discovery Avould be of the greatest interest. As yet no terrestrial mammals have been
found in New Zealand with the exception of a small rodent ; and in whatever direction the affinity of
this other animal might lead, it would be sure to throw light on the past history of that quarter of
the globe. It would be especially interesting if it should confirm some of the deductions, already
drawn from peculiarities in the fauna and flora of New Zealand ; if, for instance, it should be found
most nearly allied to one of the Peruvian or other South American Otters. That it should
turn out to be a Badger is opposed to all ^probabilities, the Badger being confined to the north
of Eiu'ope, Asia, and America.
Weasels, Polecats, (ilap 24.) Of the genus Mustela, the Weasels are the most northcrlj- section.
The common Weasel of tins coimtry is found all the way to the Amour, although in fewer numbers
on the high Steppes, but has not been noticed in Japan. It formerly inhabited Ireland, but is no
longer foimd there. The Stoat, or Ermine, has the same range, but is not found to the south of
the Middle Amour. Whether it extends into North America or not has been a question. Dr. Bairdf
says that none of the specimens collected iu America and sent to the Smithsonian Institution
were of this species, and he doubts whether it is found in America even in the highest latitudes.
The Polecats, although they also inhabit high latitudes, have a greater number of troj)ical or
sub-tropical species than the Weasels. This, however, is more the case in the Old World than in
the New. The Polecats in tropical America are mostly, if not all, mountain species. Six different
species stretch across the whole of Europe and Asia, and there are about as many more that are
found in Asia and not in Europe. The European Polecat has been supposed not to extend entirely
across the Asiatic continent, but to be rei^laced in southern Russia and the Caucasus by a species
named by Lichteustein M. Eveksjianni, and further on, in eastern Siberia, by another brighter-
coloured species ; but Radde J maintains them both to be mere climatal varieties of the
common species. His inclination, however, appears to be to swamp all S2>ecies which ajDproach
closely to each other, and to treat them as varieties. Knowing his proclivity, we understand
what Ave have to deal with, and looking at species as thej^ are regarded by nine-tenths of living
naturalists, we shovdd hold the sjjecies of Polecat which he has here suppressed as distinct species
* Haast Julius, "Eepovt of a Topographical and Geo- States Pacific Railroad E.\plorations and Surveys." Wash-
logical Exploration of tlio ^Yestern Districts of the Nelson ington, 1857, p. 166.
Province, New Zealand." Nelson, 1861. Cited in "Nat- J Qdstave Radde, " Rciscn im Suden von Ost-Sibo-
ural History Review," Jan\iary 18C-1, p. 30. ricn." St. Petersburg, 1862.
t Baird in " Report on the ZoolOj:y of the United
':_ ?ap;Ij»THrl L.«h
Dj^* S^.iLwuvj; IjHi
BADGERS. 115
aud not varieties. It is not altogether a matter of no importance ; for wc shall tiud, more than
once, that it depends upon how we regard this point, whether the same species inhabits both
Asia and America or not. The Sable and two other species are confined to the limits of Eastern
Siberia, where a considerable number of skins are annually taken by the hunters: Radde says 6000
to 8000 of the Sable alone. In North America the place of the Sable is supplied to the furrier by
the Mink, M. Vison, and by what is reckoned its more valuable congener the litllo black Mink,
M. NiGRESCENs ; which, however, according to Mr. Bernard Ross, is nothing but the young of M.
VisoN ;* whichever it be, however, there is no fur which approaches so near to that of the famed
Russian Sable as it does. A good skin yields the hunter from twenty to twenty-five shillings.
Although, however, the Minks replace in North America the Sable of the Old World, so far as
the fur is concerned, they are not its true substitute in point of affinity, that being M. lutreola,
(which owes its name to its resemblance to a small otter), a European species which is exceedingly
rare, in marked contrast to the American species, which in North America, from itg numbers and
depredations, is well known to every farmer as the pest of his existence. Nepal, India, and the
Indian Archipelago, possess seven or eight sjiecies of Polecat. The Mediterranean and Nile
district have two, but Africa proper, that is, south of the Sahara, none.
There is a peculiar form (Rhabdogale or Zorilla) found in Africa which there supplies the
place of the Mustela ; only two or three species of it are known. The genera Gtai.idictis and Galidta
have been thought to replace them in Madagascar ; but, as has been alrcadj^ said, these rather belong-
to the VlVERRID.^.
Saxd Bears. (Map 25.) The Sand Bears, composing the genera Helictis and "Mydaus, are
pecidiar to India and the Indian Ai'chiiielago. They have some connexion with the Badger, in
the form of the head and nails, as well as the style of coloration, and the nature of the hair ;
but their teeth and other characters show greater affinity with the Polecats. They are placed by
Yan der Hoeven as the transition between them and the Badgers. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, who
first described the genus with care, considers that it has some analogy with the Coatis, a
genus restricted to South America.
Skunks. (Map 25.) The genus Mephitis, which has the bad pre-eminence of emitting pro-
bably the worst and most fetid odour of any beast in all the earth, is entirely confined to the
New World, and is represented in North America and South America in nearly equal numbers, —
eight in the North and ten in the South. Their appearance sufficiently indicates that they have
relations both with the Badgers and the Polecat. They are found all through South America
down to the southern extremity of Patagonia, but they do not appear to have crossed the Straits
of Magellan into Tierra del Fuego.
Badgers. There are three species of Badger now known, possibh' five. There is the European
Badger, whose range extends from the Atlantic, through Europe and Asia, to the Pacific ; and
there are two species in North America, which, although outwardly almost identical in appearance
with the Old-world Badger, differ so materially in dentition from it tluit a new genus, Taxidka,
has been established for their reception. Iksidcs the European form of tlie Old-world Badger,
* B. Ross, in "Nat. Hist. Rev.," 1S62, p. 273.
116 MAMMALS.
tlicre is in Eastern Siberia a larger variety ; it is confined to tlie high StejJiJes, while the common
species, also found in Siberia, is restricted to the woodlands.* This larger variety may perhaps
be a distinct species. There is another in Japan, which Temminckf has described under the name
of Meles Anakuma. The figure given of it looks distinct, but both Sclirenck and Radde are of
oj)inion that it is only another variety. It has been supposed by others to be nearer the North
American species. This, however, can hardly be the case, for, if so, the fact could have been
at once determined by examination of the teeth, the distinction being sufficiently marked. Of the
two American species, one (the Carcajou) occurs in the northern parts reaching from the Atlantic
on the east to Wisconsin on the west, extending far to the north, but not further south than
Texas, or latitude 35°, where it is rejjlaced by the other species, the Mexican Badger.
The Ratel, which is in many respects allied to the Badger, extends along the eastern coast of
Africa, and tlii'ough Arabia and Persia, from the Cape of Good Hope to the north of India.
Gui.o. The Glutton, or "Wolverene, is generally believed to be found in all the three con-
tinents of Europe, Asia, and America, although there are still some authors who are disinclined
to admit the identity of the Old-world and the New-world specimens. It is a boreal, almost an arctic
animal, coming in the category of those which compose the circumpolar zone of life, and yet its
remains have been found in the caves of Gaylenreuth, Liege, and Voidou,J near Joyeuse (Ardechc),
and in the caverns of Germany. § These remains have been supposed to belong to an extinct
species (G. spel^us), but both Baron Cuvier and De Blainville were of opinion that they were those
of the existing species. Another extinct species has been described by Kaup from Epplesheim,
under the name of G. antedilxjvianus, but it may belong to the living species. If they belonged
to the present species we cannot escape from the inference that cither it has changed its nature so
far as to require now a colder climate tluxn it did formerly, or else that the climate of Europe was
much colder when the individuals whose bones are found in the caves in question roamed through
France and German}', than it is now.
* Eadde, GnsTAV, " Reisen im Siideu von Ost-Sibericn," I Schmerlino, "Oss. Foss." ii. 167. Gervair, '-'Zool.
1862. ScHRENCK, Leop. VON, " Reiscn, &c. im Amur- and Pala;out. Fianc," 1S59, p. 117 ; and Maldos in " Bull,
lande," 1868. Soc. Geol. Fr.," t. x., p. 360.
t SiEBOLD and Tummixck, "Fauna Japonica," 1833. § Blainville, "Ostcog." G. Mustek, pi. 14.
ii:
CHAPTER XV.
cARNivoRA continued — arctocyonid.t;.
This is a small group of extinct animals, partaking (as its name indicates) of the characters
of the dog and the bear.
Thej' have all, with one exception, been found in the miocene beds of Europe — the exception
being from the Sevalik miocene formations — and, as conjectured of the Feline Carnivores, may
have been brought into the Sevalik beds from their northern side.
The most characteristic member of this family is the genus Amphicyon. It occurs with the
remains of the Marsupial (?) Hy-engdox in the miocene deposits of the south of France, and Pro-
fessor Owen regards it as the forerunner of the plantigrade family ; and something more of its
nature may be guessed at from another smaller species from the miocene at Epplesheim, having
been first referred to the Wolverene genus, under the name of Gulo diaphorus lump. It had a
long tail, therefore probably was more allied to the Wolverene and the Badger than the Bear.
118
CHAPTER XVI.
CAKNivoRA continued — bears.
Ursid.*:. As already said, tlic place of the Bears in a natural arrangement has been the subject
of considerable difference of opinion. The resemblance of their plantigrade feet to the pedimanous
limbs of the Quadrumana, in virtue of which they have in most systems been placed at the head of
the Carnivoka, and immediately after the Monkeys, is, however, more of the nature of an analogy
than an indication of affinity, and, as was pointed out by Professor Owen in his paper on the
Classification of Mammals, their affinities are clearly greater with the Seals than with any of the
other Digitigrades. In particular, the resemblances in their renal and genital organs, the form of
their under jaw, and their broad flat foot, which is nearer to the flippers of the Seal than is the
more perfect retractUe-clawed, long and narrow hind foot of the feline quadruped.*
On physiological grounds, therefore, the removal of the Beai's from the head of the Carnivora to
a position between the Badgers, Skitnks, Otters on the one hand, and the Seals on the other, seems
ax improvement.
We have seen that the Amphicyo>; and other members of the dog-bear family lived in the
miocene epoch, and it is not improbable that they may have been the source whence the Bears were
derived. Like the Cave Lion and other boreal forms, whose development I attribute to the glacial
cold, the Bears themselves did not begin to appear until the pliocene epoch. During that
period they flourished in great numbers. One species, known as the Great Cave Bear (IT. spel.^us),
was especially abundant in Central Europe and South Russia. Some of the heads in the British
^Museum are of very great dimensions, and show that it must have been an enormous beast, con-
siderably larger than the present Polar Bear. It and the Cave Hyasna (H. speltea) have also been
cited as found in the caveins of Tcharych and of Khankhara in the government of Tomsk in
Siberia. It has been thought that these identifications may require to be verified, for, according
to some palaeontologists, these species appear to have been absent in the vast region intermediate
between Germany and Northern Asia. As a very great part of this space was then under water,
there seems to be a verjr good apology for their absence. Remains of the Bear, however, are men-
tioned by Nilsson as fouiid in a gravel bed below a peat deposit in Scania.
A small number of fossil remains of Bears, obtained from Spain, belong to a different species,
and one nearer the present Bear of the Pyrenees.
The existing species are generally divided into two sections, the common Bears (Ursds), and the
Arboreal, or Sun Bears (Helarctos) ; but it is difficult to find good characters for this separation,
especially when wc come to the most nearly allied sjiiecics of each. The former extends all over
Europe, the north of Asia, North America, and the Cordilleras of the Andes. The latter is almost
■* OWEIJ, in "Linn. Soo. Proc," ii. p. 32, 1857.
I><\ * >-ei,Liioitrf, Litf
BEARS. 119
confined to the Indian region, including the Philippine Islands and the Indian Archipela'To,
Formosa, China, and Japan ; but a species from Hungary, one from Mount Atlas, and another
from the Cordillera of the Andes, Sweden, have also been reckoned Sun Bears, so that no o-eo-
graphical limit can be given for them different from that of the other Bears.
If close affinity of species be a mark of high organization, the Bears must stand high, and
they furnish illustrations more suited for Mr. Darwin's views of gradual change by variation than
any others which occur to us. If the same consolidation of sijecies which some authors practise in
l^lants were carried out in animals, we should have bvit one species for the whole northern hemisphere.
On the other hand, authors who have a different constitution of mind have multiijlied instead of
diminishing the number of species. Dr. Gray, in a recent monograph of the Bears, has not only
preserved TIrsus arctos as distinct from the American brown Bear, but has recorded four named
varieties and eight named sub-varieties of it, an evidence of instability in the species which
certainly, at least, cannot be said to be unfavourable to the other view. But while admitting the
Brown, Black, Norwegian, Pyrenean, Polish, and Siberian Bears, to be mere varieties. Dr. Gray
has gone still further in the opposite direction, for he has adopted the views of Eversmann,*
who held that there were two species of Bear confounded under the name Ursis arctos, — the
Carrion Bear, feeding much on flesh, and the Ant Bear, feeding chiefly on insects ; and has
divided them into two separate genera, — the old genus, Ursus, for the Carrion Bear, and a new
genus, Mymarctos, for the Ant Bear. The differential characters, as stated by Eversmann and
Gray, are drawn entirely from the skull ; and one is rather surprised at finding the doctor
give so much weight to them after the caution he gives us at the commencement of his monograph
to distrust such characters. He says, " The examination of the series of skulls of Bears in the
Museum, like the examination of the series of bones of the ViverridoB, has strongly impressed me with
the uncertainty that must always attend the determination of fossil bones, or indeed of bones of all
animals, when we have onlj^ the skulls or other bones of the body to compare with one another.
There can be no dovibt that the study and comparison of the bones of the different species is very
important ; — that the skull and teeth afford some of the best characters for the distinction of genera
and species ; but few zoologists and -palasontologists have made sufficient allowance for the variations
that the bones of the same species assume. In the Bears I have observed that there is often more
difference between the skulls of Bears of the same species from the same locality than between
the skulls of two imdoubted species from verjr different habitats and with very different habits."
And he adds, as an illustration of the caution which should be used in dealing with such
characters, " the fact that M. do Blainville considers the Californian Grizzly Bear, after a very
careful study and comparison of its bones, to be only a variety of the common European Bear,
shows how a most experienced and accurate osteologist may be misled by placing too much confidence
in a single branch of study."f But other naturalists, who are not open to the objection of being
solely devoted to a single branch of study, say the same thing as De Blainville. Middendorf docs
so. According to him the species found in Europe and Nortliern Asia and the Grizzly Bear
of North America are all varieties of the Ursus arctos ; and he gives a series of minute measure-
ments and comparisons in support of his conclusion. And although Dr. Gray rather disables his
judgment because he has not distinguished between the Ant Bear and the Carrion Bear, I
* Eversmann, in " Bullet, de la Soc. Imp. des Nat.," 1840, p. 8.
t Gray, in " Proc. Zoolog. Soc." 180-1, p. G84.
120 MAMMALS.
cannot go along ^\'ith him in doing so, for to nie it is plain that ho fias distinguished between
them, because he has given figures of both as sub- varieties ; and his error, if any, has been in
estimating the differences as of less value than Dr. Gray thinks they deserve, rather than not
perceiving them at all. As to the distinctions between the Ant Bear and the Carrion Bear, without
going so far as Pallas, who long ago noticed the supposed distinction, and disposed of it briefly as
being supported " iiidlo solido argumento," * I should prefer to reserve my judgment. Fortunately no
immediate decision is called for on the question. "We understand the nature of the differences, and
hovr we name them is of less consequence.
Similar difficulties occur with regard to several of the other species. Many naturalists look upon
the Syrian Bear and the Ursus isabellinus as mere varieties of each other. They are nearly
identical in appearance, but the skull is different. So perhaps may the Thibet Bear (Ursus
TORQUATUs) and the Japan Bear (Ursus JArojiicus) prove to be. If we might judge of the ex-
treme East from what we see in the extreme West of the great European and Asiatic continent,
we should have little hesitation in supposing the species not to be distinct. Japan lies on the
east very much to the mainland as Britain lies on the west, and we know that, in all probability,
there is not a single species of any animal found in Britain which is not also foimd in greater
plenty on the Continent ; and the same may be said of plants, with the exception of one or two
extraordinary instances of ^imerican species, whose presence gives rise to such speculations as those
we have already described. Tetrad Scoticus, Primula Scotica, and other species, so specifically
named under the supposition that they were peculiar to Scotland, are now known to be mis-
nomers ; and any species which have been found in Britain and not on the Continent are minute
minims which in all probability have merely not yet been detected there. Whether the case is
the same with Japan and its adjoining continent is not known. There may be some specialty
in its ancient connexions and separations which have produced a different state of things. Tem-
minck and Siebold's work on the faun:i and flora of Japan discloses a number of undescribed species ;
but I lay no great stress upon that, because these may all yet be found in the neighbouring
continental regions when they are sufficientl}^ explored. Some of them, however, have an affinity
with American typos ; in the case before us, Dr. Sclater, dealing only with it descriptively, remarks
that " the Japanese Bear seems almost intermediate between Ursus torquatus (the Indian species)
and Ursus AMERiCANUs."t
Tcnnninck records, apparently without hesitation, the Grizzly Bear (Ursus fekox) as inhabiting
Jczo and Krafto, the northern islands of Japan. A chief objection to its being admitted as a
Japanese species, is that it has been thus recorded without doubt. The doing so implies want
of careful examination ; for the disregard of the doubts which were sure to arise regarding its
identity, infers as little care in ascertaining that they were unfounded. It seems also verj^ j)ro-
bable that Temminck may have made a mistake, for he mentions it as found of various colours,
brown, yellow, and red, — colours which occur in the varieties of the Old-world species, U. arctos, but
not in the American " Grizzly."
On only one small part of Africa is any Bear found, viz., in Mount Atlas, and it seems by no
means improbable that this may be a modification, if not the descendant, of the extinct species,
of which remains arc now found in Spain. It belongs to the genus named Helarctos ; or
rather, I should say, it belongs to the artificial section so named. Arboreal, as distinguished from
* Palla:;, " Zoogniphia Eusso-Asiatica." t Sclater, in " Proc. Zoolog. Society," 18G2, p. 261.
BEARS. 121
terrestrial, was the original idea of the genus Helarctos, but it has since heen made to admit
species which have not this title to distinction, and in particular this African Bear, which is not
a good climber. It is, however, said to be very different-looking from the common Bears. In South
America, in the Peruvian Cordillera, two non-arboreal species are fomad (Ursls ornatus and
TJ. ERUGiLEGUs), the former of which at least has a skull so like the Malayan arboreal species
as to be almost identical. The latter has not been subjected to the same examination as it.
This animal may have been modified out of the Malaj^an arboreal Bear into a mountain species.
It may perhaps be one of the traces proving a former connexion between Peru and the sunken
Pacific continent, which was connected on the other side with India and the Indian Archipelago.
In this instance the form of the skull seems to lead us to that view rather than to the other
alternative that it was derived from Bears driven south by the glacial epoch ; but in that case,
we must derive it from the true Bears (for which, however, there is no necessity) : if they did not
appear until that epoch had commenced, it inuy indicate that tlic submergence of the continent,
uniting Peru to India, did not take place until a more recent period than at first sight we might
imagine.
The opinion which is now most generally received regarding the North American Bears is,
that they are different from the European ; that the Grizzly is difi'ercnt from the Bear west of the
Rocky Mountains, and that it again is distinct from the Mexican species. It is undeniable, however,
that they are excessively close to each other, and it is probably only because the differences are
more constant in Ajnerica than in Europe and Asia, that the former are admitted as specific,
while the latter are regarded only as varieties.
Originally the Brown Bear inhabited Britain, — so long ago, however, that historical evidence
of their having done so is not easily procured ; but, in the first place. Professor Owen says
that the most recent formations in England contain remains which can scarcely be regarded
as fossil, and which, if not perfectly identical with, indicate only a variety of, the same species, which
is still common in many parts of the European continent.* In the next place, we learn from
classical, at least Roman authors, that they were imported from Britain for the tragedies of
the Roman Circus. Then Ray quotes authority for its being one of the Welsh beasts of chase ;
and, according to Pennant, it infested the mountainous parts of Scotland up to the j^ear 1057.
In an ancient Gaelic poem, ascribed to Ossian, the hero, Derraid, is said to have been killed by a
bear in Beinn Ghiel binn, in Perthshire.f
There is, however, a later tradition, which I have little doubt is mythical or post-dated, viz. that
one of the Gordons in Scotland, so late as 1457, received the king's commands to carry three bears'
heads on his banner as his reward for his valour in slaying a fierce bear in Scotland.! The Bear
also occurred in Ireland. Skulls and remains have been met with in pcat-bogs and other super-
ficial deposits. One fine cranium, 13 j inches in length, was obtained in cutting a new channel for
the river BojTie, in the barony of Carbury and county of Kildare, and is of peculiar interest from
its resemblance to the Pyrencan variety of the Frsus arctos, to which it has been referred by
Dr. Carte, an eminent Irish osteologist, who examined it. The reader will remember that a
portion (the south-western) of the Irish flora has a certain affinity to that of the A.stirrias in
* Owen's " British Fossils, Mammals, and Bii-Js." 1846.
t " Statistical Account of Kiikmichacl in Banffshire," by Rev. J. Grant. J " History of the Gordons."
R
122 MAMMALS.
the north-west of Spaiu : and that this is one of the grounds on which so much of the luiocene
Atlantis, as is imijlied in a western extension of Europe connecting these two lands, has been
founded. The county of Kildare, however, is quite out of the line of the Spanish plants ; but,
on the other hand, we must remember that a Bear is more locomotive than a plant, and the
variety of Bear which inhabited one part of the country would doubtless inhabit all.* It has
long since been driven into the more inaccessible parts of the most mountainous districts in
Europe. It was still foimd in Corsica in the sixteenth century.
The Racoon (Map 27), with one exception, Procyon cancrivorus, found in tropical America,
is a North American plantigrade. Six species are known. It is replaced in South An\erica by the
Kinkajou (Cercoleptes caudivolvulus), and the Coatis, of which there are three. Three genera
(each represented by only one species) represent those smaller plantigrades in the Old World, viz.
tlie BiNTDRONG in Java, the Ailurus in Nepal, and the Osmotectes in the East Indian peninsula.
* Wilde " On tbe Unmanufactured Animal Remains belonging to the Royal Irish Academy," in " Transactions
of the Royal Irish Academy," May, 1859.
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SHOWJNGTHt DISrRlBUTiON OF
SEALS.
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123
CHAPTEE XVII.
CAENIVORA continued SEALS — EXTINCT SPECIES EXISTING SPECIES SEALS IN CASPIAN SEA
AND LAKE BAIKAL — WALRUS.
Phocid.e. — Seals. (Map 28.) The origin of marine mammals by descent, in other words their
derivation or parentage, has always appeared to me one of the most difficidt problems to solve. How
a terrestrial animal could ever give birth to a Seal or a ^Vliale, — how it could ever nurse it or feed it,
naturally makes us pause and wonder. The very first and most essential qualification, of a common
medium in which to live, seems wanting. The solution undoubtedly is to be arrived at through those
terrestrial animals which are amphibious. When. we come, however, to think of the steps and processes
by which this creation may have been effected we find ourselves wholly at sea without compass or
rudder. We do not even know at which end to commence our speculation. Were the aquatic
animals descended from the terrestrial or the terrestrial from the aquatic ? Although the probabilities
seem in favour of the former, there is no fact known which wholly shuts out the possibility of the
Seals having been in existence before the other carnivora. If they really were so, we might have to
reverse the most natural theory, and make them the parents, instead of the descendants, of the
land carnivora. The latter is the more natural theory, because it seems to stand to reason that
the exceptional form shoiild be derived from the nonnal rather than the reverse ; although if
pressed for a reason why one should bo considered more normal than the other, I must candidly
confess that I have none to give, except the very lame one that now the one is more numerous in
species than the other.
I scarcely think it necessary to discuss the possibility of the Seals being allied to the Whales,
although they are placed by many authors together.* Their plan of structure seems too decidedly
distinct to allow us to regard them as belonging to the same stock.
The first thing to guide us to a true understanding of the matter is to ascertain when the
particidar aquatic mammals inquired after first appeared on the face of the globe. If before other
mammals related to them, the probabilit)' would be increased that they were the progenitors of their
relations on dry land. But in the Seals we have not sufficient information to enable us to start
even from this point. In the secondary formations mammals appear to have been merely starting
into life ; a few small marsupials in the Purbeck beds and trias being all that are known. And
in the immense chalk dejjosits which succeeded these formations it is usually said that no mammalian
remains have ever been found, and it is not easy to see how any remains of terrestrial mammals ever
could have been found. These formations arc all marine deposits, not even estuaries, but beds
deposited out at sea in blue water. It would surely be a most extraordinary chance by which a
terrestrial animal should be preserved in such circumstances ; and a stiU more extraordinary chance
that shoidd allow us to lay our fingers upon such a waif. Seals, "Whales, and Sirenia, are the onlj'
mammals whose remains we might (if these animals were in being at that epoch) reasonably exjjcot
to find traces of ; and curiously enough the two former are tlie only two, remains of whicli have been
ascribed to the secondary formations. A vertebra of a Doljihin and a tootli of a Seal are re-
* GiEiiEL, " Die Saugcthicre," &c. See Sy.stenis of Classificatiou in the Appciulix, No. I.
124 MAMMALS.
ported to have been found in the secondary greensand of New Jersey, in North America. Both are
attended with very grave doubt, the specimen of the tooth of the Seal having gone a-missing ; and
the authentication of the locality of the other having been questioned, apparently on good grounds.
The former was described and figured by Dr. Leidy under the name of Stenorhynchus vetus, not
from personal inspection but from a drawing of Conrad's.* The fossil was found by Samuel R.
Wetherill, Esq., in the greensand, a mile and a half south-east of Burlington. Sir Chas. Lyellf tells
us that that gentleman related to him and Mr. Conrad, in 1853, the circimistances under which he
met with it, associated with Ammonites placenta, Ammonites Delawarensis, Trigonia thoracica, &c. ; and he
adds that although the tooth had been mislaid, it was not so imtil it had excited much interest, and
been carefully examined by good zoologists. The doubt in the case of the cetacean applied to the
locality where it was found, not to the detennination. Here it is the reverse. There seems no
reason to doubt that the tooth was found where Mr. Wetherill said it was, nor is there any question
here of misplaced labels, but there is certainly room for doubting its detennination, because we see
where and how an error might easily enough have arisen. In the first place, it is referred to a
living genus of mammals, and wo know of no genus which has subsisted through so many cycles.
The presumption is therefore against it on that score. In
the next place, there is a certain resemblance between the
teeth of Sharks and some Seals, and it is precisely in
the genus Stenorhynchus that the resemblance is most
K , J „,.,,.„. I marked. Figs. 1 and 2 represent the teeth of Sharks .,. , , , „ „ „, ,.
Figs. 1 and 2.— Shark s Teeth, ° ^ Figs. 3 and 4. — Seals Teeth.
from the chalk ; and figs. 3 and 4, teeth of the living Stenorhynchus leptonyx. Those of which
I speak both have the molars compressed, with the crown divided into three conical spilies, of
which the middle one is the largest. It is possible, therefore, that the supposed Seal's tooth may
have been a very much rubbed and worn Shark's tooth ; and although LyeU saj'S it was care-
fidly examined by good zoologists, the only one of known competence whom he mentions as
having had to do with it is Dr. Leidy, who did not see it, but described it from a drawing.
The objections to the supposed mesozoic Seal's tooth, therefore, appear to be too well foimded
to require us to devote much time to a speculation founded upon its authenticity. The next
most ancient deposit in which the remains of Seals have been found is the miocene. Assuming,
then, that the genus dates from these more recent beds, we may adopt, as a starting-point,
that the Seals have descended from terrestrial carnivora. From which then ? From animals that
are already half aquatic, or from others that are not so ? Our first inclination certainly would
be to look to species which had already performed the journey half-way from terrestrial to ma-
rine. There arc two other carnivora which are in this position ; — the Otter and the Polar Bear are
amphibious, and wo can easily conceive of either nourishing and bringing up an aquatic family. The
claims of the Otter, although it bears some slight facial resemblance to a Seal, need not occupy so
long. It is a modified Polecat, and to develope it into a Seal, we should require not merely to alter
its habits of life, but to eSect other modifications in its structure and, what also appears to me of
importance in these questions, in its size. Size is an element in determining affinities which, although
tacitly allowed a good deal of weight, is, I think, scarcely sufiiciently recognised. As a rule giants
do not beget dwarfs nor dwarfs giants. We would rather go to Brobdiguag than to Lilliput to look
* See " Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia," 1853, p. 377.
t Lyell's " Elements of Geology," sixth edition, London, 1665, p. 3o6.
SEALS. 125
for the familj'^ circle of a Goliath. A mouse with the form and structure of an elephant would be an
anomaly in nature. The machinery wotild not be adapted to the work to be done. The course of
nature woidd have to be reversed, and a new flora developed to suit such an animal, instead of the
animal hadng been modified to suit the flora. Bidlc, therefore, may fairly be admitted to go for
something in weighing affinities. What amphibious camivora have we then of bulk approaching
the Seal ? None but the Bear. The Seal has been compared to the Dog ; but we must remember
that it is only the smallest species of Seal that we are familiar with. The Walrus and the majority
of Seals are far beyond the dimensions of any dog. In addition, we have the resemblance in the
various structural peculiarities already glanced at in alluding to Professor Owen's classification of the
Bears and Seals. But, on the other hand, remains of Seals have been found in miocene foi-mations,
whereas those of the true Bears have not been found antecedent to the pliocene. No doubt the
supposed ancestor need not have actually been a Bear. It may have been another animal allied to
them, such as the Amphicyox, which dates back in geological history at least as far as the Seal.
Although I have not refrained from hazarding a suggestion on this point, it is only as a
speculative fanc}% that I have done so ; for, as already mentioned, the fossil remains hitherto found
give us little information on the subject. They are scarce, and confined to the miocene and pliocene
deposits. Six or eight extinct species are said to have been fomid, but, as is often the case, some
of them may prove on closer examination not to be distinct. Dr. Mantcll mentions that considerable
nimibers of bones and teeth of two species of Seal have been found in the superficial ornithic bone-
beds of the north and middle island of New Zealand, which, although not examined by com-
petent authorities are probably the remains of the two species Stenorhynchus leptonyx and Phoca
LEONiNA, which now frequent the coasts of the islands,! i^i the same way that remains of the com-
mon Seal of our own seas, Phoca vitulina, occur in various recent local beds in Britain. It
is rather remarkable that the tooth of a species named Ph. occitana by Gervais, which has been
found in the pliocene marine sands of Montpelier, bears most analogy to the corresponding tooth
of this same S. leptoxyx of the Southern Seas.
The nimiber of existing species is also few — not exceeding thirty in aU — which have been divided
by Dr. J. E. Gray* into thirteen genera. With the exception of two species that have been foimd
in the West Indian Seas, the whole are confined to the colder regions of the globe. With
one or two doubtfid exceptions, those foimd in the southern hemisphere are different from those of
the northern, and they are not only of difierent species, but belong to different sections. For our
purposes, the following subdivision will suffice — 1st. The Walrus, an aberrant form with semi-
herbivorous habits.J Then the remainder may be divided into two sections — those with visible ears
and those without them; the former being confined to the southern hcmisiDhcre and the northern
Pacific ; the latter to the Arctic regions and the Atlantic and European seas, with one or two out-
liers extending through Bhering's Straits and down by Kamschatka to Japan, and three or four
forms peculiar to the Antarctic Seas, along with which, however, falls to be placed a species (Mox-
ACHUS ALBiVEKTEii) fouiid in the Mediterranean, or rather in the Adriatic.
* Mantell, G. a., "Petrifactions and their Teachings," shrimps, and of the shells of clams and cockles. I bo-
1851, p. 113. lievo they also eat sub-mariue algoc or sea-weeds; and
t Gray, J. E., " Catalogue of Mammalia in British Scoresby mentions having found the remains of young
Museum," 1850, ii. Seals. Seals in their stomachs."— L.vmont, .S'easojw icilk Sea-
I " 1 have frequently opened the stomachs of AValruses horses, 18C1, p. 142.
and found their food to consist of sand-worms, star-fish,
126 MAMMALS.
Perhaps the most interesting circumstance in the distribution of the Seals is the existence
of a species in the Caspian Sea, and another in Lake Baikal, notwithstanding that the latter is
wholly fresh water, and that the former does not contain one-fourth of the usual saline contents
of sea-water. The species in the Caspian (Phoca Caspica) is described as very nearly allied
to our common Phoca vitulixa, and that in Lake Baikal as equally close to Phoca fcetida {Ph.
anncUafa, Nilss.), a species found in the North Atlantic; and but for their geographical position,
no one woidd think of separating them from these species. In fact, the one is the Phoca vitulina,
and the other the Phoca rajxiDA. Nilsson and Gray no doubt both consider them distinct, but
I do not apprehend that either of them does so from actual observation, and it is scarcely possible
to doubt that the peculiarity of the locality must have had some influence on their minds. On the
other hand, Pallas, Gmelin, Fischer, and Eadde, regard them as belonging to the two species they
resemble, and Radde's personal experience must outweigh any foregone conclusion arrived at by
others who have not had the advantage of seeing the animals themselves.
One's first impression is so much opposed to the possibility of such an occurrence as a
marine animal inhabiting permanently a fresh-water lake, that we naturally expect that there
must be some mistake about it, and that it may turn out that the animal is an otter, or some
unknown species ; but there is no room for doubt about the matter ; it is notorious as a commercial
fact, and your ledger is a sore destroyer of j^our theoretical assumjjtions. A regular seal-fishery has
for long been carried on in both waters, and in Pallas' time the Baikal seal-fishery was of great
importance, and, although much diminished since then, still, so late as 1859, forty individuals
were killed at one village ; and, to crown all, Herr Radde brought home with him a specimen from
it ; and no specific diflerences can be discovered between it and Phoca annellata. The only
difference is that it is of a uniform grey colour, instead of being more or less spotted. This
variation, however, is also found in specimens from the North Atlantic.
Similar instances of other marine animals accommodating themselves to fresh water might be
cited. There are species of Dolphins (essentially a marine genus) peculiar to fresh water. There
is a species which is confined to the Ganges and another to the Indus, both wholly fresh-water rivers ;
another inhabits the Amazons ; and the Delphinapterus leucas ascends the Amour regularly on
the breaking up of the ice, and penetrates to a distance of 400 miles up the stream. Mr. Sjjencer
St. John mentions a similar fact as occurring with the Shark.*
Although the Seals are marine animals, they are not so absolutely so, as to render it abstractly
improbable that they might acconmiodate themselves to a life in fresh water. The common Seal has
been taken in the Firth of Forth above Alloa, where the water is no longer salt, and also far up
in the estuary of the Tay. Another Seal, Callocephalus nummularis, which is found in the
North Pacific, ascends the mouth of the Amour. Dr. Bennett speaks of a Stenorhynchus leptonyx
having been killed in 1859, in the fresh-water of Shoalhaven River in Australia, several miles above
the influence of the salt water.f The IIalichcerus gryphus, or Grey Seal, is fomid in the
Baltic, as well as in the Northern Seas ; and I have already noted the existence of a pecidiar
* " It is a curious fact, that far as we are above the frequent these interior waters. ' Not at all,' answei'cd
influence of the flood-tide, and with so many rapids below the Datu ; ' not more curious than seeing you English
us, yet sharks arc found here in fresh water. I call it a abandon your own country to come so far and live among
fact, because native testimony is unanimous. I remember us Jfalays.' " — Spencer St. John, " Life in the Forests ot
hearing Mr. Crookshank say to the Datu Patinggi, the the Far East." Second Edition, 1863, i. p. 147.
principal native chief, that he considered it a very curious t Besnett, George, " Gatherings in Australia," ISGO,
thing that a fish supposed to live only in the sea should p. 107.
SEALS OF THE CASPIAN SEA AND LAKE BAIKAL. 127
species in one part of the Mediterraiicau. We have thus instances in the Seals of sjjccies living
in all the gradations between ordinary sea water and fresh water ; first, those in the Atlantic itself;
where the water is whoUy salt ; next, one in the Mediterranean, where it is scarcely less so ; then
another in the Baltic, a sea much less salt than the Northern Ocean outside the Cattegat ; then
one in the Caspian, which is still less salt ; and, lastlj', one in Lake Bailcal, which is whoU}'
fresh. The inference which one can hardly fail to draw fi'oni tliis, is that Lake Baikal and the
Caspian were formerlj' bays of the Arctic Sea ;* and that by an elevation of the land these bays
were cut off from the open sea and converted into inland lakes, in which were respectively shut up
the Common Seal and the Pii. FfETiiiA, the one without any communication at all with the sea, the
other with an outlet for its waters, but with barriers preventing the escape of the Seals.
When these salt-water bays were thus converted, that which had an outlet (Lake Baikal)
must have continued salt until, in the course of time, from the constant inpouring of fresh water
by streams and rivers falling into it, the water must have become fresher and fresher, until it has
become what it now is ; but the process has been so gradual, and the change from salt to fresh
so imperceptible, and spread over so immense a period of time, that the animals have undergone
a change in physical condition of life without ever being aware of it, or being affected by it, and
they have become fitted for their new medium as imperceptibly, and by as slow degrees, as it itself
has come into existence. Had the change been more rapid, according to my \'iew, we should have
had a new species instead of merely the old one. The process in the Caspian, which has no outlet,
must have been still simpler, because the water continues salt, although somewhat altered in its
chemical constituents,! and greatly fresher than the sea.
If the reader will look at the Map 2, which shows the countries that would be submerged by a
depression of the land to the extent of 600 feet, he will observe how completely the Caspian Sea and
Lake Baikal would in that event be continuous with the Arctic Ocean ; and if by the rise of the land
which is now going on in Denmark and Sweden, the Cattegat should be obliterated, and the Baltic
turned into an inland lake, there might then be a repetition of what has taken place in Lake Baikal and
the Caspian, and the Halich.erus gryphi' s be turned into a fresh-water specimen of the marine
species.
The geographical distribution of the Seals is somewhat complicated by the fact that some, if not
all of them, make periodical migrations, returning j^ear after year, like birds, to their former abode.
Speaking of a species of Otaria, or Sea Lion, common near San Francisco, Dr. Newberry mentions
having identified one, by a bullet found in it when killed, which had been shot at it the prcA'ious
year at the same place. J
Periodical migration thus takes place in these mammals as well as in birds ; besides the Seals,
* It is but fail' to point out that .so high an authority Beche's " Researches iu Theoretical Geology." 1834, p. 14.
as the late Ur. Falconer look.s with doubt on such a con- J " This specimen is of interest as illustrating, in one
nexion. He says, " It stiU remains to be proved that the particular, the habits of these animals. The left zygo-
Arctic Ocean of the glacial period ever invaded the Aralo- matic arch has been perforated by a bullet, and the lower
Caspian province, of which the Sea of Azof was a part. We part of the loft inferior maxillary bone shattered by an-
have the authority of Woodward for the fact that the other ; both those injuries having been received so long
Aralo-C'aspian basin contains only a single species (Car- since that the action of the absorbents has almost smoothed
DHJM EDCLE, var. rdsticum), common to it and the White the splintered edges of the bones. Inside of the wound
Sea." (Manual of MoUusca, p. 431.) See Falconer in of the zygoma was found the piece of lead which had
" Nat. Hist. Rev." No. 9, Jan. 1863, p. 75. caused it, and which was at once recognised, from certain
t M. Eichwald states that sulphate of magnesia is a peculiarities of form, as one which had been fired, without
common salt in the waters of the C;ispian Sea.— De La fatal eSect, at a Sea Lion, on the same rocks, in the sum-
1 28 MAMMALS.
it occurs also in the American Bison, in the Lemming and some Eats. How far the phenomena
are at all of the same nature in mammals as in birds we do not know ; that of the Seal
seems likest to the migration of birds, but its migrations, like that of the others, may be a mere
matter of conrmissiariat.
Walrus (Map 28 * ). — The Walrus is an animal essentially peculiar to the regions of the North
Pole. It has never been seen alive further south than 60° N.L. ; and 80^° N.L. is believed to be their
highest latitude. Hamburg is the most southerly point on any part of the coast of the Atlantic where
fossil remains of it have yet been foimd. Near that city these have been found in superficial deposits.
It must have reached further south on the other side of the Atlantic, for remains have been obtained
in New Jersey, Virginia, and Massachusetts. It has been said to have occurred in beds anterior to
the present epoch, and Baron Cuvier has given to that last assertion the authority of his name
in his great work : " After a fresh examination of the bones found at Angers, I have myself re-
cognised a rib and a vertebra of a Walrus," &c.* But Gervaisf has pointed out tliat there is
reason to doubt this, as the only portion of these remains which is stili accessible has been found
to belong, not to the Walrus, but to the Halitherium (an extinct form of Sirenian).
It is one of the animals which, like the Rhytina and the Dodo, seem doomed to extinction at the
hands of man ; and, according to all appearance, the execution of the doom will not be long delayed.
In former times its numbers in the localities which it frequented seem to have been very great.
We learn from the voyage of Ohthere, which was performed about a thousand years ago, that
the Walrus then abounded on the coast of Finmarken itself; it has, however, abandoned that
coast for some centuries, although indi\'idual stragglers have been occasionally captured there up
to within the last thirty years. After thej' left the Finmarken coast. Bear Island J became the
principal scene of their destruction, but it in its turn was deserted, and none have been found there
for upwards of thirty years ; and now the Thousand Islands (south-east of Spitzbergen), Hope
Island (a little further north, but still in the south-east corner), and Ej'k Yse Island (still further
north, but not half way to the northern extremity of the Islands), in their turn, after being fre-
quented for years, have become very inferior hunting ground to the banks and skerries lying
to the north of Spitzbergen.
Witsen mentions that in the year 1690 " Steuerman Iwanow (Steersman or Pilot, — I suppose
equivalent to Captain Ivanoff) suffered shipwreck on the Schaparow Bank, in 71° N.L., near the
coast of the peninsula which is bordered on the west by the Gulf of Obi, and was compelled to
remain with his crew a year on the bank. They killed so manj^ Walruses that their bodies formed
a pile of 630 English feet in length, and as much broad, and six feet high ; and they got 160 pounds
weight of teeth from them."§
mer of 1854. We have thus a demonstration that these J Bear, or Chcrie, or Cherry Island, is a diamond-
huge Seals return, in some instances at least, year after shaped island, about ten miles long, composed of secondary
year to the same localities. They leave the Farallones in rocks, principally sandstone and limestone, lying about 280
November and return in May, being absent about six miles north of the North Cape. Its names arc said to
months. How far they migrate during that interval, we be due to some of the early Dutch navigators, on their
have, at present, no means of determining. Newberry's way to China, once having seen a bear here, and to an
"Report United States Pacific Railroad Exploration," vol. English expedition sent out by Alderman Cherie, of Lon-
vi. ; Zoology, p. 51. 1857. don, afterwards erroneously fancying that they were the
* CuviER, "Os.sem. Fo.ss." discoverers of the island, naming it after their patron.
t Oervais, "Zool. and PalMont. Fi-anvais," 1859. § Witsen, "Noord en Oost Tartarye," pp. 913, 915.
WALRUS. 129
Kotzebue records that he saw thousands at the East Cape, in 51° N.L.* Cook saw " an inconceivable
number on the ice." In Purchas " His Pilgrims," it is mentioned in an account of the voyage of the
shii^ " God Speed," in 1608, to Bear Island, that they were found there "lying like hogges upon
heaps." Mr. Lament's account of a pack of them on ice shows how true a description of them
this is : " 13. At 3 a.m. this morning we were aroused by the cheery cry of ' Hvalruus paa Ysen '
(Walruses on the ice!). We both got up immediately, and from the deck a curious and exciting
spectacle met our admiring gaze ! Four large flat icebergs were so densely packed with Walruses,
that they were sunk ahnost awash with the water, and had the appearance of being solid islands
of Walruses. . . . The monsters lay -n-ith their heads reclining on one another's backs and
sterns, just as I have seen rhinoceroses laying asleep in the African forests, or, to use a more familiar
simile, like a lot of fat hogs ia a British straw-yard. I shoidd think there were about eighty or
a hundred on the ice, and manj^ more swam grunting and sporting around, and tried to clamber
up among their friends, who, like surly people in a full omnibus, grimted at them angrily, as
if to say, ' Confound you ! don't you see that we are full ?' "f On another occasion he says, " There
cannot have been less than three hundred in sight at once." J
These crowds of animals are, however, the mere ordinary herds in which they habitually
congregate, and doubtless they are much thinned from what they were in former times ; but
towards the end of the summer they pack like grouse. About the end of August, Mr. Lament
says, the}' usually congregate together in vast herds, sometimes to the number of several
thousands, and aU Lie down in a mass in some secluded bay, or some rocky island, and there
they remain in a semi-torpid sort of state for weeks together, without feeding or moving. I am
tempted to quote a passage from Mr. Lament's work, which gives one a better idea of their
immense numbers than anything I have met with elsewhere, but it is too long, and I must refer
the reader to the work itself. It will well repay perusal. It is the account of a massacre of
one of these packs by two sloops' crews a few years ago. It appears that a pack of between
three and four thousand Walruses — fancy three thousand or four thousand animals, as large
as elephants, lying crowded along the beach! — had gathered together in a protected corner, in the
south-westernmost island of the Thousand Islands. The two sloops found them there, got between
them and the sea, and the crew deliberately set to work to slaughter them. They attacked
them with lances, and after a long day's murderous work, they had killed nine hundred of
them. It was wanton slaughter, because the two ships could not have carried away the produce
of so many ; but during the night, heavy ice made its appearance, cutting them off from the
shore, which prevented their securing more than about two hundred. Seven hundred were
lost, and their carcasses left on the beach. There they rotted, and there their bones still lie,
and notwithstanding the distance of time, there the smell still lingers. Mr. Lament says it
would be a good specidation to freight a vessel for the bones.
Mr. Lament calcidates that about a thousand Walruses, and twice that number of bearded
Seals, are annually captured in the seas about Spitzbergen, exclusive of those which sink or die
of their wounds ; so, he adds, it is clear that they are undergoing a rapid diminution of
numbers, and also that they are gradually receding into more and more inaccessible regions farther
north.
* Kotzebue, " Entdeckangsreise in die Sud .Sec." I. S. l.J".
t Lamont's "Seasons with Sea-horses," 1861, p. 74. J Ibid. p. 60.
1 30 MAMMALS.
Mr. Alfred Newton, who has visited Spitzbergen still more recently, states that their numhers
continue to decrease with woeful rapidity, being now almost confined to Spitzbergen and the
Archipelago of Islands about it. " Now they are hemmed in by the packed ice on the one side,
and tlieir merciless enemies on the other. The result cannot admit of a doubt."* "Fortunately
for the persecuted Walruses, however," says Mr. Lament, "these latter districts (those to the
north of Spitzbergen) are only accessible in ojDcn seasons, or perhaps once in every three or four
summers, so that they get a little breatliing time there to breed and replenish their numbers, or
undoubtedly the next twenty or thirty years would witness the total extinction of Rosmarus
Trichechus on the coasts of the islands of Northern Europe." He adds that there is no doubt
that many of the Seals and Sea-horses frequenting the east part of the Spitzbergen coast come
down from the north-east, and I have often susj^ected that Gillies' Land (a hilly country like
Spitzbergen, which lies sixty or seventy miles to the north-east of Spitzbergen), or some other
unkno-\iTi covmtry in that direction, must be the grand emporium which supplies them. A great
many are known to exist abovit the north-east corner of Spitzbergen, which is rarely accessible.
No vessel has ever succeeded in circiminavigating Spitzbergen ; and although separate voj'ages
have been made which overlap each other in this direction, still very little indeed is known about
those jiarts of the Spitzbergen Archipelago marked in the charts as Nord ost Land and New
Friesland.f
Like other Seals the Walrus migrates each j'ear. Little is known as to the course of their
migration, beyond that it is to the north in summer, and to the south in winter.
The most remarkable fact regarding their distribution is that it is not circmnpolar. It is a
common belief that the animal inhabits all the northern coasts. It is not so, however. Yon Baer,
who made a minute inquiry into the subject, and published the result J with a chart noticing every spot
where they had been found (from which I have borrowed the map of their distribution — Map 28* ),
showed that thej^ have two liabitats widely separated from each other. Spealdng roughly, these habitats
are the part of the Arctic Sea north of the Atlantic, and the part of it north of the Pacific, leaving two
great blanks, one on the north of Asia, and the other on the north of America. They are met with
in the north of Hudson's Bay and in Baffin's Bay, and at the eastern entrance to Lancaster Sound,
but they do not apjicar ever to make the north-west j)assage, or to penetrate by it to the northern
shores of North America. No one has ever seen them there. They occur rather sparingly on the
east and west coasts of Greenland. They are not found in Iceland, although an occasional
wanderer has sometimes come to it as a guest. They never come near the north coast of Europe
now. Bear Island knows them no more. We have seen how far they still frequent Sijitzbergen
and its islands. They are foimd, also, all along the western, or rather north-western, coast of
Nova Zembla, but not on its inner or south-eastern shores ; but, what is curious enough, they have
penetrated round the south of the island, and occur along the northern coast of Asia, facing the
south-eastern exj)osure of Nova Zembla, where, however, they are not met with. They do not follow
this coast, however, further than the River Jenesei ; beyond that there is an inunense tract without
them. They reappear, however, at the East Cape, or Cape Vostotchni, near Bhering's Straits and
facing Point Barrow (the two Capes, Cape Vostotchni and Point Barrow forming respectively the
eastern and western door-posts of Bhering's Straits on the north), and are there found occupying
* Newton, iu '■ Troc. Zoo!. Soc," 1S04. p. 500. % Von Baer, iu " St. Pctersbui-g Mem. Acad. Scient.
t Lamoxt, op. cit. pp. 177, 182. Imp. (jtb Scr. vol. iv.
WALRUS. 131
the straits and the shores between these capes, as well as the shores to the south of the Straits,
as far as the Aleutian Islands. Their numbers are perhaps greater about Bhering's Straits now than
anywhere else, as they appear to form the chief resource of the inhabitants from Point Earrow to
Ehering's Straits. They do not resort to the Aleutian Islands themselves, they having been there at
least on those of the islands next to Asia — replaced by the Rhyi'ina ; and although that Sea Cow
has ceased to exist, the "Walrus seems to have respected former boundaries, and not to have
intruded on its neighbour's territories, although the proprietor coidd never again come to main-
tain his rights or resist encroachment, a respect for the rights of property not always found in
animals higher in the scale of life.
132
CHAPTER XVIII.
HOOFED-MAMMALS (uNGULATA). CLASSIFICATION.
The old-fasliioned classification of the hoofed animals with which the older reader is familiar is —
1. the Pachyderms, including Elephant, Rhinoceros, Tapir, IlijDpopotamus, Sow, &c. ; 2. the Soli-
DWNGULA, or Horses ; and 3. the Ruminants. Professor Owen, following the idea originally ex-
pressed by Cuvier, and confiimed by De Blainville, has in his new classification considerably
modified this arrangement. He has in it separated those which have an odd number of toes and'
nineteen dorso-lunibar vertebraa from those with an even number of toes and a greater nmnber
of dorso-lumbar vertebrae than nineteen. The latter he styles Artiodactyla, and the former
Perissodactyla, — equivalent to Cuvier's Paridigitata and Imparidigitata.
As an artificial arrangement nothing could be better. It combines simplicity and clearness
to such a degree that any one who is sufiiciently advanced in arithmetic to be able to count two,
or to know odd from even, may range every species in the section allotted to it the moment he
sees its feet.
The residt of the arrangement is to separate the aberrant forms of Pachyderms (the Hippopo-
tamus, Peccary, and Sow), from the typical (the Elephant, Tapir, Rhinoceros, and Horse), and
to unite them to the Ruminants through the Chevrotains and Camels.
This seems in accordance with Nature, but when Professor Owen in subdividing the Artio-
dactyles commences with what he calls the Omnivora (the Swine and Hippopotamus), — a qualifi-
cation (omnivorous), by the way, quite inappropriate to the Hippopotamus, which is in no respect
omnivorous, but entirely vegetarian,— he separates by the intercalation of the Ruminants two
closely allied groups; his arrangement being thus. Hippopotamus, Riuninants, Horse, Rhinoceros,
Elephants, &c. The points of relationship which the Omnivora have to the Ruminants, however
important, are not more numerous nor important than those with the true Pachyderms ; and it
is with reluctance that I see the Hippopotamus, Peccary, and Sow, carried away to a distance
from the Rhinoceros and Tapir. I have considerable faith in outward appearance as a guide to
affinity. No doubt appearances are often deceptive ; but it is the exception when they are so,
not the rule. For once that they deceive, they hundreds of times tell the truth. * I cabnot
* Sucli a superficial ad-captandum resemblance is a or sometimes become united into one, making the poor
monstrosity which is not uncommon in Swine, and which beast a cyclops. Although a physiological monstrosity
is very suggestive of affinity between the Proboscidean which, for aught that appears, might occur equally well in
pachyderms and the Sow. In it the snout is separated the human foetus, or any other animal, it does not happen
from the face, and grows out from the forehead immedi- to any that I know of but the Sow : and I have observed
ately above the eyes, somewhat like an elephant's trunk, that such an illustration as this impresses the mind of
It absorbs the skin between the eyes, which thus stand the non-scicutific observer with greater conviction of
hideously goggling close to each other without sepai'ation, affinity than more legitimate physiological reasons.
II00FED-MAM.MAL3 — CLASSIFICATION. 133
make np my mind to separate these so-called Omnivora from the rest of the old Pachyderms.
But if I escape from Scylla (this difEculty), by reversing the order in which Owen has placed
the Artiodactyles, and putting the Ruminants at their head instead of the Hippopotamus, takino-
them in the order of Rimiinants, Hippopotamus, Rhinoceros, Elephant, Horse, I fall into Charvbdis
(another difficulty with the Horse), which ought not to be separated far from the Ruminants.
Owen escapes Charybdis by placing the Horse at the head of the Pachyderms, as above noticed
and the Ruminants at the end of the Artiodactyles, by which means he brings these two families
(Horses and Ruminants) together, but then the resiilt of doing so is that he separates the two
tribes of Pachyderms. I see no way of escape from this dilemma but by reverting to the old
arrangement, and keeping the Horse as a separate and distinct family of equal value to the
Ruminants.
It is to be remembered that we are at the commencement of a new thread, and are not hampered
by the necessity of reconciling anything to the past. Between the Seals and the hoofed-mammals
there is an absolute break. We may therefore commence with what we please, and I have taken
that group which I think gives the best and most uninterrupted connexion with those which follow.
The arrangement which I adopt is the following, viz.: —
UnGULATA. 3. MULTUNGULA.
1. MoNODACTYLA — (SoHdutiffula) KoTses, &c. 1. Palceot/icridce.
2. Artiodactyla. 2. NesodontidUe.
\. Ruminants — Camels — Oxen — Sheep — 3. TapiridcK.
Antelopes — Cameleopards — Deer — 4. Nasicornia.
Musk-Deer and Chevrotaius. 5. Prohoscidea.
2. Anoplotheridce.
3. NoiXrB.uniinants — Swine — Hippopotamus.
134
CHAPTEE XIX.
HOOFED-MAMMALS Continued — horses.
First Group. — Monodactyla. — Horses and Asses (Solidungula). — (Maps 41 and 42.) Some
authors (as Col. H. Smith) maintain that there still remains sufficient authority for the presence of
wild Horses in a state of nature, under one or other of their primaeval forms, eastwards from the south
and west of Europe, where they assume in their characteristics the same preference for opposite
habitations in plains or in woody mountains, which we now perceive to be the leading distinction
of the Zebra and the Dauw.* He himself, however, admits that some of the accounts on which he
depends as a warrant for the accuracy of his statement refer to the Wild Ass ; others to
the Koomrah ; and the whole seems too misty for any reliable conclusion to be drawn from it.
The general opinion no doubt is, that the Horse is of African or Arabian parentage, although,
as Col. H. Smith says, it is strange, if that be the case, that none are noticed in Morocco, Arabia,
Persia, or India. The truth is, that the origin of the Horse, like that of every other domesticated
animal, is involved in obscurity. We know that Horses existed in the Old and the New World
both previous and subsequent to the glacial epoch ; but neither physical resemblance, nor past
history, warrant us in pointing to one race more than another of these tertiary species as the origin
of the existing Horse.
Setting aside the domestic Horse, and looking at the various other species of the genus, inclusive
of the extinct fossil species, we find that the only parts of the world where Horses or their re-
mains have not been found, are Australia and the Oceanic Islands.
Extinct species are known belonging to three genera of Horses (Hipparion, Hippotherium,
and Equus). Two of these are confined to the tertiary strata ; and the third, containing species
which approach most to the living Horse, is found in the drift or post-glacial deposits of a recent
period.
Three extinct species of Equus, E. Namadicus, E. Sivalensis, and a third not distinguish-
able (according to Giebel) from Hippotherium gracile, have been foimd in the miocene Scvalik
deposits by Falconer and Cautley.
With regard to the genus Hippotherium, Professor Owen remarks, " that it links on Palo-
PLOTHERITJM with EQUUS."t
The post-glacial species have been described under many names ; as Equus fossilis, E. Ada-
miticus, E. priscus, E. brevirostris, E. pristinus, E. MAGNUS, E. juviixACEUs. But Dr. Giebel
states, that after a careful comparison of very rich materials4 he had become perfectly convinced,
* Ham. Smith, in " Naturalists' Library." t Owen's " Palaeontology," p. 344.
X GiBBEL, D. C. G. " Die Saugcthicrc," p. 382. Leipzig, 1859.
' ^y i 3«i ( Zliicitnl'' I-MT.
HORSES. 135
that not only all these supposed species belonged to one and the same, but that that one was the
common domestic Horse.
The occurrence of distinct species in America is very interesting, considering their subsequent
extinction, and the rehabilitation of the common species by man both in South and North America.
More than one sj^ecies has been described, but at least one lived, both in North and South America.
The first trace of it was discovered by Darwin. In his " Journal of a Naturalist," he mentions having
discovered, in the Pampean deposit at Bajada, one tooth of a Horse in the same stained and decayed
state as the remains of a Mastodon and Toxodon, as well as of a gigantic armadillo-like animal.
This tooth greatly interested him, for it was well established that no Horse was living in America
at the time of Columbus, and no remains of any had previously been found ; and he was not then
aware that amongst some other fossils which he had himself procured at Bahia Blanca, there was
a Horse's tooth in the matrix ; nor was it then known that the remains of Horses are common in
North America. Mr. Lyell (now Sir Charles) had, however, then latelj' brought from the United
States a tooth of a Horse ; and it is an interesting fact, that Prof. Owen could find in no species,
either fossil or recent, a slight but peculiar curvature characterizing it, until he thought of com-
paring it with Mr. Darwin's specimen from the Pampas, — when he found the two to correspond.
He named this American Horse Equus curvidexs. Certainly, as Mr. Darwin says, it is a mar-
vellous fact in the history of the Mammalia, that in South America a native Horse shoidd have
lived and disappeared, to be succeeded in after ages by countless herds, descended from the few
introduced by the Spanish colonists.
Certainly it is so ; but that is not the only noteworthy thing about it. It is remarkable that
it should be found in North America, and is one of the proofs that there must not always have
been such a barrier against the mutual intercommunication of species north and south of Mexico
as appears to have at one time existed. The history of the species interred in the Mauvaiscs
Torres cemetery have already taught us to expect this, and tlie Horse is only one of many other
instances proving it.
Another curious fact, looking to the South American habitat of the Equus curvidexs, is, that
the nearest existing species to it, after the domestic Horse, is the Quagga, which inhabits the
most southern parts of South Africa. More than one instance of affinity between species found in
the south of South America and the Cape of Good Hope, have already made us think of how
the space between them could be best bridged over.
In addition to the Equus curvidens above mentioned, there is an E. Americanus, and Lund
discovered in the caverns of Brazil remains of two species, E. principalis and E. xeogeus, and
a doubt fvd one.
The number of the living sjsccies of this family is very limited. Besides the domestic Horse
Giebel allows only five species ; but Mr. Edward Blyth, who has paid much attention to the family,
gives pretty strong arguments for admitting seven,* besides the domestic Horse. "Without going
into the grounds on which he rests his opinions, I shall simply recapitulate the results at which
he has arrived, and the limits which he assigns to the range of each, adding another species not
noticed by him, which was discovered b}' Henglin in Abyssinia.
1. Equus Quagga. The Quagga from Soiith Africa, scarcely found northwards of the Gariep
or Orange river ; but still in great herds southwards, nssociatiug with the white-tailed Gnu, as
* Blttii, fa., " On the diffcrout animals known as Wild Asses," iu " Journal of Asiatic Sociuty," vol. 28, ISGO, p. 229.
136 MAMMALS.
the next species does with the brindled Gnu, and both with Ostriches (as in Xenophon's time the
AsiNus HEMippus did in Mesopotamia.)
2. Equus Burcheli,!!, Gnnj, may be called the Zebra of the plains, in contradistkiction to the
next, which is a mountain species. Extensively difiiised over Africa, even to Abyssinia and to
Congo, and southward to the Gariep river.
3. Equus Zebra, Auct. The Zebra of modern nomenclature, more properly the Mountain
Zebra, and more completely striped than any of the rest — known only to inhabit South Africa.
4. Equus vulgaris, Gray. The True Onager, or aboriginal Wild Ass. Indigenous to North-
East Africa, if not also to the southern parts of Arabia, and Island of Socotra.
5. Equus hemippus, Is. St. Sil. The Hemionus or Hemippus of the ancients ; inhabits the
deserts of Syria, Mesopotamia, and the northern parts of Arabia.
6. Equus onager, Fall. The Koulau or Ghorkur. Inhabits West Asia from 48° North
Lat. southwards to Persia, Beloochistan, and West India.
7. Equus hemionus. Pall. The Dshiggetai or Kiang. It inhabits Thibet, and thence northwards
through the Gobi Desert into Mongolia and Southern Siberia, and as far eastwards as the Sea
of Japan. Major W. E. Kay * states that they are to be met with in all the level country between
Ladak and Lassa, or in the valleys between the various ranges. He himself saw them only north
of the Himmalaj'ah range, first upon the Rupcher j)lains, and in the neighbourhood of the salt
lakes, often in company with the Ovis Ajimox. They affect plains and inidulating hills at from
15,000 to 16,500 feet above the sea; if found in steeper country they have been driven there.
8. Equus taeniopus, llengl. Abyssinia and the highlands of Eastern Africa.
9. Equus oaballus, Auct. Domesticated everywhere.
* " Proc. Zool. Society," 1859, p. 354.
^fAP XXX I X
CAMtLtOPARDS
Linfuj Specief
i ■ ».'i •i.t.jv^H.' .Tl
137
CHAPTER XX.
HOOFED-MAMMALS COntilllird — RUMINANTS — CAMELS — OXEX.
Second Group. — Artiodactyla. — Ruminants. — I shall not occupy much of the reader's time
in discussing the classification of the members of this family. Professor Owen has not spoken.
But of the various authors who have expressed an opinion upon it, I think I have derived most
benefit from some brief remarks by Dr. Leid}% in his "Extinct Fauna of Nebraska,"* and a
recent paper on the Moschid-^ and Tkagulid^, by Dr. Alphonse Milne Edwards, in which he
has incidentally discussed the affinities of the different groujjs,! I shall not, however, adopt
the exact arrangement of any one.
I shall commence with the Camels for the sake of their points of connexion with the Horse,
then take the Oxen ; pass from them to the Sheep and Goats, to the latter of which I unite
the Caprine antelopes ; from them to the Antelojjcs proper, commencing with the Bubaline sj)ecics,
and so through that family to the Camelopards and Deer, the separation of the former of which
from its allies, the Deer and AnteloiDes, is, I think, one of the objectionable points in Alphonso
Milne Edwards' arrangement (he placing them between the Camels and the Oxen). I then lead
through the Chevrotains to the Anoplotherid.d, which furnish a natural transition to the Swine
in the next family.
On inquiring into the distribution of the Ruminants we find a remarkable difference between
their mmibcrs in the Old "World and in the New, as they abound in some parts of the former^
and are almost totally absent in the latter. The same peculiarity is observed in the non-
ruminant Artiodactyles (Owen's Omnivora), a circumstance which strengthens the view that
they should not be far separated from each other.
Camels (Camelid.«). (Map 40.) "We should be sadly at a loss to explain the distribution of
this famUy were it not for the assistance of the Palfcontologist. The range of the different ex-
isting species is so restricted, and separated by such vast distances, that we should never have
been able to connect the different liidvs together but for the happy discovery of fossil remains of
extinct species.
One of the existing species, or two, according as the Dromedary is reckoned distinct or not,
is confined to the heart of the Old World, in the very centre of the land, and the remainder
of the family is shunted ofi" to the extremity of South America and the range of the Andes ; the
one restricted by its conformation and constitution to dry and sandy deserts, the other fitted for a
temperate if not a cold climate, for lofty elevations, and rejoicing in the drenching mist, and
* Leidt, JoSKPH. " Extinct FaiHia of Nebraska," 1S53, tologiques sur la famillo des Chevrotains," I'ar Alphonse
p. 17. Jlilue-EdwarJs, in " Ann. des Sciences Xaturelles." Scr. 5,
t " Becherches anatomiques, zoologiques, ct jiala;on- Vol. iii. Paris, 18G4.
T
138 MAMMALS.
bracing air of snowy peaks; The fossil remains which enable us to reconcile the affinities of
these members of the same family with their distribution, and to explain how they come to occupy
such widely separated and dissimilar positions, to do so are few and far between, and occur a long
way back in the history of the globe, but, like the t\vinkling of a little candle, throw their beams
far into the darkness of the night.
The Camel is a very ancient beast, one of the oldest, if not the oldest, species of mammal now
living on the face of the earth, and it has apparently always been, as at present, a servant of man.
Other domesticated animals, — the dog, the elephant, the horse, the ox, and the sheep — have, with
greater or les? success, been referred by naturalists to their original wild types ; but all attempts to
do so with the Camel have stopj^ed short at the threshold, from the simple fact that it is sole and
singular, and has no allies in the hemisphere in which it is found, nor have any wild examples of its
own genus ever been met with. The first accounts of it in, perhaps, the oldest book in the world
(Job") speak of it as domesticated, and there are no records of its ever having been otherwise.
But Sir Proby Cautlcy and Dr. Falconer discovered in the Sevalik formations in the Himmalayahs
remains of it or of species (they think there are two) so closely allied to it as to be scarcely dis-
tinguishable from it. As the difference is so slight, it pleases us to think that we may have
here, in this most ancient animal, a species which saw the miocene epoch, and which has survived
all the chances and changes which have taken place since then.
Subsequent to that time another well-marked species also existed — the huge Merycotherium, a
monster, a giant, a Camel as big as a Camelopard. Possibly it may have been contemporaneous with
the Camel during the miocene epoch, but traces of it have only been met with in the Siberian drift.
This may fairly be held to extend the range of the Camelidso to the eastern bounds of Asia, and
we find it taken up on the other side of the Pacific by the genus Camelops, fomid in Kansas, and
the genera Pro-Camelus and Leftauchania, from the Mauvaises Terres on the Missouri, and
carried down into Brazil by extinct species of the Guanaco, remains of which were found by Dr.
Lund in the caverns of Brazil.
The two existing Camels affect somewhat different climates and comitries. The single-humped
Camel, or Dromedary, also known as the Arabian Camel, is used over the whole of the south-
■west of Asia and north of Africa, and as far south and west as the river Niger. The two-humped,
or Bactrian Camel, is the prevailing species in the somewhat colder regions to the north and east of
the coimtry of the Dromedary. It extends across Asia to China, has been introduced into India, and
reaches as far north as the Caspian Sea, and as far west as the Black Sea and the Crimea. Both
species occur in Persia, Bokhara, &c., and they are there crossed with each other, and the offspring
is said to be sometimes fertile. It has been also introduced into Australia, where it has been
found less usefid than was expected.
The Llama, &c. The existing South American representatives of the Camel consist of four
species, — the Llama, the Pace or Alpaca, the Guanaco, and the Vicuna. The Llama and Alpaca
are kept as domestic animals, — the former perfectly, the latter partially, tame. They have
continued so from the time of the Incas, who held them in the highest esteem. Thcj' are found all
along the Andes, from the Straits of j\Iagellan to the north of Peru ; but the Guanaco, which is
the largest, and has been crroneouslj' supposed to be the wild ancestor of the domesticated Llama,
dwells also in herds on the desert plains of Patagonia, and in the south-eastern parts of Tierra
del Fuego. It was not Icnown that they extended fartlier south than the Straits of Magellan
until the expedition of the Beagle ; and the ofiicers of that ship first had their attention drawn to
CAMELS — LLAMAS. 139
them by finding the natives of the southern part of eastern Tierra del Fiiego, well supplied with Guanaco
skins, and with the bones of these animals made into spear-heads. Where they got the Guanaco
skins was a question not easy to answer. 'Was there a passage to the northward, by which they
coidd trade with the people li\-ing there ? or wore there Guanacoes iu the southern part of Tierra
del Fuego ? Both the bones and skins seemed abundant ; but the people made signs that they
came from the eastward ; none pointed towards the north. One native showed how they ran,
and their shaj)e, and how they were killed, also the kind of noise they made;* and not long
after, on landing at Windhond Bay on Navarin Island, they saw four fine Guanacoes feeding
close to the water. They appeared to be much larger than those they had seen on the Patagonian
coast, their bodies being far heavier, and their tails longer and more bushy.f They killed one,
but do not seem to have examined it or preserved it in order to see whether it was not a new
species, which it might A-ery well be, considering the difference in the conditions of life between
the dry desert plains of Patagonia and the rain}- and snowy climate of Tierra del Fuego.
The Alpaca has been introduced into Australia in spite of almost insuperable obstacles in getting
them out of Peru and transferred to Australia. The greatest difficulty, however, has, I fear, yet
to be overcome, naraeh', that of naturalizing an animal in a countiy and climate the conditions of
which are not suited to his constitution.
The Vicuna is the rarest, and frequents the most lofty ridges of the Cordilleras, avoiding,
however, the naked rocky summits, for its hooves are soft and tender and suited only to the springy
turf of the upland pastures.
Remains of two species of another remarkable extinct genus, the Macrauchenia Patachonica
and M. Boliviensis; which were at first thought to have a certain amount of affinity to the Guanaco,
have also been found in the country now inhabited by that animal. Its supj)osed affinity, however,
is now considered by jjalajontologists to be an error. According to Burmeister the animal was a
Pachyderm, and the connexion with the Camels is only analogical, or distant.
Oxen. (Bovid.e.) (Map 37.) The distribution of Oxen furnishes a noteworthy instance of
the nde that two species of powerful mammals in the same group are rarely found in the same
district. In the Bovine animals this rule seems without exception. I have thus been able, in
the map of this family, to define tolerably distinctlj^ by different colours, the limits of each
different species — (under deduction always of the Domestic Ox and its varieties, which is now
found over the whole world).
The different recognised species of cattle and their ranges are the following : —
1st Section. Musk Ox. (Ovibos.) (Maps £6 and 37.)
The Musk-ox, is now confined to MehdUe's Island, and the neighbouring count rj' in the Arctic
regions, and the plains bordering on Hudson's Baj', but not reaching its shores. Hearne observed
the tracks of one near Fort Churchill, in 59° N. Lit., and many in lat. 61°. They are rarely to be
seen in any number further to the south than lat. 67° N. Although so completely an Arctic animal,
it is restricted to North America, and does not extend to Greenland, notwithstanding that coimtry
is so near its natural habitat. At the same time it is to be noted, that although not an inhabitant
* FiTZRoy's "Voyages of the Beagle," April, 1830, vol. i. p. 430.
t Op. cit. p. 439.
140 MAMMALS.
of Greenland, tlie Musk-ox has reached that land. Otho Fabricius records the Yak, " Bos grun-
NiENS," as having once occvirred on the ice in the Greenland Seas ; but from his descri2)tion it is
plain that the animal was a Musk-ox. " I myself," says he, " once saw the injured cranium (one
horn only remaining), the hooves, and very long black hair, woolly at the base, of this animal,
which had been found upon fragments of ice in the Sea of Greenland. Certainly, however, it has
not its domicile in Western Greenland, nor j)erhaps in Eastern, but 1 should suppose it rather to
have come with ice from the shores of Northern Asia, the remains having been eaten by the Polar
Bear."* He does not say on which side of Greenland the specimen was met with, but from his
residence at Disco, as well as from the terms in which he speaks of it, it would rather appear to
have been on the west side, that is, the side nearest to its native habitat. It is as if he said,
"Notwithstanding the circumstance of this specimen ha\'ing been found on the western side, I can
vouch for its not being an inhabitant of that side, but I cannot speak with the same confidence of the
east, with which I am less familiar, but 1 should suppose," &c. It had doubtless been floated off
on a detached floe from ^Vmerica, and been killed and eaten by Polar Bears.
Reichhardtf states that tlie Musk-ox comes rarely from Melville Island to Greenland, but as,
like Fabricius, ho gives it the name of Bos grunniens, it is perhaps not uncharitable to suspect
that he says so on the authority of the instance given by that author.
It must have existed in the Old World long after the glacial epoch, and has left evidence
of its existence in England, France, Belgium, Germany, and most of middle Europe. Its
presence in these countries is fair evidence that the climate must have been colder there than now.
Skulls have been fomid in the drift at Merseburg, on the Lena, and at Ob, Tundra, &c. In
America it occurs fossil at Eschscholtz Ba}', and remains have been found on the Mississippi and
other southern localities, but in no deposits older than the glacial epoch. Besides the present,
another fossil species (Bos Pallasi, Dekay) (some authors say several fossil species) has been found
in various parts of North America, Siberia, and westwards, into Middle Euroi^e. Some fossil
remains of Oxen found in various parts of the United States, approximating in many respects to
the Musk Ox, have received from Dr. Leidy the generic name of Bootherium.
2nd Section. Bisons. (Bisox.) (Map 37.)
The North American Bison is found on the slopes and plains east of the ridgo of the Rocky
Mountains. According to Dr. Newberry, its range does not now extend beyond the Rocky Mountains ;
but there are many Indian hunters who have killed them in great numbers to the west of the
moimtains, on the headwaters of Salmon River, one of the tributaries of the Columbia. In his
"Zoological Report," already cited, he says, "While I was at the Dalles, the party of Lieut.
Day, U.S.A., came in from an expedition to the Upper Salmon river, and I was assured by the
officers that they had not only seen Indians who claimed to have killed Buffaloes there, but that in
many places great numbers of Buffalo skulls were still lying on the prairie.
" This is another instance of the penetration of animals, characteristic of the Upper Missouri
through into the basin lying between the Rocky Mountains and Cascades. The Mule and White-
tailed (Virginian?) Deer, the Musk-rat, Townsend's Hare, the Striped Spermophile {S. lateralis), &c.,
* Fabricids, Otho, '* Fauna Grccnlaudica," p. 28. 1780.
t Reichhardt, " Isis," 1848, s. 248. Scumaroa'.s " Geograph. Verbreitung," 185.3, 370.
- ^^^.nlLsTB&djLuh
OXEN. 141
seem to indicate that the Cascades present a more formidable barrier for the limitation of species than
the Rocky Moimtain chain."*
A closely allied fossil species, B. bombifrons, has been found in the post-glacial and recent
deposits on the Ohio.
The Old-world representative of this species — the Urus or Auroch, — formerly extended all
over jMiddle Europe, the Caucasus and the Carpathian Momitains, but is now restricted to a district
in Litliuania, where its existence is prolonged solely by the care of the Russian Government.
A fossil sjjecies allied to this (Bos priscus), and intermediate between it and the American Bison
(perhaps the ancestor of both), has been found in various localities in the post-glacial deposits of the
North of Europe and Siberia. Information as to its existence in Eastern Siberia is wanted. There is a
wide gap between the habitats of the two living species.
3rd Section. Buffaloes (Bubalus). (Map 38.)
The Buffalo belongs to the Africano-Indian region, there being two African and two Indian
species, and the intimate connexion between those known as the CajDe and Indian Buffaloes, is a
powerful argument in favour of there having been a former connexion between these two countries.
Indian Buffalo. — Although now to be met with in various other parts of Asia, the Buffalo
is believed to have originated in India, — according to Mr. Blj'th, in the sub-IIimmalaj-an forests,
whence he thinks it has spread into other suitable localities, such as the great swampy j ungles of India.
I do not know the ground on which he rests this opinion, nor do I see why it may not as well have
spread from the swampy jungles of the Peninsula into the sub-Himmalayan districts.
Its present (secondary) distribution, chiefly by domestication, now extends into China, Thibet,
Persia, Armenia, even to the Caspian and Black Sea, over Arabia, Syria, and the whole of the
North of Africa.
Cape Buffalo. — This species inhabits South Africa, reaching as far north as Abyssinia on the
one side of the Continent, and Guinea on the other.
It by no means falls behind its Indian brother in size, and much exceeds it in ferocity, being one
of the most dangerous animals to hunt (probably the most dangerous), on the face of the earth.
Its habits, as well as its form, correspond closely with those of the Indian species. Like it, it
delights in water and marshy places ; but the Cape species is irreclaimably wild, at least has never
been tamed, while the Indian is a valuable domestic animal ; and the coarse, lean flesh of the Ca-pe
species beats anything but the undiscriminating appetite of a Hottentot to swallow it, while the
flesh of the Indian species furnishes good food.
Bos BRACiiYCERUs. — This is a West .ilfrican species, found from Senegal to the Gaboon. It has
two or three rings or wrinkles on the base of its horns, which remind us of its Bubaline connexion
as well as of the connexion between the Oxen and wrinkle-horned Antelo23es.
Yak. — (Bos grunniens.) I have some hesitation in following Dr. Giebel in including the Yak
among the Buffaloes. StiU if it owes its peculiar form (which it probably does) to change of
condition from the swampy jungles of the Peninsula of India to the neighboiu'hood of the eternal
snows of the loftiest mountains of Thibet, when these mountains were gradually raised, it is
reasonable to expect that some extraordinary modification would bo produced.
It is spread o^-er Upper Ladak, Thibet, Northern China, ^Mongolia, and the Kimmalayahs,
at an elevation of from 10,000 to 17,000 feet above the level of the sea.
* Newberry, op. cit. vol. vi. p. 72.
1 42 MAMMALS.
4th Section. Oxen (Bos.) (Map 37.)
Common Ox — (Bos taurus.) — Like all domestic animals, the domesticated Ox has many-
varieties ; the extreme steps of which, if unconnected by transition links, might readily be considered
distinct species. The humped Zebu of India, which is found in many of the warmer parts of
Asia, and also on the east coast of Africa, looks very distinct from our common Ox, and by
some is regarded as a distinct species ; but there is no osteological difference, and we can trace
steps of transition through other breeds ; for example, the Italian breed is something like it in
colour, and in it a thickening on the shoulders, indicating a tendency to ahmnp, begins to show itself.
Banteng (Bos Sondaicus). — Through the observations of Mr. Blyth, this species is now known
to be found all through the Malayan Peninsula, from Singapore northwards into Birma ; it
occurs also in Cambodia, Siam, and Cochin China. It is not found in Sumatra, but occurs in Java,
Borneo, Bali, and Lombok, and would appear to be extensively domesticated in Bali. Its general
domestication is one reason why I think it may have been introduced into Borneo, although now
found there in a feral state.
Gaour and Gayaul (Bos gaurus, and Bos frontalis). — Two Indian species which are
considered by many authors to be the same, or at the utmost merely varieties. The Gaour is
found over most of the Peninsida of India, wherever a suitable habitat occurs. It also extends
into the Indo-Chinese region and throughout the Malayan, but its range does not extend to the
Great Eastern Islands.
The Gayaul is confined to the Hill regions east of the Brahmaputra, and extends thence north-
wards to the sub-Himmalayan districts, and southwards into the Tennasserim provinces.
An extinct species, B. primigenius, inhabited Europe dui-ing the post-glacial epoch, and from
its close resemblance in size and strength to the strongest races of the domestic Ox, is reckoned to
have been the original stock from which the latter sprung. Its remains have been found in many
places in England, France, Germany, Italy, &c., both in the di-ift and in peat-bogs.
"With this was associated in Britain and Ireland another extinct species (Bos longifrons, OhTn)>
which continued to exist until the historical period, and, according to Professor Owen, was probably
the source of the domesticated cattle of the Celtic races before the Roman invasion.
^i/* Sv..iLanitevt.'l»*J.
143
CHAPTER XXI.
EUMINANl'S COnfinued sheep and goats antelopes — CAMELOPARDS.
(Caprid.'E.) — Sheep and Goats. — It may be a question whether it woiikl not have been better to
have begun the Ruminants witli the Sheep and Goats, instead of the Oxen, so as to have
allowed the latter to come before the Bovine Antelopes, instead of being separated from them by the
Sheep and Goats, but this is a difficulty that cannot be overcome by any mode of arrangement,
for although we should not wish to separate them from the Bovine Antelopes, we should like as little
to have the Caprine animals, such as the Ibex and the Chamois, separated from the true Antelopes
by the interpolation of the Buffaloes. It will be sufficient always to bear in mind that the
different families of the Antelopes diverge at different points and in different directions, so as to
render a correct linear arrangement impossible.
The Sheep and Goats may be well separated as genera, but it is impossible to break them into
two families.
Sheep. — (Map 35.) There is some difficidty in arriving at the real number of species of Sheep.
Mr. Edward Blyth published, in 1841, a paper giving an account of the different species with
which he was acquainted. These amounted to fifteen. Dr. Giebel, on the other hand, in his
" Saugethiere," diminishes these perhaps unduly. He does not allow more than five, considering
the characters relied on by Mr. Blyth to be too insignificant to constitute species. It matters little
to us, however, which view be adopted, because Mr. Blyth's additional species, with one exception,
which he is doubtful about himself, all come from the same districts as the already recognised
species.
According to Giebel, his five species are thus distributed : one (the Mouflon, or Mustmon) is
European, or rather Mediterranean, (being found in Corsica, Sardinia, Cj'prus, the Grecian Archi-
pelago, Macedonia, Servia, and the Persian Mountains. Another (0. TRAOELAPHrs), (almost gen-
erically distinct) to North Africa. Another (the Argali) belongs to Middle North Asia ; a fourth
(0. BuRRHEi.) to the Himmalayahs ; a fifth (the Big-horn, or O. Montana) to the Rocky Mountain
range. Mr. Blyth's additional supposed species come from Bokhara, Thibet, Caucasus, Armenia,
Cyprus, &c.
The greatest interest attaches to the distribution of the North American and the Asiatic
species. We have seen that the rimiinants are most sparingly represented in North America. Eight
deers, two antelopes, one sheej), and two oxen, are all that are now found in that country.
Whether an}^ of these are also found in the Old World is a point in dispute. In Map 35 1 liave
shown what I consider the distribution of the European Mouflon, the Asiatic Argali and the
American Bi^-horn ; but there is a mountain sheep found in Kamschatka (0. mvicola of
144 MAMMALS.
Eschscholtz), which from Eschscholtz's description would appear to be a variety of the Argali.
Cuvior conjectured that the North American species might be an Argali which had wandered over
the ice to North America. I shall consider the probability of this migration by and bye, when we
come to still closer affinities, as in the Spermophilcs. Dr. Giebel remarks that they certainly come
very close to each other. " Two other species of Sheep," says he, " have lately been distinguished :
O. Californica Douglas and 0. nivicola Esch. The latter certainly, through its abode in
Kamschatka, would appear to mix the Siberian with the American species. The distinction of both
lies in the peculiar smallness of the horns, the colour, and the larger proportions."*
I think Dr. Spencer Baird has arrived at a juster conclusion. After pointing out the differences
between them which he regards as specific, and which are chiefly differences in the spiral of the
horns, and their greater divergence at the tip — thirty-six inches in the Argali and only eighteen
in the Big-horn — he continues, "While considering the Big-liorn as distinct from the Argali, I am
far from considering it the same with the Kamschatkan Ovis nivicola of Eschscholtz, as asserted by
most authors. It is with the Argali that the latter is to be compared, both having the same
peculiarity of an excessive twist outwards and upwards of the ends of the horns, which also
curve over a greater number of degrees. Judging from the figures of Eschscholtz, the tips of the
horns must be at least three feet apart, instead of the twenty inches of our species. All these
peculiarities are those of the Argali ; and without pretending to decide whether the Kamschatkan
or Siberian species are the same, I will only state that they are so considered by Pallas, who gives
the measurement, description, and figure of a yoimg ram from Kamschatka in the work noted below.f
The same remarks will applj' in great measure to the supposed horn of 0. Montana, figured and
described by Middendorf, from the Sea of Okotsk. I am far from admitting that any of our North
American Mammals occur in Eastern Asia, unless it be the Spermophilus Parryi, although some
authors have attempted to prove an identity for the beaver, the brown bear, the sable, the large
marmot, as well as the large sheep." *
On the whole, my inclination would be to go along with Dr. Baird in his latter proposition,
as well as the former, were its terms a little less sweeping. He has forgotten the white bear,
the walrus, the seals, the lemming — not to speak of the more doubtful cases of the lynx, moose,
glutton, &c.
Schrenck agrees with Middendorf in looking upon the Argali or its northern form (0. nivicola
Ench.) as the same as Oxi& Montana, for he regards the Mountain Sheep of Amourland as that species. §
On this point a well-informed writer in the " Natural History Review " makes the following remarks :
" We are very much disposed to question the fact of this Ovis being identical with the Ovis monfana
of North America. It is Oris nivicola of Eschscholtz. Middendorf gives the Spruce partridge of
Canada {Tctrao Canadensis) as occurring in Northern Asia; but his examples, on further investigation,
were proved to belong to quite a different species {Tetrao falcipennis) . The forms of the higher
northern latitudes of the eastern and western hemispheres, though very similar, are, excejit in the
Polar regions, usuallj- specifically distinct." || It will go near to be thought so shortly.
The range of the Big-horn extends from the region of the Upj)er Missouri and Yellow Stone to
* Giebel, " Saugethiere," i. 282 (Note), 1809. Railroad E.'cplorations and Surveys," vol. viii. p. 078. 1857.
t Pallas, " NaturgosohicMo mcrkwurdiger Thicic," § Schrenck (Dr. Von Leopold) " Reiseu undForscliuu-
Saniml. xi. 1779, p. 1. Tab. i. ii. gen im Araurland." Baud I. 1858.
X Baird, " Eepoit on Zoology in United States, Pacific || " Natural History Review'' (Jan. 1861), I. p. 1.
GOATS. 145
tlie Rocky Mountains, and tlio high grounds adjacent to them on the eastern slojje as far south as
the Rio Grande. They are said to be abundant on tlie Mauvaises Torres, but are not found to any
considerable distance east of the Bhxek hills. Westward they extend as far as the Cascade and
coast ranges of Washington, Oregon, and California, and follow the high lands of the mountains
some distance into Mexico.
A supposed species, O. SiiiiKicA Mcyci), which inhabits the Altai range, is disallowed by Giebcl,
who regards it as a synonym of the Argali, but Radde has recently given full descriptions which
show that it is a distinct species.* No extinct species have been satisfactorily determined.
Goats. — (Capra.) (Map 34.) These are usually divided into Ibexes and Goats proper, both
of which are confined to tlie Old World. I have added to the group the Caprine Antelopes, or
Chamois. These occur in Europe, Asia, and North America, but not in Africa or India. Their
habitat is thus o^jposed to their being regarded as Antelopes, which are essentially an African and
Indian form ; and various other, more or less important, characters,! confirm the view that they do
not projjerly belong to them. The family is almost wholly composed of mountain animals.
Of the Ibexes there are eight species, chiefly belonging to the European district, although
species also extend into Syria and Abj-ssinia, as well as into the Caucasus and Siberia. The
species found on the Alps is different from that found on the Pyrenees, which, again, is ditteront from
another which lives in the mountains of Andalusia. There arc two species in the Caucasus, one in
Siberia, one in Syria, and another in the mountains of Abyssinia. A fossil species has been foimd in
the caves of the Cevennes, and it comes nearest to its living ueighbovu", the Pj'renean species.
The Goats proper are few ■ in number. Besides the domestic Goat, which is very variable in
appearance, we know only two from the Ilimmalayahs and one from the Caucasus.
The Chamois or Caprine Antelopes are eight in number. One species occurs in Europe, one in
North America east of the Rocky Mountains, one on both sides of the Rocky Mountains, one in
Japan, one in Formosa, two in Nepaul, and one in Sumatra.
The two species found in North America are the American AntelojDO (Antilocapra A:»if.ricaxa)
and the Mountain Goat (Aplocekus moxtanus). The latter is not distantly allied to the Chamois.
The former, although further removed, is still nearer to it than to anything else ; and a cir-
cumstance to be noted, is, that the European Chamois, so far as regards structure, stands between
these two American species, and that American species which lives more nearly vnider the same
conditions of life as the latter, is nearest to it in organization, while that which differs most in
organization is also further removed from it in habits and conditions of existence. The Mountain
Goat (Ai'i.ocERUs montaxus), which may without impropriety be called the American Chamois,
lives in the most inaccessible and rocky parts of the Rocky Mountains, while the American Antelopo
lives in the valley of the Missouri and other more level and accessible places.
AxTELOPES. (ANTii.opin^:.) (Majj 33.) The number of Antelopes is very great, no less than
one huncb-ed and fifty-two species having been described, which, however, are rediiced by Giebel
in his " Saugethiere " (edition, 1859) to the more manageable number of fifty-five species. The
resemblance which certain groups of them bear to Deer, Oxen, or Horses, have led to their
being divided into corresponding sections, — as Cervine Antelopes (the Oryx), Equine Antelopes
(the Gnu), and Bovine Antelopes (the Eland).
* Radde (Gdstav,) " Reisen im Suden vou Ost-Sibcrien." Baird, I. 1862.
t The hair of these Caprine Antelopes is not that of tlic Antelope, but of the Deer.
14(i MAMMALS.
The family is essentially African, five-sixtlis of the species composing it being natives of that
country, and more than two-thirds coming from parts of it lying to the south of the Sahara.
After Africa the Indian district has most specie.s. All not found in Africa south of the
Sahara, with the exception of a few sjoecies in North Africa, and three from trans-Himmalayan
Asia helong to the Indo-Malaj'an region.
Strictly speaking, there is no recent European species of Antelope. The Antilope Saiga,
which is found in some of the eastern parts of Europe, being rather an Asiatic species which
has overflowed into Russia than a European extending into Asia. It is a' true Gazelle, but a
larger and less attractive animal than the gentle, graceful, little, dark-eyed beauty of Arabian
poetry.
Looked at solely by the light derived from the distribution of the existing species, it would
appear that Africa was the birth-jjlace of this familj' ; that they had come into existence before the
ancient connexion between Africa and India was wholly cut off, but after it had been considerably
restricted ; that after a communication had been opened between North and South Africa by the
elevation of the Sahara, and between India and northern Asia by the rise of the Ilimnialayahs, and
obliteration of the barrier of the Sevalik Sea, the species now found in North Africa and Asia had
made their way into these districts.
As at present recorded, fossil remains have been found in various parts of France, in the fahluns
of Touraine, the caverns in the dejjartment of L'Aude, in the miocene deposits of Auvergne, and at
Sansans, — all, I believe, in the most recent part of the upper miocene deposits, suggesting the idea
that it was only at the termination of this epoch that the Antelopes found their way into Europe.
It is alwa3's to be remembered that the determination of Antelopes, especially from imperfect frag-
ments of bone, which is all that we have had to rest on, is very difficult and uncertain. Another
important fact, if well founded, is the discovery in America, where no Antelopes are now found,
of a species (Antilope Mariquensis) in the bone-caves of Brazil by M. Lund, and in the Mau-
vaises Terres by Dr. Leidy, — at least of fragments which are referred to this ftimily. I do not
ventm-e to dispute the correctness of the determination, by such eminent authorities, of the fossil
remains referred to Antelopes from the deposits of Europe and America, merely because they run
counter to my anticipations ; but I may be allowed to be so far sceptical as to beg those palaeontologists
who may have the opportunity, to subject the remains to the severest scrutiny, and withal not to
assume that similarity to the Chamois is identity with the Antelope ; and I may add that if this is
done I shall be in no way surprised to learn that no fossil Anteloj^ine remains whatever have yet
been found in either of these countries.
On a review of the whole species as separated into sections by Giebel,* whose arrangement, or I
should rather say, the contents of whose sections are very much the same as those of Dr. Gray and
other authors who have made a special study of the family, we find the affinities of the species
to correspond jDretty nearly with the localities whence they come ; that is, the members of each
section are, for the most part, inhabitants of the same district. For example, —
Group 1. BoviNA. — There are two species in this group, — one (Anoa depressicornis. Smith)
found in Celebes, the other (Damalis Okeas, Pallas) in South Africa. This is a remarkable
* Although I here for convenience sake adopt, without None of these, however, seem to iiftect any general con-
qualification, Giehel's determination of the species, it will elusion which may be drawn from the smaller number
be seen fi-om the synonymic list in the Appendix, that I accepted by Giebel.
admit a greater number as good species than he does.
("h/xjnvis SIb&T
Jhax- aton^
JJfrj79f.*^ir neat I
ANTELOPES. 147
instance of closely allied species occuiTing in two of the most widely separated portions of the
former great Africano-Indian continent.
Group 2. Catoblepas. — Two species. The two Guus, both South African.
Group •'! BrBAi.us. — Four species. Two peculiar to North Africa, one to East Africa (Mo-
zambique) and two to South Africa.
Group 4. Oryx. — Pour species. Two of them are found in the Nile district, one of which
extends eastwards into Arabia and Persia, and the other southwards to the Cape of Good Hope ;
the two others are also African, one being found in Senegal and the other in South Africa.
Grouji 5. Gazella. — Eight species. Tliese, like the last group, belong to the district con-
necting Asia and Africa, and are found partly in both ; one is Persian, two are Arabian, three
belong to the Nile district, Nubia, Sennaar, and Abyssinia, and two ro South Africa. This
distribution may have been the residt of an extension of species from South Africa, subsequent
to the land and water having assumed their pi'esent configuration.
Group 6. Tragei.aphus. — Four species. Two in the Nile district, two pretty gencrallj' dis-
tributed from Abyssinia to the Cape, one of them also in Guinea, and another sjjecics pecidiar to
West Africa.
Grouji 7. Antilope. — Five species. These, with one exception, are Asiatic species; one
being Indian ; two Thibetan or Chinese, and the range of another already mentioned (A. Saiga),
extending from Poland to Altai and Irkutsk. There is, however, one species from South Africa
(Bechuanaland) (A. melajipus, Lichf), whose presence there is anomalous.
Group 8. REnuNC'A. — Nine species, strictly African, and chiefly south and east African. The
east coast of Africa seems to have had much more unrestricted communication with the Cape than
the west coast, at any rate, greater affinity exists between the species of the two. In all classes
the majority of species which are found at the Cape extend their range up to Natal, Mozambique,
and even further, while on the west coast it is the exception to find them reaching Gaboon, Guinea,
or Senegal. It is so in this grouj). One species is found in Senegal, and another extends across the
Continent, and is found both in Senegal and Abyssinia, while, on the other hand, there are four Cape
species, and four Abyssinian, including the sp)ecies which is also found in Senegal.
Group 9. Oreotragus.* — Three species. All from the Cape and refeired to three genera, —
Oreotragus, Tkagulus, and Calotragus.
Group 10. Cepiialolophus. — Twelve species. This is a group, composed chiefly of diminutive
species peculiar to Africa, and remarkable from their a good deal resembling not only in their
external apj)earance, but also in having a long extensile tongue, the Mvntjacs and CIIE^ kotains of
south-east Asia. Blj'th thinks that the resemblance extends to the American Rodent Agoutis, if not
also to the smaller fossil Pachyderms, of the genus Lophiodon ; and there undoubtedly is a certain
similarity in the pig-like form and short, slender limbs, which prcjbably may indicate affinity
with the Lophiodons ; but if there is any with the Agoutis, it must be very distant and through the
Pachyderms themselves. The type is West African, six of the twelve species being found in
Guinea, Senegal, and Fernando Po, three on the east coast of Africa, viz. Abyssinia, Mozambique,
and Natal, two in South Africa, and one (the Nylghau), (which should perhaps scarcely be placed-
in the same group as the smaller species) in North India. This, again, is anotlier instance of au
African form being found in the Indian district.
* GlEDEL uses the uamc Tragulus for this section, employed for tlie Chevuotains, I have taken another of
being that of one of the genera ; but as that name is also the genera \^Oreoteagus) for the type of the group.
14S MAMMALS.
Group 11. Teihacerus. — One species, inhabiting Nepal, Bengal, &c.
CA:«Ei,npAKi)s. (Camel()I>ardai,i».¥..) (Map 39.) The only existing representative of tliis family
is the well-kno^vn Giraffe, which ranges from Nubia and Abj-ssinia on the east, and Senegal on the
west, southwards tlirough Central Africa, avoiding the highlands on the east, until it meets the
(tutposts of the white colonists at the Cape of Good Hope. I can find no account of its ever
having extended so far south as the Cape itself, and the mountainous nature of much of the old
settled country woidd probably act as a barrier against its progress if the climate did not.
Sparrnum, about 1772, speaks of it as inhabiting the interior in the north-west.*
M. Duvernoy has discovered fossil remains of what he considers a well-marked extinct species
at Issoudun, in the department of Indre in France, and a tooth was also found in Switzerland
by M. Agassiz. Remains of two extinct species of a remarkable colossal genus named Sivatheeium,
and nearly allied to the Camelopard, have been found by Falconer and Cautley in the Sevalik
formations in the Ilimmalayahs. I do not know whether M. Duverno}''s and Agassiz' determinations
of the European remains have received the endorsement of other palasontologists, but it is a case
where careful inquiry seems more than usually required. The genus is African and allied to the
Antelopes, and is not one whose existence in Eurojje should be readily admitted, while we should
feel as little disposed to question its having lived on the southern bank of the Sevalik Sea.
Nothing at all similar to the Giraffe has been found, either living or fossil, on the American
Continent.
* SrAURiiAN, Andrew, " Travels iu Africa," 1787.
149
CHAPTER XXII.
EUMINAN'IS coulilllicd : DEER — UEINDEER IXQUIRY INTO THEIR ORIGIN IN NORTH AMERICA,
GREENLAND, SriTZBERGEN, &C.
CERvm.E. Deer. (Map 32.) The fossil remains of Deer are niuncrons. Upwards of sixty
species, iucluding one or two extinct genera, of Deer, have been described, but a very large de-
duction must be made from this ninnber for double, treble, and (puidruplc employment of the same
species. The oldest remains are from the fresh-water mioceue in the department of Loiret, and
nearly corresiiond with the Muntjac of the Sunda Archipelago ; but although some remains have
been found in the miocene formations, it is in more recent deposits that the greatest number have
been discovered. Lund discovered remains of a sj^eeies in the caves of Brazil, and the caves of
Europe have yielded abundant remains of diffei'ent species, among which those of the Red Deer
the Fallow-deer, the Roebuck, the Moose, and the Reindeer, are most frequent. Of the latter in
particular, numerous bones have been found in Europe as far south as the south of France, in
post-glacial deposits of an age contemporaneous with man.
In Austria remains have been found of a large deer somewhat similar to the Reindeer, but
different from it in not having a brow antler, — and Owen supposes it to have been intermediate
between the Reindeer and the Elk (Moose). Two other extinct species also, without the brow
antler, but in which the antler is not palmate, have been described by Gervais from beds of
A'olcanic alluvium in the south of France.
The existing species of Deer are chiefly confined to the northern hemisphere, and most of them
frequent forests. There are none in Australia, nor are any found in Africa Proper, i.e. south of the
Sahara. The Fallow Deer, indeed, is found in North Africa in the Mediterranean District, but
that cannot be reckoned anything but a part of Europe located in Africa. There are nine in South
America ; North America has eight or nine ; Europe and Northern Asia, six ; and tlie East Indies
and the Indian Archipelago, nineteen or twenty (Java two, Sumatra three, and Borneo three).
In these three islands, too, is found the Muntjac, a small deer with largely developed upjDer canines,
which forms the natural passage from the true Deer to the Musk-Deer.
Irish Ei.k. (Cervvs Megaceros.) This extinct species was probably the finest cervine animal
that ever existed. Its horns have been found to measure ten feet apart from tip to tip. Not-
withstanding its name, it is not peculiar to Ireland, but is found in England as well as cm tlic
Continent.
It is now ver}' generally believed, although good authorities still demur to it, that whetlit-r the
former inhabitants of Ireland actually came in contact with it or not, it lived at a time wlien
man was already in existence. It may be, nev<?rtheless, and j^robably was the case, that if it
was a contemporary of man, it had become extinct before the Irish had a knowledge of letters;
at any rate, they have not left us the only indication of their acquaintance with it which we could
150 MAMMALS.
exjiect, viz., a name for it. Singularly enough, notwithstanding this, Mr. Wilde tells us that,
while the opinion of naturalists is unfavourable to its co-existence with man, that of antiquarians
is favourable.
Its primitive origin seems to have been European ; at least its remains have not been found
beyond the limits of Europe. If I am right in supposing nearly the whole animal and vegetable
life of Europe to have been extinguished by the glacial epoch, and to have been replaced by
immigration from Asia, it is possibly a modified descendant of one of the Asiatic species. From
the aj)pearance of the horns, we should most readily look to the Reindeer or Fallow-deer for its
relatives ; it is not an Elk, but a true deer, intermediate between the Fallow and tlie Reindeer,
and, according to Owen, is most closely related to the latter, both it and the Irish Elk having
more developed brow snags than any other species.*
In Ireland remains have been obtained from the counties of Fermanagh, Cavan, Ijoitrim,
Monaghan, Roscommon, Meath, and from the Shannon. Tliey liave usually been found in one
of two kinds of localities, cither in peat-bogs, or in a blue clay or a marl below the peat, and
it has been observed that the largest specimens have all come from the latter, leading to the
inference that this animal had been degenerating and diminishing in size as it approached our times.
Professor Owenf recognises a bone of the left antler of this deer among some mammalian remains
from the red clay of Suffolk, ^\•hich he considered of modern date. This is a solitary instance, and
may not be well founded.
Moose. (Cervus Ai.ces.) The Moose, or Elk, is found in the North of Europe, the North of Asia,
and the North of America ; so is the Reindeer, and as regards both we are met by the old difficulty,
viz. that of determining whether the individuals found in the Old World are of the same species as
those found in the New or not. It is well ascertained that the Elks found in Europe and Asia are
the same, and whether the Old and New- world animals are actually distinct or not, they are undoubtedly
very close to each other ; but the impression seems gaining groimd that they are distinct. Sir
John Richardson has instituted a very elaborate comparison between them, J and finds among other
specialties that the breadth of the face is greater in the European than in the -American indi-
viduals. Remains of this sj)ecies, as well as of the Reindeer, are found in Ireland.
Fallow Deer. (Cervus pama.) The native habitat of this beautiful little ornament of
many of our English parks is the Mediterranean district, — Spain, Sardinia, Italy, Greece, Asia
Minor, Syria, Egypt, North Africa. Pennant says that it was introduced into this country by
James I. from Norway, where he passed some time when he visited his intended bride, Anne
of Denmark ; and that lie brought it first to Scotland, and thence to Epping Forest and Enfield Chase,
to be near his favourite palace Theobalds. But seeing that its native country is so far removed
from Norway, it is probable that if it was introdviced by James I., it must have been from some
other country than Norway. No fossil remains of this species have been found in Ireland or
England.
Reindeer. (Tarandus rangifer.) Fossil remains of the Reindeer are found throughout the
whole of mid Europe. As I have mentioned in speaking of the Cave Lion, some authorities think
the fossil Rein different from the living. The remains, however, correspond very closely, and there
seems no sufficient reason for doubting their identity. That remains of the fossil sjiecies have been
* Owen's " PaliEontology," p. 373. J Richardson on the Fossil Mammals in the " Zoology
t Owen iu"Proc. Loud. Gaol. Soc." vol. xii. of the Herald," 1B54.
MIAP XXX r I
DEER all tlu crU'iiriti ptivt
REINDEER ■■
AMERICAN REINDEER MB!
Tar"
Z :^ j .-ontljnuvd' ljit<
RKiNnr.Ens. 151
chiefly, if not entirely, found in mid Europe, is probably due rather to the more favourable location
for preserving and finding them, than to the extinct species not having also lived more to the north,
as it does now.
It now inhabits the whole of the boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Its southern
limit is very nearly the isothermal line of 32° Fahr. more frequently extending a few degrees
to the south of it, than to the north. Its most southerly limit now is 50° N.L. viz. the southern
point of Kamtschatka, and its most northern is probably Spitzbergen.
It is also a native of Greenland, and used to be, and probably still is, plentiful there, —
both on the east and west coast. Otho Fabricius especially mentions it as an inhabitant of
the island of Disco, far up on the west coast. It is also found in Iceland, but not as an
aboriginal inhabitant. Sir G. Mackenzie informs us that in the year 1773 thirteen Reindeer were
exported from Norway for Iceland, only three of which reached the island. These were turned loose
into the mountains of Guldbringe Syssel, where they multiplied so greatly in the course of forty
years, that in various districts it was not imcommon to meet with herds consisting of from forty
to one hunfb-ed.* A happy future was anticif)ated for these animals. It was thought that
although in Lapland they were losers by their connexion with man, Iceland should make up for all.
There is in the interior a tract which Sir G. Mackenzie computed at not less than forty thousand
square miles, without a single human habitation, and almost entirely unknown to the natives them-
selves. There are no wolves ; the Icelanders would keep out the bears ; and the Reindeer, being
almost immolested, by man, would have no enemy whatever, unless they had brought with them their
own tormenting gad-fly. f The anticipation has not been realized. Lord Dufferin speaks of them as
any thing but common. J And Mr. Baring-Goidd says that they are almost confined to the north-
eastern part of the island, where they are in some numbers.^
Iceland is a fair illustration of what woidd be the result if immigration were alone relied on
for the peopling of islands. The only indication of its having possessed an aboriginal mammalian
Faima, is the Arctic Fox and a so-called economic Mouse, which I anticipate will turn out to be
the Greenland Lemming. These are the onl}' mammals which are not known to have been introduced ;
but as scarcely a year passes in which several Polar Bears do not arrive on the north coast
brought by icebergs or floes, there is no difficulty in supposing that a sufficiency of Foxes to
stock the island might have come with them. They could scarcely have come alone, because,
not being able to take their prey by swimming, they must have starved on the way. But if they
made the voyage on a large hununocky floe along with Polar Bears, they might have beeen able to
keep out of their grasp, and yet feed on any remains of fish or seals which the Bears may have
caught and left on the passage. The Lemming may have come in the same way. It thus appears
that three circumpolar animals are the only species which, unaided by man, have ever found
their way to this island ; and but for the exceptional advantages of transit by icebergs (which, of
course, are not enjoyed in warmer regions), the island must probably have remained as desert and
mipoopled by mammals as it had ever been.
It is a disputed point whether moi'e than one species of Reindeer exists. But there are several
* Mackenzie's " Travels in Iceland, in 181011," p. :;: Dufferin, Lord, "Letters from. High Latitudes,"
342. 185n.
t Ltell's " Principles of Geology," fir.st edition, 1832, § S. Baring-Godld, " Icel.ind," 1863.
ii. 154.
152
MAMMALS.
varieties — how far some of these deserve to be reckoned species, and if so, which of them, is a
m^ore difEcult question.
There is first the fossil variety ; next the Laphmd Reindeer, which is nearest to the fossil type ;
then the Siberian, which, although very close to the Lapland, differs in the character of the horns ;
moreover, there are two varieties in North America ; and one in Greenland and Spitzbergen. I
believe all these to be altered forms develojaed out of one stock, modified to an extent corre-
sponding with the degree of deviation of their respective climates from the original conditions
of existence of that stock. The following woodcuts represent the typical character of the horns of
the different kinds.
Fig. 1. Fossil Europeau Ruiudccr (Owen),
Fig. 1 represents a specimen of the fossQ species found in " pleistocene till," at Biluey
Moor, East Dereham, in Norfolk, copied from a figure given by Prof. Owen.*
MeUia, so long ago as 1780, pointed out the difference between the Lapland and the
Siberian individuals,! and gave us very good figures of both. Fig. 2 is a copy of one of his repre-
sentations of the Lapland Deer ; it seems to be that of a female, but full-grown, and niaj^ therefore
be assumed to be characteristic. The most of his and Schreber's figures give the brow-snags as
in this figure, only more horizontal in the males, but the majority of the figures, from the un-
developed palmation of the upper tjTies, were probably taken from young animals. Fig. 3, however,
is copied from a figure by Schreber,* which he says was taken from an animal six j'ears old. He
does not say whether it is from Lapland or Siberia, but making allowance for the greater develop-
ment which might be expected in an older animal, I should imagine it to be a Lapland individual.
Fig. 4 is a head, copied from Melliu's figure of the Siberian type ; and fig. 5, which is
* Owen's " Palieontology," p. 374, 1860.
+ Mellin, Zur Naturg. Rennthiere in " Gesellschaft
Naturfoi'sclicn, der Frcuiule." Schrifteu, 1780-3.
J ScHREBER " Saugethiere," 1805, and " Saugethiere
f ortgesetzt " von A. Ooldfuss and Wagner, 182G.
REINDEER.
153
taken from the illustrations of the Reindeer, in Sir W. Jardine's "Naturalists' Librarj'," is
obviously another figure of the Siberian form.
Fig. 2. Lapland Reindeer (Mdlln).
Fig. 3. Probably Lapland Reindeer (Srfii-t!<i:/-).
Fig. 6 is copied from Sir John Richardson's* .sketch of the Barren-Ground Caribou, Cervv.s
TARANDUS var. Avdicus very slightly altered to make it agree with specimens in my own pos-
session.
Fig. 4. Siberian Reindeer (MclUn). Pi?- 5. Siberian Reindeer (Jurdine).
* Riohard.50n's " Fauna Boreal. Amer." Part I., Mammals, 1829.
154
MAMMALS.
Fig. 7 represents the horn of the Woodland Caribou, and is copied from Professor Baird's
Mammals of the United States."
Fig. 6. Nurth American Barreii-Grouud Reiudccr (i?ic/iO/-tZ,sOrt).
Fig. 7. Nortli Americ.in Woodland Caribou {Balrd).
Fig. 8 is also copied from that work, and represents the horn of a specimen from the north
of Greenland.
Fig. 9 is copied from Mr. Lament's " Seasons with Sea-horses " and represents the Spitzhergen
type.
Fig. 8. Greenland Tiein leer (Baird).
Fig. f). Si»itzbergeii Reindeer (Zr/umji/).
; REINDEER. 155
The fossil aud Lapland types arc similar in the absence of palination and number of snags.
The Siberian differs from the Lapland in a greater breadth of horn, a greater number of
snags, and a general disposition to palmation, not shown, as in the American and Greenland tj'pes,
by a broad flat ploughshare, but by curved aud flattened snags.
The American Reindeer are now admitted by most naturalists to be not only distinct from
the Lapland Deer, but also to form two distinct species between themselve.s. These are the Barren
Ground Reindeer, or Caribou, and the Woodland Reindeer. The chief distinction between these
two is, that the adult Bari'cn-Grfiund Caribou has a flat, triangidnr, vertically jirojecting brow
antler, while the brow-antler of the Woodland Caribou is shorter, stronger, and less flattened. In
the Barren-Ground species the flat-liladed brow-antler springs sometimes from the right horn,
sometimes from the left. In many there is a blade from each side, and in a considerable nmnber
it is altogether absent ; the plate is in general widest at its extremity, and is set with four or
five points which are sometimes slightly recui'ved.*
The individuals inhabiting Greenland have brow antlers midway between those of the Barren-
Ground Caribou and tlie Woodland Caribou. They are not exactly the same as either, but liker
either than either the Lapland or the Siberian form. They have the triangular jn'ojecting blade ;
but its handle is longer and the blade smaller than that of the Barren-Ground Caribou, while the
blade is larger and the handle thinner and longer than that of the Woodland species.
The Reindeer found in Spitzbergen has the same kind of brow antler as the Greenland
specimens, but with the blade more develoj)ed and curved.
Mr. Alfred Newton, speaking of the Deer which he saw on his visits to Spitzbergen, says,
" These Deer are tolerably abundant. They are certainly smaller than the Ijapland Reindeer,
whether wild or tame ; and though I can hardly pi-ofess to speak generally on the subject, yet all
the antlers which I saw in Spitzbei'gen seemed to me to be slighter in the beam than the Conti-
nental race ; nevertheless, the j)oints being in old Stags considerably elongated, the expanse of
antler was not much inferioi'. The average type of a good Spitzbergen head is vei'y well rejire-
sented by the first figure in the 'Fauna Boreale- Americana ' (vol. i. jj. 240), of the so-called
Barren-Ground Caribou (Ckuvt's takandus, var. ARtTicis Bichardnoii), and it is probable that the
same causes which influence tlie development of the antlers in the Reindeer of the Barren Grounds
of North America, affect in like manner those of their Spitzbergen brethren." ISIr. Lauiont, whum
I have consulted on the subject, agrees with Mr. Newton in the resemblance wliicli tlie horns nf
the Spitzbergen Reindeer bear to those of the Amei'ican species.
Now, the resemblance between them is too constant, and, as will be seen by the figures, is
too considerable to be a matter of accident or coincidence. I cannot adopt the idea of the sauu-
phj'sical causes in different countries influencing the development of the antlers in the 8anu=?
direction. I can iniderstand cold or heat adding thickness to a fleece, or reducing or increasing
the dimensions of a horn, but shape and form are things which do not fall under tlie same
category. Similarity of form is, according to my view, to bo accounted for by affinity and nothing
else. Ui5on this princijjle, there must be nearer affinity between the Greenland and American
than between the Greenland and the Lapland deer, a circumstance which indicates a differenc^c
in the distribution of plants and of mammals in Greenland. Had it been (as one would at
first expect fi'om the position of Greenland) tlial its flora was more allied to that of Amci'ica
* KiCH.vRDSON, " Faun. Bor. Amer." 1839.
156 MAMMALS.
than to that of Europe, we should have received without surprise the additional fact that its
fauna and that of Spitzbergen also bore the American type ; but when we know tliat Greenland
bears a flora of a Scandinavian type, while the mammalian fauna of both it and Spitzbergen are
more allied to America, the explanation of such a conciu-rence of circumstances becomes beyond
measure puzzling, except upon the hypothesis of the geological changes which I liave ah-eady
endeavoured to explain.
No other point of resemblance between America and those lands has until recently been ob-
served. Nothing is said to indicate such in Dr. Hooker's essay on the "Arctic Flora;" on the
contrary, the flora of Spitzbergen is there treated by him as Scandinavian throughout, and his lists
bear him out in doing so. Dr. Malmgren,* however, has made a fresh comi^arison of the plants
of Spitzbergen, from a list which his own researches, added to the materials already published
by the late Sir W. Hooker and others, have enabled him to make more complete than any that
pre\'iously • existed ; and his comparisons show a greater degree of affinity between the flora of
Spitzbergen and North America than had previously been supposed.
According to him, ninety-three phanerogamous j)lauts have been found growing in Spitzbergen,
to which two noted by the translator of his paper may be added, making ninety-five, and on a col-
lation of the species found in Greenland, in Scandina^da, in Asia east of the Wliite Sea, and in
the North American Arctic Islands, Melville's Islands, &c., he arrived at the following conclusions,
viz., Firstly, that the Spitzbergen flora is most nearly related to Greenland. Secondly, that
the flora of the nortli coast of Spitzbergen (latitude 80° north), is very diSerent from that of
the west coast, and is most nearly related to the flora of the islands in Lancaster Sound, Bar-
row's Strait, and Melville Somid (latitude 74° north), the two having nearly an equal number of
species and almost seventy per cent of them common to both.
Of the 95 species hitherto found in Spitzbergen, 73 are found on the nortli coast, and 80 on the
west coarst, and of the 73, 60 are also found on the west coast.
The flora of Spitzbergen contains 71 species that are also found in Northern Scandinavia,
and 58 that are found in the American Arctic Islands ; but most of these are circumi^olar species,
and found both in Scandinavia and North America. The real test of afiinity between Spitzbergen
and the North American Islands is that all the 24 species not found in Scandinavia are with the
exception of 3, also found in the Arctic- American Islands, and whilst 5 of these are also found
on Nova Sembla and the land of the Samoyedes in Northern Asia, and 6 in the Taimyrland, there
remain 7, which seem to be found in Greenland as well as Arctic America ; and 6, which are
pecidiar to the Arctic- American Islands and Spitzbergen, being according to Malmgren foimd
nowhere else.
The question, therefore, in reality very much depends upon these 6 species ; but before cross-
examining them I shall note another fact which may perhaps be brought forward in favour of
the American connexion with Spitzbergen, and that is, that there is a possibility of a great land
stretching between them, commencing at Gillies' Land, which lies about fifty or sixty miles north-
east of Spitzbergen, and ending at Cornwall Land, north of Melville Island. Little is known of
this Gillies' Land except that it is a mountain land like Spitzbergen, and much frequented by
Wah-us. Mr. Lament thinks it probable that some rolled boulders of red granite which he ob-
* Newton in "Proc. Zool. Soc," 1864, 493. Foi-li." 1«62, pp. 229-268, translated in Dr. Sccuian's.
+ Ur. Malmosen in " Olfcrs af Kouigl. Vetenstap Acad- "Journal of Botany," 1864, p. 130.
INQUIRY INTO THEIR ORIGIN, ETC. 157
scrvid in Spitzbergen in positions wliich he I'oiild not reconcile with thoir coming from any other
quarter, must have come from that huid, and tliat it may t'orra part of a more extensive continent,
and the fact of all these special American species us well as the maj(jrity of the American species
which are found in other lands as well as America and Spitzbergen, occurring only on the north
coast of Spitzbergen, is a striking circumstance in favour of the possibility of the one country
having derived its species from the other.
Let us now see what is to be said ah altera parte. The six test species found nowhere but in
Spitzbergen and Arctic-America, are Parrya arctica, Draba paitciflora (which Malmgren says,
although cited from the Taimyrland, is not found in the Old World) ; Draba micropetala, Arenaria
Rossii, PoA ABBREVtATA and Hierochloa paucifi.ora. Now, three of these, Arenaria Rossii'
Parrya ARcrricA, and Hierochloa flexuosa, are quoted by Dr. Hooker, as found in the north-east
of Asia as well as Ajuerica, although he does not seem to have been aware of the fact of their
being found in Sj^itzbergen. He may be wrong in giving these localities, but until the point is
cleared up, it is plain that these three cannot be received as only found in America and Sjjitz-
bergen. Next, while Malmgren reckons Draba micropetala, Draba pauciflora, and Poa abbreviata,
as distinct species. Hooker records them as mere synonymes (not even as varieties) of Scandinavian
species, the two former of Draba alpina, and the latter of Poa flexuosa. " Who shall decide when
doctors disagree ?" It is, however, to be remembered, that a distinct variety found in two places
should carry nearly the same significance as to its common derivation as a distinct species
does. If these three are struck out, there remain none of the special species to countenance the
supposed relationship between America and Spitzbergen. Or if a composition is struck by "di-
viding the difference," we shall then have something like the proportion which I have pointed as
the probable amount received by Australia from India, by flotsam and jetsam, not quite two
per cent.
Reverting to the Greenland and Spitzbergen Reindeer, let us see if their claim of kindred to the
Barren-Ground Caribou stands on any better foundation.
The figures of the horn show us that those of the Greenland and Spitzbergen Deer certainly
resemble the North American species more than any of the rest, and furnish a fair ground for
speculating on a derivation from America; and if the reader will allow me, I shall state the
speculation on this point a little more in detail than I could well do in discussing the general
question of a miocene Atlantis.
1. The Reindeer camo into existence at the glacial epoch.
2. Europe on the retreat of the ice being very nearly wholly without life, and North America
entirely so except at her south - western corner, it is probable that the Reindeer, and those
boreal species which are widely distributed in Asia and Europe, drew their origin from Asia.
3. The Siberian form of Reindeer I suppose to be the primitive type, at least the oldest of those
we know. It is half-way between tlic European and the American, which is what we might expect
if it gave off these types, one to the right and the other to the left.
4. The type which established itself in Europe in the early days after the glacial epoch was the
Lapland form, as is shown by the fossil horn from Norfolk, which bears only such trifling deviations
from the normal Lapland type as might be expected in the same animal inliabiting the same district,
at some distance of geological time.
5. I have already explained, in speaking of the miocene Atlantis, the distribution of land and sea
which I supposed to have existed at the close of the glacial epoch. So far as it concerns us here, I
158 MAMMALS.
would only remind the reader that I gave reasons for holding that Greenland was then united to
Britain by Iceland, and the Faroe and Shetland Islands, and the continent by Denmark, and thence
southwards. It is plain that when Europe began to assume its present appearance the great northern
rivers which now fall into the Baltic Sea and German Ocean must have had an outlet ; and the ine-
qualities of the bottom of the sea show that this must have been by a continuation of the Baltic along
1 he western shore of Norway. When wo reach the north of Norway it was at first a matter of doubt
to me whether the then Baltic most probably emptied itself into the Arctic Ocean between Green-
land and Spitsbergen, or by rounding the North Cape and passing between Nova Zembla and Spitz-
bergen. At that time I did not know of the identity of the Spitzbergen and Greenland Reindeer,
I only knew that Greenland, Spitzbergen, and Scandinavia, had all one flora, wliich proved
nothing, but now we have circumstances in whicli Greenland and Spitzbergen agree, and in which
they differ from Scandinavia, and that turns the scale in favour of the outlet being to the east
of Spitzbergen. In support of the connexion of Spitzbergen with other lands — not specially to
Greenland, but gcnerallj' — we have the fact mentioned by Mr. Lament that the sea for a con-
siderable distance round Spitzbergen is very shallow, about twelve to twenty fathoms being the
ordinary depth in which the walrus were hunted.
6. The fact of Greenland possessing a European flora j^rovcs that its connexion with
Britain and Denmark continued sufficiently long after the close of the glacial epoch to allow plants
to spread from Britain to it.
7. The dispersal or spread of plants is more rajiid than that of animals, at all events it must
always precede that of animals. Until plants have established themselves there is nothing on which
hoibivorous animals could feed ; and until herbivorous animals come there is nothing for carnivorous
animals to feed on. It is quite in rule, therefore, that Europe, and Greenland as a part of it, must
have received its flora before its fauna.
8. The character of the flora of Greenland and Spitzbergen being in the main EurojDean, it
follows that the connecting stretch of dry land between Europe and Greenland was still above water
when the plants from the south colonized Greenland.
0. The character of the fauna is not European. It is circumpolar, or, more proiDerly speaking,
I'olar North American. There is the abo-^e modified connexion with the Reindeer. It has been
ascertained that American examples of the Polar Hare (Lepus glacialis) can be distinguished
from Scandinavian and Siberian examples by differences in the relative ^proportions of some of
the parts, as of the tarsus ; and on examination of specimens from Greenland they have been found
to correspond with the American proportions, rather than with the Old-world dimensions. An
American Lemming, Myodus Hudsonius, has been taken in Greenland, and the other animals
found in Greenland, also occur in America. More particular examination of individuals from
Greenland of every species, found both in the Old World and the New, is very desirable ; but
with the information which we have, we must take the facts as jjreponderating in favour of a
connexion with America, so far as regards the mammals. Moreover, as already said, the birds are
American ; and although birds can fly where plants and terrestrial mammals cannot, we know that
even migratorial birds discern and keep their own boundaries.
10. I therefore infer that the connecting land between Greenland and Britain sunk l)efore any
mammal had readied the former ; and that the break first took place between Iceland and the Faroe
Islands. The latter seem to have continued long enough united to Britain to allow its mammals to
reach them. Shetland and tliey both jsossess a British mammalian fauna on a reduced scale, as the
INQUIKY INTO TIIEIK UIMGIN, F:TC. 1;)9
reader will sec if ho turns to the Appendix and examines their special faunas there given. Iceland
on the other hand, has not a single mammal which has not been introduced by man except the Arctic
Fox and the supposed Lemming, and they, after having made their way from America to Green-
land, doubtless introduced themselves by travelling on ice-floes from Greenland.
11. Tlie fauna not having come from Europe, and being most intimately related to American
types, how did it reach Greeidand ? First, how did it get from Siberia to America ? We have
seen, while speaking of the distribution of plants in America subsequent to the mioceno epoch,
that there is reason to believe that a channel of communication by dry land in the line of Bhering's
Straits and the Aleutian Islands existed subsequent to the close of the glacial epoch. If that was
good as a bridge for plants to cross, it was equally good for mammals. The Siberian tj'pe, with a
broader brow antler than the Lapland type, may have sent across a host of its species, which, in North
America became, by the effect of the altered condition of life, changed into the Woodland Ground
Caribou, a form nearer the Siberian than the Barren-Grouiid Caribou, whose range runs obliquely
from Bhering's Straits to Lake Superior, in the direction of the isothermal line. That species
underwent another change when it passed out of its woodlands into desolate grounds to the north-
east of Slave Lake and west and north of Hudson's Bay, and gave rise to the typical Barren-
Ground Caribou with the triangular-bladed brow antler.
12. Although Greenland had by this time been eflfectually separated from America by Baflin's
Bay, in its southern parts, it is not so plain that a connexion may not still have existed to the
north. The space between Grinnell Land in America, and Washington Land in Greenland, at
the head of Baffin's Baj^ in 80° North longitude, is separated at Kennedy Straits by the most
trifling distance ; and we can T\'ell understand that if at a foi'mer time there was a land com-
munication thereabouts it would prove very useless to plants, few of which could live so far to the
north, but still might admit the passage of those which could bear the cold, as well as of the
Reindeer, and all the other American mammals which are found in Greenland. And such plants
are precisely the kinds which are found on the north coast of Spitzbergen, and which we should
now expect to find in the extreme north of Greenland. They are all of an extremely polar character,
and combined as they are with the strong infusion of species also found in America, I have come to
the conclusion that we must regard Greenland as ha^-ing had an extreme northern communication
with America after the glacial epoch. If we admit that, we should then find nothing more abnormal
in the character and distribution of its vegetation than we do now in America, where polar species
are gradually replaced as we go south by more temperate forms.
Red Deer. (Cervus Ei.aphus.) The range of this noble animal extends over the whole of
Europe, and over the north of Asia as far as Lake Baikal and the Lena. Its distribution was
equally extensive in the post-glacial ej)och, its remains being not rarely found in the drift ; in
peat -bogs, bone-caves, bone-breccias, and recent loam and marl deposits. In Britain it is now limited
to the Highlands of Scotland, and a few parks or forests in England, where it is protected ; as
Whittlebury and Saulcey forests. It was fcjrmerly plentiful in all the royal forests, and it was
it which furnished sport to our ancient kings. At Dartmoor Forest, in Devonshire, its numbers
were so great in tlie days of tlie present Duke of Bedford's grandfatlu r, Hiat the fariiicrs pe-
titioned his grace to rid them of them f)n account of the injury they did to the crops. The
Duke sent down his stag-hounds from ^Vo^u^•n, the forest cliases took phu-c, and tlic deer wcro
160 MAMMALS.
extirpated. So glutted was the neiglibourmg town of Ta^^stock with venison at the time, that
only the haunches were saved, and the rest given to the dogs.*
In Ireland, the Red Deer stiU roams through its native woods of Kerr}', and was known
in parts of Galway, especially among the Twelve Pins, and in Erris in the county of Mayo,
within the memory of the last generation. We gather that in ancient times it must have been
very abundant, not only from the traditions of the countrj' but from the curious corroborative
fact mentioned by Mr. Wilde in his paper above referred to, that immense quantities of the tips
of stags' horns have been discovered both in the great Cranmoge of Dunshaughlin, and also in
Dublin itself in sinking a sewer in the High Street. These bits of bone, which are from
three to live inches in length, were sawn off fi'om the remainder of the horn, which was in
all probability manufactured into sword and knife handles, the antlers of the Stag having
been largely used in the manufacture of these objects, and for spears and other purposes.!
Roe Deer. (Cervus Capreolus.) The range of the Roe extends over all Europe with the
exception of the greater part of Russia. It is scarcer in the northern countries, and is fast dis-
appearing in Scandinavia and Britain. It is more plentiful in the south, as iu Italy, Greece,
&c. It is said, I know not with what justice, to be now extinct in England. It certainlj^ is
not so in Scotland. Until within the last hundi-ed years, it used to be not unfrequently met
with on the wastes near Hexham in Northumberland, but at last dwindled down to a single
animal, which is said to have been killed by Mr. Whitfield, of Whitfield, in Northumberland,
about ninety years a go. 4:
There are six North American Deer besides the Moose and the Reindeer, resi^ectively, pe-
culiar to different rHstricts of that Continent. There is the Canadian for the north, the Virginian for
the east (east of the Missouri and south of Maine to the Gulf of Mexico). The Missouri or old
tertiary Nebraska sea again acts as a barrier here. The Virginian Deer does not cross it, but
it is replaced by something else which may prove to be only one species for the whole west,
or perhaps three species ; one or two for the district between the Missouri and the western
side of the Rocky Mountains ; and the other for the coast or Columbian district west s>f the
Cascade Mountains.
* " Eiiglisli Forests aiul Forest Trees," 1853, p. 116.
t Wilde, op. cit. in " Transactions Royal Irish Acad.," May, 1859.
t " English Forests and Forest Trees," p. 286.
u;i
CHAPTER XXIII.
RUMiNAXTS continued — musk-deer — chevbotains — anoplotheres.
Musk-Deer (Moschid.^). (Map 31.) In his monograph of the Mnsk-deer and Chcvrotains Dr.
Alphonse Milne-Edwards* has satisfactorily shown that the species of which they have usually been
composed should be diA*ided into two sections, the one consisting of the true Musk-deer of Northern
and Central Asia, the other of a small groujj of ruminants of Trojiical Asia, which he has denominated
Tragulid^b, after the genus Trac;ulus, of which they chiefly consist. Of the true Musk-deer, which is
distinguished by secretion of the musk of commerce, there is only one species (Moschus jioschiferus).
It is allied to the true Deer, but is distinguished from them by the absence of horns and the
presence of the musk-bag. Several species have been described, but these are all referred by Dr.
Milue-Edwards and Professor Brandt to one species, of which they are climatal varieties. Its range
extends throughout Central Asia, fiom the Altai to the basin of the Amour and shores of the
Pacific, and southwards through Tartarj' and Mongolia, Cashmir, Thibet, to the interior of Siam.
It seems a question whether the extinct genus, Dichobune, remains of two or three small Species
of which have been found in the eocene beds of the Paris basin, should be placed in this
family, or among the Axoplotherid.k. I have placed it amongst the latter, but there are
sufficient points of resemblance to both to allow it without much imputation of error to be placed in
either. We have seen that there was jirobably a passage from Europe to Australia, by south-east
Asia in the eocene times, by which the eocene flora .sjjreud all the way from the one to the other.
Here we seem to have an eocene mammalian form reaching almost, but not cpiite so far, stopping
at the Indian Archipelago and subsisting there until the present age. It seems to have sent off
a shoot (Hyomoschus) which had reached Africa. It may have lived in numbers in Asia until
the glacial epoch swept them away, and only one altered t^-pe, the Mosciiu.s moschiferus,
remains to show where they had been.
The representative of the Musk-deer in Africa is an aberrant species named HvoMOSCHrs
AQUATicrs ; inhal)itiiig the west coast of tropical Africa from Senegal to the Gaboon. Its name
implies that it is supposed to be an animal with aquatic habits, but this seems doubtful,
for the late Earl of Derby, who had living specimens in his menagerie at Knowsley, found that
they took no notice of the water, t Another species inhabited the south of France in the miocene
times, remains of which have been found in the miocene formations of Sansans in the department
of Gers. The chief structural peculiarity of the IIyo:moschus consists of the metacarpal bones not
being united, as in other ruminants, to form the cannon bone, an additional point of resemblance
* Dr. A. Milne-Edwahl'S, op. cit. See also "Nat. lli.st. Rev." Oct. 18fJ4, p. 49 j.
f " Knowsley Meuageric," p. 22, 1850.
Y
162 MAMMALS.
of tliis family to the SiiiDiE, for, as Dr. Milne-Edwards observes, if an isolated foot had been the
first portion found of the fossil animal without its living ally being known, it would certainly
have been referred to a form allied to the Peccaries (Dicotyles), a reference which might liave
led the students of geographical distribution to the erroneous inference that species of the South
American Peccary, in former days, also inhabited Europe. The corrected inference is, that an
animal, not a Peccarj', but having certain relations to the Peccary, did then inhabit Europe.
CiiEN'ROTAiNS (Teagulidjk). The distribution of the genus Tragulus is different from that of
the Musk-deer. It embraces five representatives, all found in the southern part of Continental
Asia and the adjacent islands. None of the TKAGULiDiE are found in Africa.
AnoplotheriDjE. (Map 43.) This family, although separated loinio infcrrallo from both, forms a
transition between the Pachyderms and the lluminants, and has been placed in the one order
by some authors, and in the oUicr by others. The opinion of the majority seems now pretty decided
that thev were Piuminauts. As compared with the Pachyderms, they were slender, and supported
ui)on long tliin legs, having two hooves like other Ruminants — in adtlition to which, some of
thorn had a small third lioof at the back of the foot. The dentition was peculiar and remarkable
in this, that as in the human species, and in it alone of living animals, the molar teeth come
close after the canine teeth without any interval. They had a tail nearly as long as themselves,
varied greatly in size, and are supposed to have affected marshy places, their remains being found in
places and in company which suggests this idea.
The genera into which the family has been divided, are the following, viz. : —
1. HopLOTiiERiUM,* Laiz, which contains among its species some of the smallest hoofed-
mammals known, animals no larger than a rabbit. Remains of sjjccies of this genus have been
found chicflj' in the middle tertiaries in France (Auvergnc, Boui-bon, &c.), but also in Switzerland
and Germanj.
2. CiiALicoTHERiuM, Kuup. Probably synonymous with part of Cainotherium. It contains
two sj)ecies about the size of a Ilhinocci'os, which have been found in the middle tertiary beds
of Eppelslicim.
3. DiCHODON, Owen. Found in England, in tertiary sand at Ilordle.
4. Anoplotheruim, Cnv. Animals of various sizes from that of a sow to that of a horse, and
in each extreme suggesting by their form a connexion on the one hand with the Tapir, and on
the other with tlie Musk-deer. Their remains have been found in the tertiary Paris basin, also
here and there in England, and Germany, and in the miocene beds of Sevalik, where Cautley and
Falconer found two species.
5. Xn'HODON, Cni\ Slim jVnoplotheres, with a long head, and long slender legs; they have
the' stature of the gazelle, and it has been thought probably lived after the same fashion. One
species has been found in the Paris gypsum, and anotlicr (doubtful) at IMontpolier.
6. DiCHOHUNE, Cai\ Small, three-toed species of Anoplothere. Their size may be inferred
from the names given to the different species, one being called Cervinum, another Leporinum, and a
third Mi;Rixr:M, after the Deer, Hare, and Mouse. I have alreadj- said that various authors think
Synon. Cycloqnathus, Microtheridm, Htj^gulus, ami part of Cainoiherium.
ANOPLOTHERES. 1 G 3
tliat tljis genus docs not belong to the Anoi^lotlicres, but to the Musk-deer. Do Blainvillc is of
tliis mind. They also have been found in tlic same formations as the above.
Two other doubtful genera come Iiere, Acotherui.um and Apiielotiieuium. They probably
belong to the genus DicnonuNE.
Dr. Leidy has detected in the remains from the Mauvaises Torres species which may be referred
to this family. They belong to his genera, Agrioch.v.rus and Oreodon, which arc remarkable
and very jjeculiar forms occupying a position in the wide interval between the recent Ruminants aiid
the Anoplotlicres.
164
CHAPTER XXIV.
ARTIODACTYLIAN NON-RUMINANTS SWINE PECCARY HIPPOPOTAMUS.
The non-Euminants consist of the Swine, (viz., the Peccary, the Sow, the Wart Hogs (Pha-
cocH^RUS and Potamochjerus), and the Babirussa) and the Hippopotamus.
(SuiD.E.) Swine, Babirussa, and Peccary. (Map 30.) This family, with the exeeiition of the
Peccary, is confined to the Okl World. Indeed, it is to be observed that not the Ruminants
alone, but the whole group of Pachyderms, whether in the past or the recent epochs, have always
been poorly represented in the New World.
There are several species of Hog, some of which may be distinct and good species, but on the
whole they are very doubtful. The Indian Wild Boar differs from the others in the number of its
dorso-lumbar vertebras ; but others are probably the wild offspring of the common Hog altered by
climate. The head-quarters of this family seem to be the East Indies and the Indian Archipelago
in which there are found in Celebes the Babirussa, in New Guinea the Sus Papuensis, in Java the
Sus verrucosus, in Java and Sumatra the Sus vitt.^tus, and in Borneo Sus barbatus, besides two
other wild species according to Mr. St. John. In Africa are found the Wart Hogs, forming
the sub-genus Phacoch.erus. They occur in South Africa, and also in Abyssinia and
West Africa ; but not north of the Saharan desert. The Swine when they break out into new
species seem to indidge the most grotesque vagaries — the Babirussa and the Wart Hogs being
two as abnormal and extraordinary -looking creatures as one would wish to see. The fact of
Africa and the Indian Archipelago being alike the scene of these saturnalia, is another grain of
evidence that an ancient connexion once existed between them.
Peccary. — (Dicoty'i.es.) Swine are represented in America by the Peccary. The genus contains
two species only, — Dicoty'les torquatus, the Collared Peccary, and D. labiatus, the white-lipped
Peccary. Dr. Baii'd mentions that the former has a much wider range in America than is supposed
by European systematic writers. In Johnston's " Physical Atlas " its most northerly limit is marked at
Guatemala ; but it extends aU through Mexico (one of its provincial names being the Mexican Hog),
and even as far north in the United States as the Red River of Arkansas, in latitude 34° North. Its
western limit in North America is not ascertained, although it is said to be found in part of
California. It extends through South America from the Caribbean Sea to the Straits of Magellan.
I can find no notice of its having been seen west of the Andes, south of Guayaquil ; north of
that port it occurs on both sides of the mountains. The other species, D. labiatus, or white-lipped
Peccary, is confined to the forests of South America, and does not reach so far south as the open
plains of La Plata.
America is bettor supplied with fossil forms of this familj' than with recent. Thej' are chicflv,
Dicoteles
PfiascochoeriLS.
Other spetitv oTSwcne.
iiirropoTAMrs. 165
if not all, from iiiioccnc formations. In the Old World the following fossil genera are of most im-
portance, viz. ExTELonoN, Ch.eropotamus, Hyothekium, Adapts, besides fossil species of the present
genus Sus. Of some of tlicso, representative genera have been found in the fossilifcrous beds of
the Mauvaises Terres.
HiPPOPOTAAius. (Map 29.) The Common Hippopotamus (H. amphibius) is found in (he Nile,
the Niger, the Senegal, and most of the rivers of South Africa. Many of them are separated
from each other by vast tracts of arid desert, across which it is not easy to conceive how an
animal, so dependent upon water for existence, could ever have passed, unless at some former
i:)eriod what is now sandy plain were plashy marsh, a metamorjihosis whicli we know to be
periodically occurring in similar ground, and under not very dissimilar circumstances in some
parts of Central Africa, and in Australia at the present da}'. Attempts have been made to
separate the Hippoijotamus of tlie South of Africa from that of Abyssinia and Senegal, but the
separation has not been adopted by naturalists. Another smaller but quite distinct species has
been found in tlie River St. Paul, a few degrees north of the Equator, in Liberia, "West Africa.
It has only one pair of incisors in each jaw instead of two, and has been described by jSIr. Morton,
of Philadelphia, under the name of H. minor. The species rests upon two crania, which are all
that liave yet reached the hands of osteologists, but tlie characters arc so marked tliat tlie species
has since been erected into a separate genus by Dr. Leidy under the name of Chceropsis
LiBERiExsis. A species, spoken of inider the name of Succatyro-, has been at various times talked
of as still existing in the Sunda Isles. Marsden mentions it in his " History of Sumatra ;" but
there seems no ground for the statement. It is, doubtless, a perversion of the Tapir.
The range of the Hippopotamus in past times was more extended than at jiresent. No
trace of it, however, either li\'ing or fossil, has been found in America. Fossil remains
of several species have been found in the Sevalik miocene beds, and in pliocene and post-
pliocene deposits over the greatest part of j\Iid and South Europe. It appears to have been
plentiful in France, and not scarce in Belgium and the south of England. Great numbers of
remains have been found in Algeria, in Sardinia, Corsica, Italy, more esjDecially in the Val
d'Arno, but the quantity found in Sicily vastlj- surpasses that found anywhere else ; in fact, such
enormous quantities of the bones and teeth occur there, that for a time the)' were exported in
ship-loads to France and England for making lamp-black and manure, until it was discovered
that they were so far fossilized as to have lost their gelatine. " In 1829," says Dr. Fal-
coner, " there was a great demand for the manufacture of lamp-black for sugar-refining.
The superficial bones of the San Giro cavern* were collected in large quantities, and exported
to England and Marseilles. Professor Ferrara states tliat within tlie first six months four hundred
quintals were procured from San Giro. The great majority belonged to two species of Hippopotamus.
In one heap out of several ship-loads sent to Marseilles, De Christol, an able palaeontologist, had found
that in a weight of thirty quintals all the bones belonged to Hippopotami, with the exception of
a few of Bos and Cem(S."f Dr. Falconer believed these immense quantities to be the accumu-
lations of a series of generations. An interestinff circumstance connected with the remains of
the Hippopotamus in Sicily is that Dr. Falconer and Baron Anca found some of them in
* " Grotto di San Cii-o," or " JIare Dolce," at the foot of Jtonto GrifTone, about two miles from Falermo.
t FALCONEn, ia " Journal of the Geological Society," 1860, 101.
166 MAMMALS.
company with flints in forms evidently worked by the hand of man, and with the remains
of the existing African Elejjhant. These were discovered in the Grotto de Maccagnone, near
Palermo ; and it is an almost inevitable inference, that the Hippopotamus and other extinct animals
found there were contemporaries of man. The presence of the bones of these animals in Sicily
seems to imply the existence of dry land between Sicily and Africa at a period when man was
already an inhabitant of Europe. There is a subaqueous bank between Sicily, Malta, and Cape Bon,
which is doubtless the remains of such a former connexion. As Mr. Horner put it, in his anni-
versary address as President to the Geological Society in 1861, " There raust have been a continent
now submerged, with the exception of those parts of it that now form Sicily, Malta, and Gozo,
through which a great river flowed, in whose waters vast herds of these monstrous animals swam,
and on whose marshy banks they bred for successive generations."* — Perhaps there is no neces-
sity to say " a continent now submerged," but certainly there was dry land.
The species of Hippopotamus which lived in these countries is thought by De Blainville to be
the same as the existing H. AMPiiiiiius. It is generally known, however, under the name of
H. MAJOR, the name given to it by Cuvier, who, however, made the mistake of describing it three
times under difierent names, his species H. maximis and H. antiquus being now regarded as mere
varieties referable to age or nutriment. The species found in the Sevalik formations are j)erfectly
distinct species (II. Sivalensis, Falc, &c.) among which number either the II. major or a closely
allied species also occurs ; and a fossil tusk has been received from Madagascar, where no Hippo-
potamus now occurs.
When information as to the fossil fauna of Daricn was first received, remains both of the Hippo-
potamus and Sow were said to have been found there. This was afterwards negatived ; so that
the Hippopotamus still remains peculiar to the Old World.
* "Proc. Geo. Soc," 1861.
167
CHAPTER XXV.
MULTUNGULA — PAL.^OTHERID.E NESODONTIDiE MACRAUCHENIA TAPIRS.
PaLjEOTiiertb.e. This foiuilj' iis the antecedent race to, and partakes of the characters of both
the Tapir and Rhinoceros. It makes its appearance at the beginning of the tertiary ejjoch, when
neither Tapir, nor Rliinoceros, nor Horse existed, and these latter appear to succeed the Pal^other-
iBJE as their representatives. The family does not extend beyond the middle tertiary epoch, and
exactly here occur the first traces of the living genera which are allied to it and have replaced
it. It is as if these forms were developed out of it.
The bones of the face furnish indications that the animals possessed a short proboscis, and
perhaps chiefly on that account they have usually been placed in the same family as the Tapirs ;
but if that is to be done, the Rhinoceros must follow, and as it is desirable to break the order up
into one or two families, I have followed Burmeister, and placed the Pal.t:otherid.e as a distiiu't
family beside its descendants. The genus PAL-iiOTiiEiiiuji was originally founded by Cuvier on
remains discovered in the eocene beds of the Paris basin ; and it and the Anoplotherh'm are better
known to the general public than most extinct species, from his restorations of the animal, having,
as it were, infused life into the dry bones, and placed the idea of it before their minds invested
\vith a local habitation, instead of leaving it, like most others, an empty abstraction and a name.
A number of species (ten or twelve in all) have been found in the older and middle tertiary
deposits of Middle Europe.
Until the discovery of the miocene deposits of Nebraska, the Pal.^otherid.ts were supposed
to be confined to Europe. In these beds, however, have been discovered the remains of an animal
which undoubtedly belongs to the family, if not to the genus, and which is still more remarkable
than any species that have been found in the Old World. It is named Tit-^notherium by Leidy,
and well deserves its name, for although only portions of the skeleton have been found, if the animal
preserved the same relations of size in its parts as PAi.yEOTHERiuM magnum, it must have been
twice the height of the Rhinoceros of Java. Its head aluno must have been six feet in length. Dr.
Evans states of one specimen, " A jaw of this species was found, measuring, as it lay in its matrix,
five feet along the range of the teeth, but in such a friable condition that only a portion of it could
be dislodged."* And "a nearly entire skeleton of the same, animal was discovered in a similar
position, which measured, as it lay imbedded, eighteen feet in length and nine feet in heiglit."t
In the same group, three or four other extinct genera are placed, viz., Lophiodon, Ciir. (eight
species), Coryphodon Car. (one species), Aktiiracotherium, Ci(r. (four species), which embrace
several other genera which by some are thought to have been proposed on insufficient grounds ;
such as Tapikotuerium, Paciiyxolopiius, Tapirulus, Listriodon, &c., &c.
* LEmy, " Extiuct Fauiui of Nebraska," p. 77. + Leidy, up. cit. p. 78.
168 MAMMALS.
The species of tLese are all from the middle tertiaries of Europe or one or other of them, and
have been found in England, France, German3% Spain, and Italy.
NesodontiDvE. The reader may here expect to find two peculiar animals, the Toxodon and
Hyrax, which are usually ranked among the Pac:hyderms. They appear to me to belong to the
Rodents, and I have placed tlicm as distinct families in that order. The grounds for doing so
will be found stated under the Rodents. During the expedition of the " Beagle " Mr. Darwin
discovered some remains at Bahia Blanca and on the banks of the Sarondis, a small stream entering
the Rio Negro about one hundred and twenty-one miles north-west of Monte Video, in South
America. Nothing but skulls, more or less imperfect, were found, but there were sufficient
remains of these to enable Professor Owen to characterise two genera, the first of which he
named Toxodon, with one species ; and the second, Nesodon, with four species.
Professor Owen combined these two into an order which he called Toxodontid.e, but
Burmeister has detached the genus Nesodon from it, and proposes to establish it as a
separate order, and in a ditfcrent position in the arrangement. Tlie Toxodoxs as just men-
tioned I carry to the Rodents. The genus Nesodon I keep here. It has a very different dentition
from Toxodon, viz., three incisors and a small canine in each side of the jaw, and is considered
by Burmeister, who has lately published his views on the subject, as more akin to the genus
Macr.vuchexia. I have adopted his suggestion, but we know so little of them, that whatever
course we take regarding them is almost certain to be disavowed by Nature when we are at
last fortunate enough to hear her speak, that is, when more perfect remains of the sjjecies
arc discovered. This has been eminently the case with the Macrauchenia, mentioned be-
low, and will always be .so ^^•here we attemjit to supply a scarcity of facts by an abundance of
conjectures.
Although four species of this genus have been described our knowledge of them is
almost entirely confined to the teeth. There is a small canine tooth, and three incisors, and seven
grinders on each side of each jaw. One species, N. imbricatus, appears to have been of the size of
a Lama ; another, N. Sullivani, of that of a Zebra ; N. ovinus, of that of a Sheep ; and N.
MAGNUS, of that of a Rhinoceros. Some of these dimensions, however, are calciJatcd from very
imj)erfect materials, the last for example, from a molar tooth.
Macrauchenia. Professor Owen, who first described this animal from some vertebra; and other
fragmentary portions of a skeleton, obtained by Mr. Darwin at Port St. Julian, in Patagonia, re-
ferred it to the order Pachydermata, but he thought that its cervical vertebra; showed marked
affinities to the Ruminants, and especially the Camels.* M. Gervais, in tlie " Zoologie " of
Castelnau's expedition, did not see any resemblance to the Cajiei.id.e, but regarded it as a
Perissodactylian Pachyderm, the structure of the foot being nearly the same as that of the Rhino-
ceros and Tapir. Mr. Darwin himself partly adopted both views. He says that it is fully as large
as a Camel, and belongs to the same division of the Pachydermata as the Rhinoceros, Tapir, and
Palixiotherium ; but in the structure of the bones of its long neck shows a clear relation to the
Camel, or rather to the Guanaco and Llama. f
Subsequently to this, remains of another species, consisting, however, of only two very imperfect
t Owen, "Zoology of the Beagle." § Darwin's Journal, sccoud edition, p. 172. ISl.").
ray a Saii limited :I-uJi
r n- { Sat'r.ic.icd; Ijdt
j
*■
TAPIRS. 109
nnd mutilaled portions of the skull, were discovered iu 1859, in the copper-miiio of Santa Itosa, in
Bolivia. This species has been named by Professor Huxley Ma(kaucheni.\ Boi.ivie.xsis. From
the remains examined b}' him, he conceived that it proved " that when they were imbedded, there
lived in the highlands of Bolivia a species of Mackaiichen'ia, not half as large as the Patagoniaii
form, and having proportions nearly as slender as those of the Vicugna, with even a lighter head :
and it is very interesting to observe that, during the probably post-plioecne epoch, a small and a
large species of a more or less Auchenoid mammal ranged the mountains and the plains of South
America respectively, just as at present the small Vicugna is fouTid in the highlands, and the large
Guanaco in the plains of the same Continent."*
Meantime, M. Bravard, well kimwu for his palaL'onldldgical laboui's, had, in 185(1, been fortunate
enough to obtain a perfect skull of the animal, as well as some other portions of the skeleton, from
near Buenos Ayres. This has formed the subject of a memoir by Professor Bui'meistcr, ai'ter
Bravard's untimely death in the fatal earthquake of Mendoza had arrested a work on the fossil
fauna of La Plata, on which the latter was engaged.
Professor Burmeister's better materials have enabled him to unravel its affinities, and he con-
siders that its place is between the Pal.eothertd.t; and the Tapirs. Notwithstanding this,
however, I imagine osteologists will not readily abandon the idea, suggested by the ruminant
character of its cervical vertebra; and long neck, of its having a certain amount of connexion with
the Camici.id.t;. A pachyderm with a long neck is an anomaly, and seems inconsistent with the
typical idea of the animal. It is entirely in deference to Prof. Burmeister's opinion that I place
the genus here. .
Tapirs. (Tapirid,?;.) (Map 44.) There are three existing fonns of Tapirs, all formed in the same
mould, and yet readily distinguished by external characters.
The first species (Tapirus Americanus) is entirely of a brownish-black colour. It has a
very wide distribution in South America, extending from east to west, from the foot of the Andes,
that is, the inner or eastern range (the range known by the name of Cordillera being the western),
to the Atlantic Ocean, and from north (o south, i'rom Central America to Buenos Ayres.
Another smaller South American species, T. Roulini (T. vii.losus, Fisc/i.) also bniwn-black,
inhabits the higher regions of the ranges of the Andes at an altitude of seven or eight thmisand
feet, and possesses pecidiar interest from being clothed with long, thick, close, felted, blackish-brown
hair, giving us an instance exactly corresponding to the warm coating of the species of Pachyderms
which have been adapted for living in cold climates. The Mammoth had a ponderous fleece of
long luiir ^and felted wool ; and the northern lUiinoccros was also woolly-haii'cd. ^Viid liere, whei'e
the conditions of its life call for the provision, we have their congener, the Tapir, similarly protected.
The third sj^ecies, T. Indicits, distinguished by the posterior half of the body being white, is
confined to Sumatra, Malacca, and the south-west province of China. It lias been said to be found
in Borneo. Mr. Spencer St. John, indeed, classes it with the Elephant and Rhinoceros as there
found, but I can hud no sufficient warrant for this. I shall discuss the value of his statement
when we come to the Elephant.
Fossil remains of species of Tapir have been found both in America and lilurope. Lund found
one in the bone-caverns of Brazil. In Texas and Kentucky remains have been found, ealhd by
* Huxley, iu " .louriuil of Geolog. Society," xvii. p. S3.
170 MAMMALS.
Harlan aud otlioTs T. MAsroDONToinES and T. giganteu.s, but which, according to Leidy, cannot
be distinguished from the bones of the living species of iSoutli America.
In Europe, the' tertiary sands of Eppelsheim and the brown coal of Breber in Croatia, have
produced remains of a species named T. pkiscus. Teeth and fragments of other supposed species
have occurred in the Swiss Molassc ; and the tertiary deposits of Montpelier, the Issoire, Puys de
Valay, &c., have furnished another (T. Ahvakensi.s).
171
CHAPTER XXVI.
MXTLTUNGUI.A COntillHl'd NASICORNIA (kHINOCEROs).
Rhixoceros. — (ilap 46.) The distribution of the species of Rhinoceros corresponds with their
structural athnity. The characters chosen for chissification by some authors no doubt fail to show
this, but that is the fault of their selection of characters, and is not due to the absence of good
structural distinctions. For example, Dr. Giebel * divides them into species with two horns, species
with one horn, and species without horns ; an arrangement which has the effect of making a jumble
of all the species, Asiatic and African together, and, moreover, has no good structural foundation
on which to rest. No doubt the bones of tlic skull have a certain relation to the horn, being
formed so as to support it ; but the number of horns does not materially affect this ; the horns
are mere agglutinations of hair ; and in very old individuals of the two-horned species, both in
Africa and Asia, a third smaller horn sometimes makes its appearance. Classification on such
a basis could not be expected to lead to any true combination of affinities.
Characters such as the possession of "permanent incisors in both jaws," and "no permanent
incisors in the upper jaw," have a very difi'orent significance and value, and separate the Asiatic
species entirely from the African; the Asiatic having incisors in the upper jaw, and the Atrican
none, or only milk teeth, which disappear early.f
Of living species, five African and three Asiatic are known. The African are three black
ones and two white. 1. The Rh. Africanus {olim bicorxis, the Borele of the Cape colonists). 2.
The Rh. keiti.oa Smith, a second black species. 3. Rh. cucullatus Wagner, from the High-
lands of Ethiopia. 4. The "White Rhinoceros, Rh. simus Biitrh. ; and 5. A second white species,
Rn. OswEi.i.ii E/Ziot ; all with two horns. These African species fall natuT-ally into two groups
— those which browse on trees and those which graze, distinguished readily by a jirehensile or
non-prehensile upper lip. There may be a sixth with only one horn. Mr. Edwaid lUylh, in his
paper "On the Living Asiatic Species of Rhinoceroses," says, "Sir Andrew Smith assured me
that he had been repeatedly told by the natives that such an animal occurred in the regions
north w:ird of the tropic of Capricorn." J And Mons. F. Fresnol, then Consul of France at Jidda
(Djidda),§ some thne since published an elaborate letter, " Sur rexistence d'luie esp6ce Unicorne
de Rhinoceros dans la partie tropieale de rAfritpie," the infonnati.ni In \\lii(!i may very possibly
be well founded.
♦ fiiebcl, D. C. G. "Die Siiugethicre in Zoologisclier I E. Blytii, in " .Toiirn. A.siat. Soc.'" IS(;2. Separate
Anatoraisclier and Palajoutologisctior Bezithung." — Loip- I'opy, p. 3.
zig, ISr)!), vol. i. 197. § FRKSNKr,, iu '('(iniptrs Renilus," toin. xxvi. (1818), p.
t Van der Hoeven, " Haiulljuuk of Z .ology." Claiku'a iM.
Translation, 1858, p. ()31.
172 MAMMALS.
These are all iVmiid in Africa proper, that is, south of the Sahara. None arc fonnd in North
Africa. The Borele ranges over the whole of the west and south of Africa, from the Sahara, through
Congo, to the Cape. • It does not appear to extend into Abyssinia. The other species, so tar as yet
known, more affect the east and centre of the continent than the west.
The Asiatic species are — 1. The great one-horned species, Rii. Indicus (oll)ii Rh. unicokms*),
which, according to Mr. Blyth, is now limited to the Tcrai region at the foot of the Ilinimalayahs
and valley of the Brahmaputra (or province of Assam). 2. A smaller one-horned species, which was
formerly believed to be confined to Java (Rh. Sondatcus, Ilornf., oUm Rh. Javanicus, Cuv.), but has
been lately satisfactorily shown by Mr. Blyth to extend from the mainland by Malacca to Burma into
India. It appears, indeed, from his investigations, that the species usually supposed to be the Indian
Rhinoceros, in contradistinction to the Javanese, has, in point of fact, been all the time the latter
species, while the true large Indian species is confined to the limited sub-IIimmalayan territory above
mentioned. The third species is the Rh. Sumatranus, formerly thought to be confined to Sumatra,
but now ascertained by ]Mi-. Blyth to range alongside the Rn. Sonuaicus in the Indo-Chinese country,
keeping towards the east, while the latter holds more to its west or Burnian side.
Whether the Rh. Sumatranus occurs in Borneo is a disputed question. Mr. Blyth treats it as
perfectly jiroved, but he himself has no personal knowledge on the subject. So slight is the evidence
in suppoi't of it that Mr. Spencer St. Johnf only says, " Among the principal animals which frequent the
forests of Borneo may be mentioned the Elephant, Rhinoceros, the Tapir," &c., " the first three have
not been seen by Europeans," and again, " The Rhinoceros is a rare animal, though it is reported in
some of the wilder parts of the country, and the existence of the Tapir rests upon the same testimony !"%
What testimony ? He has just said that there is none. " 7/ /.s rryjor^'^/ " is usually considered the
reverse of tcstiinoiii/. I can find no better authority, and until I do I cannot agree with Mr. Blyth in
admitting that either the Rhinoceros or the Tapir are inhabitants of Borneo.
While I render all homage to my friend Mr. Blyth's admirable powers of discrimination in
matters falling under his own personal observation, I do not think him nearly so safe a guide in
questions depending upon testimony or report. Nothing delights him more than to get hold of
some old tradition or natives' report, or to untorab some black-letter notice of antiquity regarding
some unknown animal, and to bring his great knowledge to bear in expiscating its meaning and
determining the species thereof. I rather demur to some of his determinations of this kind because
I think nothing but deliberate examination b)' a competent naturalist ought to be received, and
that it matters little whether a report comes from a native or a European, if they are not
conversant with the subject on which they speak. An instance illustrative of the idiosyncracy
which leads Mr. Blyth to swallow with zest everything that comes seasoned with obscurity
and natural history, occurs in his "Memoir on the Living Asiatic Species of Rhinoceros"
above referred to, so excellent in all that has come within his own pei'sonal observation. It is with
* Although I follow the nomenclature now in general embodies an nnti'iilh (as Chryaomda Americana for a
use, I must acknowledge that I see no good i-eason for Mediterranean species), that is a different thing. Although
altering the old well-known names unicornis and bicor>iis. we cannot have the whole truth, let us at least have
merely because we now know more than one one-horned nothing liut the truth even in coijnomina rervm.
or one two-horned species, or to alter a geograpliicil t " Life in the Forests of the Far East," by Spencer
name because its range proves wider than was supposed — St. John, vol. ii. p. :!44. Limdon, 1803.
names have long ceased to be scientific descriptions, and % Siiencer St. John, op. cit., vol. ii. p. i .(i.
are now simply cognomina reriim. If, indeed, a name
iniiNorKuos. 173
regard to another species of Rliinoceros said by Sir Stamford Raffles to exist in the forests of Sumatra.
" There is," says Sir Stamford, " however, another animal in the forests of Sumatra never j^et noticed,
which in size and character nearly resembles the Rhinoceros, and which is said to bear a single horn.
Tliis animal is distin<2;uished by having a narrow whitish belt encircling the body, and is known to
the natives of the interior 1)y tin- name of Tciniii. It has been seen at several places, and the descrip-
tions given of it by people quite unconnected with each other coincide .so nearly tliat no doubt can be
entertained of the existence of such an animal. It is said to resemble in some particulars the Buffalo,
and in others the Badah or Rhinoceros. A specimen has not yet been procured, but I have several
persons on the U)ok out, an<l liave little doubt of soon being able to forward a more accurate descrip-
tion from actual examination. It should be remarked that the native name Tciniii has until latelj'
been understood to belong to the Tapir. It is so applied at Malacca and by some of the people at
Bencoolcn. In the interior, however, where the animals are best known, the white-banded Rhino-
ceros is called Tciinii, and tlie Tapir GiiidoJ, and by some Brilii-a/ii," &c. Mr. Blyth sets himself to
work to account for this animal never yet having been found, but it never seems to have occurred
to him to question its existence or to doubt Sir Stamford's judgment on the subject, and yet what
does his statement come to ? That in Sumatra there is an animal something between a Buffalo
and a Rhinoceros, with a band of white round the body, and called by the natives a Tapir. Why,
what on earth should it be but a Tapir? One is surprised at Sir Stamford Raffles accepting
the fable, and still more at Mr. Blyth following his example.
All the three Asiatic sijecies are shown by Mr. Blyth to jiossess two typical forms or characters,
a broad and a narrow-skulled variety ; and it is to the existence of these two varieties that he ascribes
the misapprehensions as to the range of the true Rh. Indicus and Rh. Soxdaicus. However that
may be (and his inferences seem very fair), I draw attention to this variation in their characters for
another purpose. He suggests, seeing the amount of variation which exists in the living species,
extending into other points besides the breadth or nari'owness of the head, as, for example, the horns
— the remarkable horn in the British Museum on which Dr. Gray had founded his species Rh.
Crossii, turning out to be merely a magnificently-developed specimen of the anterior horn of Rh.
SuMATKANUs — that probably a// the fossil species may not be good species, and that possibly the
enormous remains found by Falconer and Cautley in the Sivalik formations may in j)oint of fact be
the vestiges of "magnificently-develojjed" individuals of the still living Indian and Sumatran species.
He says, "The affinity of the extinct European species with Rh. Sumatran us has been long ago
remarked by Cuvier and Owen. The Sevalik Rh. platyrhinus of Cautley and Falconer is just Rn.
Sumatraxus enormousl}' magnified ; and the Rh. Sivalexsis of the same naturalists comes exceed-
ingly close to the existing IxDicus with the narrow form of skull, and their Rh. pal^i:ixiiicus to the
same wth the broad form of skull. Can it be the identical species which has lived down to the
present time? The discrepancy is, at least, not greater than subsists between Bisox priscus and the
modern Zubr, which are considered h\ Owen to be one and the same."*
Besides the fossil species found by Cautley and Falconer in theSiviilik formations, roni;iins of the
fossil Rhinoceros have been found in vast nmnbors all over Europe and Asia. No other animal,
unless perhaps the Mammoth, has left so many traces of its existence. From the Siberian shores of
the Icy Sea, southward to the Sevalik Hills, tliey have been found in greater or less abundance, as
well as from the Straits of Cibrallar on the east, at least as far as the banks of the Lena, on
* r.lvtli. op. cit. J). 7
174 MAMMA r,s.
the west. Mr. Dawkins, in an article in the "Natural History Review" (July, 1865), while in
the text he gives 72° N. Lat. as the northern limit of these remains, seems disposed in a note to
admit that their range pj'obably extended, as I have put it, to the actual shores of the Polar Sea,
wherever that might be ; for we must remember that in the daj's we are speaking of, it rested
probably more to the south of its present limit. Ho says, "Probably also in the higher northern
latitudes of the islands of New Siberia and the liiichow group, the remains of the Tiehorhine
Rhinoceros are to be found in the vast accumulation of organic remains, of which, as the energetic
Russian explorer Sannikow writes, the irholc so/7 of the first of Ihe Tjiichow Islands appears to consist.
The occurrence of large quantities of the bones and skulls of Oxen, Buffaloes, Horses, and Sheep,
associated with the Mammoth on the hills of the interior of New Siberia (Lat. 75°'6), led him to infer
that, at the time when the island supported such vast herds of these animals, the climate must have
been much milder than at present, when the icy wildei'ncss produces nothing that could alford them
nourishment. See Wrangel's ' Siberia and Polar Sea,' 1840. Edit. Major Sabine. Introduction."*
Whether there may have been a warmer climate in these icy regions at some former period or
not is a question on which these heaps of bones throw no light, for it is plain that they are not the
quiet grave3rard of parishioners who lived and died upon the spot, but accumulations brought from
elsewhere by ice and rivers or floods. The very vastness of the accumulations composing the whole
soil forbids the idea of their being remains of the animals that lived and fed whore they died, and the
fact that frozen carcasses have been found in these places of deposit, shows that since the animal died
no material change can have taken place in the climate, because the flesh has kept all that time
locked up in ribs of ice. On such a supposition the change from heat to cold must have follo^\'cd
death ^vithin a few hours ; and had we only one to deal with, we might admit (hat, however inijjro-
bable it might be, such a sudden change was at least possible. But in these regions there are more
carcasses than one in the same condition, and at different depths ; these could not have all died on the
same day ; but as they are preserved alike, the cold must have been permanent and continuous.
In 1771 (thirty j^cars before the discovery of the Mammoth by Adams, which did not take
place until 1801), a carcass of the extinct Rhinoceros, since called the woolly-haired Rhinoceros
(Rh. ticiiorinus), was found on the banks of the A^ilni, a branch of the Lena. Fortmiately,
Pallas heard of it, and by his exertions the head and feet wete secured, and have been
preserved in the Museum of St. Petersburg ; and these have been latterly carefully (>xainined and
described by Brandt. When found, it was considerably advanced towards decay, imbedded in a
sandy bank, six feet above the water. It measured about eleven feet in length and ten feet and a half
in height. The carcass of the animal, in all its bulk, was still covered with skin ; but it was so far
gone that only the head and feet could be removed. "I saw the parts," says Pallas, "at Irkutsk,
and at the first glance perceived that thej' belonged to a Rhinoceros fuUj' grown ; the head especially
was easily distinguished, since it was covered with the hide, which had preserved its organisation,
many short hairs reniaining upon it. The country watered by the Vilni," he adds, " is mountainous,
and the strata horizontal : they consist of sandj^ and calcareous schists and beds of claj', mixed with
great quantities of pyrites. Near the spot, and close to the river, there is a little hillock of about
ninety feet elevation, and which, (hough sandy, contains beds of grind or millstone. The body of
the Rhinoceriis was buried in a coarse saiidy gravel mwv (liis liijldck ; and (l\e iia(ui'(' of (lie soil,
* Mr. Bovu Dawkins on the Dentition of liliinuccros megarliinUN in thu '■ Natural History Koview," No. xix.,
J). Li!l!l, July, 18(15.
RHINOCEROS. 17.')
wliicli is always tVozon, iim.st have pivst'ived it. Tlio ground is iu-vt_'r tliawid to any <>Teat deptli
near the river. In tlu' valleys, where the soil is half sand and halt' clay, it is still frozen at the close
of summer two feet below the surface. Had it not been for these eireiimstanees, the skin and other
soft parts could not have been so long preserved." It would be unfair to quote his further
speculations as to this animal having been necessarily transjiorted from the torrid zone to the
frozen regions at the time of the Deluge. They correspond to the ideas of his time, and, where
erroneous, his age is more in fault than he. His description is what we have really to do with.
From Brandt's examination,* it appears that the dried skin is of a dirty yellowish colour.
He gives a fiic-similc coloured figure of it with his paper, which is extremely interesting. Tlie
flesh of the muscles is reddish. The ev'es are lost (dried out) ; the lids beset with short stifl"
bristles ; the ear-muscles are eutirelv' gone ; and the whole of the anterior part of the snout is
unfortunately so much injured, that the form of the nostrils and of the anterior margins of the lips
cannot be ascertained, so that wo cannot tell whether it had a prehensile snout or not, one fitted for
browsing or grazing. The skin does not form callous folds on the head. The mouth is much
smaller than in the living species. The skin is of considerable thickness, about half-an-iuch deep
at the throat ; its surface smooth, granulated at the lips ; densely covered all over with reticulated
or roundish pores, arranged quincunxially. Tlie head and feet are clothed with hair. The hairs
stand closely together in tufts in these pores ; some are long, stifi" bristles ; others are softer and
, shorter ; without any peculiar microscojjic structure. The single horns which have been found in
Siberia have the structure of the horns of the living species. Their leug-th does not appear to
exceed three feet. The auditory passage is clad with short fine hairs. The muscles found on the
head show neither in their arrangement nor in their intimate structure any deviation from those of
the li\-ing species, nor has any peculiarity worthy of notice been observed in the vessels or nerves.
The food appears to have consisted principally of the leaves and j'oung shoots of pine-trees. Brandt
extracted from the pits of the molar teeth of Pallas' frozen specimen part of the albuminous seed of a
poh'gonous plant, portions of pine-leaves, and minute fragments of coniferous wood, characterized
by the distinctive porous cells. f
This Rhinoceros Hved during the post-glacial epoch in the middle and North of Europe and Nortli
Asia. It was, with the Mammoth, one of the commonest pachyderms of our part of the world.
Its bones, teeth, and even entire skeletons, have been found in Siberia, also in Russia, in Europe,
in Poland, Germany, England, and France. In the bone-layers of Seveckeuberges, near Quedlinburg,
alone, the remains of upwards of a hundred iudividuals have been collected. It does not
follow, however, from the extensive district over which the bones of this animal are found tliat
it lived over the whole of it at the same time. I imagine it to have been a boreal animal, always
hanging upon the outskirts of the Arctic regions as the Reindeer and Elk do now, and that its
remains left in countries whose climate is now mild are only proofs that at the time the animal
died, the glacial cold had not retreated farther north than that latitude.
Rii. i.Ei'TOKiiixus, C((r., is another extinct sjjecics, whose remains occur all over Europe —
in the more recent terliaries of the South of France, Italy, England — more particularly at Montpelier,
I'isa, the Issoire, &c.
Another .species, Rh. megariiixis of Dc Chfi>itol (ai.e.ed to Rn. leptorhi.nus), has been found
* BR.VXDT, m "Mem. Acad. St. Putcrsb." Gtli scr. torn. vii. 1849.
t Leo.vuaui) and Broxn's " Jahibuch," 1840, \i. 378 ; and Bronx's "Lethxa Geoguo.-,tica," III., p. 855, 1851.
17(1 MAMMALS.
in the tertiaries of Montpeliei', l)iit is distinguished by its hirger size and the eiiormdus development
of its nasal bones, whence it may be supposed to have had a nose approaching the dimensions of
a small tnuik. It comes nearer in structure to the unicorn Eii. So>'daicus and the bicorn Rh.
SuMATRANUS, than any other living species.
Remains of a species, supposed to be without a lu)rn, Rn. incisivus, Citr., have been found in the
middle tertiary deposits at Sansan, in the South of France ; at Ejjpelsheim, Georgensmund, and oilier
localities in Mid Europe.
Multitudes of other extinct sjDecics have been described, but on so slight grounds, that De
Blainville was at last driven to exclaim that the authors " seemed to consider the bones as mineral
masses without biological or jjhysiological relations ; so that species were cieated by them, so
to speak, by the compass."* Species so described are mere names ; Vox ct prwtcrca nihil : and as such
may without impropriety be disregarded.
Until the discovery of the extinct animals in the Nebraska beds of the Mauvaises Terres,
it was supposed that the Rhinoceros was peculiar to the Old World. PaltBontologists and zoologists
reasoned upon the fact, and many a &lse theory was proj)ped up by it, and nianj' a sound argument
perilled. But by all the fact was accepted as beyond dispute.
It was, therefore, with no ordinary interest thai the scientific world learned about 1831 (twenty
j-ears before Nebraska was heard of), that a fragment of a jaw, containing two incisor teeth, of
an aninuil closely allied to the Rhinoceros, had been found in Pennsylvania. This had " notliing of
the nature of bone about it except its form, the whole substance, teeth included, being constituted of
an aggregate of quartzose particles, and presenting the apjiearance, not ol' a gradual substitution by
mineral infiltration to osseous matter, but of a cast of part of a jaw and teeth hinned of small quartzose
grit, and giving a semi-lranslucency to the teeth, which is wanting to the more opaque jaw." f The
American geologists received it witli some doubt. Dr. Harlan regarded it as in all probability a mere
h(sus iiaturw of the mineial kingdom, having a ^ery close resemblance to a jjortion of the animal skele-
ton..! Dr. J. Ha3fsand Jlr. J. Lea regarded it as a. mere mineral fragment.*^ The specimen was sent to
London, and the geologists who there examined it considered it of too doubtful a cliaracler to
be admitted as a fossil remnant. Lastly, when it came under llie penetrating invesligation of
De Blainville, he spoke out. "This is not the place," says he, "to discuss this at least very
questionable point; but as the specimen now forms part of the collections of Ihe musevmi" (I jDresume
the Museum of tlie Jardin des Plantes), "we can give our assurance that it does not resemble the least
in the world a fragment of tlie jaw of a Rhinoceros, neither as regards the body of the bone, noi' the
pretended teeth. It is without doubt an artificial piece, a gross cheat. It is, therefore, truly
to be regretted that the expression of the thought has been hazai'dcd, and that all the Catalogues of
Paleontology have recorded a species of fossil Rhinoceros from America without even a mark
of doubt." II
The regret need no longer be felt. Wo have now two sjDecics of extinct Rhinoceros from
America, of whose authenticity and correctness of determination no doubt can be entertained. (Rn.
occiDENTALis and Rh. Nebrascensis, both described by Dr. Leidy.)
Both are from tlie Nebraska beds. They were smaller tluin the Old- World species, the largest
* 1)E Blainville, " 0.-»teograplaie," Ostco. Gen. Klii- J Harlan, "Mcil. and Phys. Researchos," p. 2CS,
noceros, p. 212, 1S45-.54. 1835.
t FE.\THEUSToNUAUGn, in "Monthly Amuric. Jouin. § LEmv, '-Extinct Fauna uf Nebraska," p. 29. 1852.
Geology," 1831, p. 10. !| Blainville, op. cit. p. 212.
RRINOCEROS. 177
being about three-fourths the size of the Rh. Indicus, that is, about the size of Cuvier's Eti. mixutus,
which is regarded bj' De Bhiinville as a small variety of the Eh. incisivus. The other was less than
two-thirds the size of tlie former species, and is much the smallest Ehinocoros which has yet been
discovered.
I have adojpted the division of the genus into two groups (which jn'ove respectively African
and Asiatic), according to their possessing or not possessing permanent incisors in the upper
jaw. The reader may wisli to know how this applies to extinct species, and more especially to the
new-found American ones. No particular inferences can be drawn from this character as regards
them, for at the epoch when they existed (the tipper eocene or lower miocene), all the species
of Ehinoceros appear to have had incisors in the upper jaw, and so had the Nebraska species. It is
only when we come to more recent times, to the period of the drift and diluvium, when the woolly-
haired Ehinoceros (Eh. tichokhimus) flourished, that the type now peculiar to Africa begins to
appear. The Eh. tichorhinus belongs to it, as well as numerous so-called species of the same
epoch, and found over the same ground, which probably are only varieties or individuals of that
species.
No remains of any species have been fouiid in America in deposits subsequent to the glacial
epoch.
A remarkable extinct animal, the Elasmotherium of Fischer (E. Fischeri, Meyer), shoidd
be here noticed. It is placed by Cuvier between the Horse and the Ehinoceros, and has been
found in the Siberian drift. The lower jaw was two feet in length, and four inches high.
178
CHAPTEE XXVII.
MULTUNGULA continued PROBOSCIDEA — EXTINCT ELEPHANTS — MASTODON — MAMMOTH, ETC.
So far as can be gathered from their fossil remains, the Proboscideans entered on existence
at the earlier miocene epoch ; no particular form can be said to have taken precedence of the
rest, for in the oldest beds where their remains have been found, e^^dence of the existence of species
of the Mastodon and of the Elephant has alike been discovered.
Mastodon (Maps 47, 48, and 49). — The Mastodon was an enormous Elephant-like animal with less
complex grinding teeth than the true Elephants, and with small projecting straight tusks in the lower
jaw in some (if not all the species), as well as with tusks, straight in some, curved in others, and
as large as those of the Elephant in the upper jaw. The projecting tusks in the lower jaw
remind us of those of the Ilii^popotamus, and still more of an enlarged typo of the Kangaroo
form of incisor in the Diprotodon. Nor is this resemblance limited to the tusks or incisors ;
it extends to the molars and other parts of the skeleton. Prof. Owen first referred the femur
of the Diprotodon to the Mastodon, and, in speaking of the molars observed, " The analogy
of the close mutual similarity which exists in the molar teeth of the Tapir, Dinothere, Manatee,
and Kangaroo, suggests the surmise, that the mastodontal type of molar teeth might also
have been repeated in a gigantic Marsupial genus, which has now become extinct ; and such
an idea naturally arose in my mind after having received evidence of the marsupial character
of the Diprotodon and Nototherium, two extinct Australian genera, with the tapiroid type of
molars represented by species as large as Rhinoceros."*
The best characters for distinguishing the Mastodon from the Elephant are derived from the
teeth, which are more durable and more frequently met with than the other bones. The tusks in
the lower jaw, although not so uscfid for sectional characters as the molars, are perhaps the most
interesting and remarkable part of their structure. It was not until the year 1830, that any
susi^icion appears to have been entertained, that the Mastodons more than the Elephants possessed
tusks in the lower jaw, but early in that year a memoir by Dr. Godman was read to the American
Philosophic Society, upon a mastodontoid lower jaw with two small tusks, which he described as
characterizing a distinct proboscidean genus named by him Tetracaulodon. That name has
not been adopted, because it was afterwards found that this character belonged to all Mastodons,
or at any rate was as constant a character in them as the possession of tusks in the upper jaw is
in Elephants. In some Mastodons these tusks in the lower jaw are absent, and in others only
one is strongly developed ; but this appearance or absence is a sexual, an individual, or at most
a specific, and not a generic character. On its first discovery, however, it gave rise to much
* "Annals Nat. Hist." xiv. p. 271, lSi4.
MAP XLVII
MASTODONS & ELEPHANTS
JN THE LOWER MIOCENE.
^ayf &jr(Liinio?4 I
PROBOSClDEiE. 179
discussion both in America and England; and the true natiu-e of the osteology of the Mastodon
was not known until ten years later, 1841, when Koch made a public exhibition of the entire
skeleton and other remains of the North American ^lastodon, which has since been bought for the
British Museiim, and is now preserved there. The ingenious exhibitor had contrived a fanciful
reconstruction of the skeleton, inconsistent with the principles of animal mechanics ; the huge tusks,
instead of being placed with their points directed upward, as in the Elephant, or downwards as
had formerly been suggested by Mr. Rembrandt Peale,* were spread out horizontally, with
diverging curves, so as to resemble two great sicldes. Other corresponding extravagances were
exhibited in the opposition of the limbs, and for the grotesque form so constructed, ilr. Koch
proposed a distinct generic place under the name Missourium. These blunders have been rectified
since the specimen passed into the national collection, and with their removal the genus MissorKiUM
has disappeared too.
The molar teeth have prominent mammillae, or coUiculi, as Dr. Falconer designated them, while
the molars of the Elephant are characterized by parallel lamellae, or plates. This character, although
apparently a very marked one, does not serve for all species. "Wliile it is scarcely possible to see
any resemblance between tlio molars of the extreme species, the characters become imperceptibly
less defined as the species approach, luitil it is almost impossible to say of some which have been
raised into a sub-genus, under the name of Stegodon, whether they are Mastodons or Elephants.
If we suppose the molar teeth of the Mastodon to be compressible, and their substance to be pressed
between front and back, and so that the coUicuH are squeezed thin and flat, we .shoidd convert the teeth
of the Mastodon into teeth of the Elephant, only much shorter, and ha\-ing fewer lamellas ; but the
number of these coUicidi cUS'er in different species. In the simplest form, they bear a series of double
rows of three mamniiUse, separated from each other by a hollow with a ridge in the middle. In the
next stage, they have a series of four mammiUaj in a double row. Then we come to a series of five in
a double row. At next stage, the hollow between the two rows begins to disappear, so that, instead of
each two mammillae being separated by a hollow, they are turned into single transverse ridges ; and
we have then the sub-genus Stegodon, with a scries of six and more rows, forming the transition to
the Elephants.
Dr. Falconer has well monographed the species of Mastodon and Elephant,t and has appended
to his paper a useful synoptical table of species ; according to this, there arc thirteen species
of Mastodon, J and fifteen Elephants, including the two li^^ng species of the latter. Dr. Giebel
reckons only seven Mastodons and eleven Elephants. Other authors have made as numy as
nineteen Mastodons and thirty-four Elephants. Probably the true number lies between Dr.
Falconer and Dr. Giebel. Dr. Falconer recognises six Mastodons as having lived in Europe (five
of them in France), three at one time in the upper miocene, and two at another in the pliocene ;
four in India, one of which has only been found in North India (Sivalik Hills), and three in South
India, two of which also inhabited Burmah ; one from North America, and two from South America
(the Andes). Bones and teeth of the ilastodon are, according to Humboldt, so abundant in a locality
near Santa Fe de Bogota, in Columbia, that it bore the name of " the field of giants."
♦ CuviER, "Oss. Foss." i. 239. species wore very different, as the differential marlcs
t Faixoxer, in " Oeolog. Soc. Quarterly .Journal," vol. pointed out by hira are now known to indicate nothing
xiii. p. .31!), 1857. more than the individual and .sexual varieties of the
X While the material was still gixatly inferior in same species.
amount, Prof. Grant also made thirteen species, but his
1 80 MAMMALS.
Although it is now generally admitted, that all the remains found in recent deposits in North
America belong to one sjDecies (the M. giganteus, olim M. Ohioticts, Blum.), remains have been
brought from the miocene beds of the Mauvaises Torres, which there cannot be a doubt will
prove distinct. The common species extends as far south at least as Hondm-as, for Dr. Leconte
found that the bones in a Mastodon bed there, near the village of Tambla, in a pass leading to the
Pacific, belonged to that species.
In South America the Mastodon ranged along the whole line of the Andes, from 5° N.L.
to 40° S.L. It has been found at great elevations ; in 34° S.L. at the height of 1400 feet above
the level of the sea ; and at Quito, Humboldt found it at the height of 7200 feet ; Mr. Darwin says it
has ajjpeared on the limits of perpetual snow. In that case the land may have been elevated
since tlie deposition of the remains.
A tooth has also been foimd at Shanghai, and it was described by Prof. Owen at the meeting
of the British' Association at Cambridge in 18G2.
For long (that is, ever since 1845) it has been accepted as a fact, that the Mastodon also lived
in Australia, but this belief is now abandoned, or at all events judgment is held in aliej-ance ujjon
it until further evidence be procured. It originated with Count Strzlecki, who, after having travelled
over North America, South America, Australia, and the Indian Archipelago, and made collections
in all tliese places, on his arrival in England in 1844, placed in Prof. Owen's hands the tooth
of a Mastodon, which he stated he had purchased from a native near the Wellington Valley
caves in Australia, the well-known locality from which so many extraordinary fossil remains have
been obtained. Prof. Owen described it, and at various times has dwelt at greater or less length,
on the inferences which such a discover}' suggests ; and, notwithstanding that various objections had
been taken to its authenticity, he maintained it down to 1862, when at the meeting of the Britisli
Association at Cambridge, the repetition of his belief in it met with so much dissent, that he
surrendered to the general expression of opinion, and aclcnowledged that until further evidence
appeared it must be held that some error had taken place in regard to the place whence the tooth
came. The reader will find a full and interesting accoimt of the whole circximstances connected with
tlie reputed Australian origin of this tooth, in a paper by Dr. Falconer, in the "Natural History Review,"
January' 1863. The gist of it is, that the tooth has all the characters of one of the species from the
Andes ; that the matrix has none of the character of the Wellington Valley bones ; the latter
having a reddish ferrugiueous colour, which Dr. Falconer mentions that this has not;* and that
there is every reason to believe that some misplacing of labels had taken place. Count Strzlecki
having to all appearance put into Prof. Owen's hands a specimen from South America instead of one
from Australia. Count Strzlecki's own account of how he jorocured the specimen adds probability to
the idea of there having been some mistake. He speaks of the native having brought him a bone,
and saj'ing that Janjer hones were to be had in the interior ; language which is less applicable to a
tooth than to a bone from some other part of the body. The a priori arguments against this largo
animal having been found solitary and alone of all placental mammals (except a few small rats,
and the probably introduced dingo), in the country of Marsupials, are strengthened by the impro-
bability, that if they then existed, not a trace of anj^ other elephantine remiains should ever have
boon found since 1843 to the present time, notwithstanding that the district where it was supposed
* I iMiiy add fnmi personal cxaniinaliou of the siicci- resemble the Wellington Valley matrix, but has a whitish
men, that tlio matrix in wliicli it has Iain docs not at all grey calcareous appearance.
MASTODON. 181
to be found lias been more comjjlctt^ly settled since tliDn, and that where the remains of Probosci-
deans do occur, they are generally found in abundance. The absence of Proboscidean remains in
Australia gives us an additional date for its separation from the Indian Continent. Proboscideans first
appeared in the miocene epoch, therefore Australia has remained separated from the continent at
least ever since then. For how much longer before that date we have a good guess from other sources.
To the great numbers of bones and teeth which have been collected of these extinct giants (believed
by our ancestors to be Goliaths of our own species), we owe a more perfect knowledge of the Probos-
cideans than of any other extinct animal. But our knowledge has not been wholly derived from piece-
meal discoveries of separate bones. Like the woolly-haired Rhinoceros, carcasses of the Mammoth,
centuries, — nay, perhaps thousands of years old, — possibly millions, have been fomid preserved in, and
obtained from, the frozen sandy river-banks of Siberia, and thus furnished materials for scientific
examination. It is true that no discovery of the carcass of the Mastodon, preserved in that way,
has ever been made (it was, perhaps, a less boreal animal) ; but discoveries of no small interest
regarding it, too, have been made not'W'ithstnnding. In North America, in draining or digging out
marl or fertilizing mud from small ponds, which, in the days of the Mastodons, were, no doubt,
quaking marshes, remains of several entire skeletons have been found undisturbed, lying in the
attitudes in which they died ; they had undoubtedly become mired in the bogs, and had perished
miserabl}'. The most perfect of these are described bj' Dr. Warren in his monograph of the
Mastodon of North America.* In "Warren County, New Jersey, no less than six were found at
about six feet below the surface ; one specimen found in the town of Newbury, New York, was
twenty-five feet in length, and twelve feet high, and with tusks ten "feet long. Fancy six of these
stupendous creatures ; huddled together in the sinking mire. Imagine their trumpeting and
shrieking, their bewildered dismay, their unwieldy eSbrts to move their limbs, only to sink
deeper after every fresh exertion ; their terror — marked by five of the six having been found quite
close together (the sixth was at about ten feet distant) ; they had rushed together for mutual
support only to add to their danger by concentrating the weight on one spot. They had struggled
long, no doubt, and died hard. The attitude of one of them is described as ha^-ing the legs spread
abroad, and with the fore-legs in the position of making an clfort to raise itself. Of course, all
the soft parts had long since disapjaearcd, their being no ice to protect them. But there was
found what both Pallas and Adams overlooked in their ice-bound specimens, — the contents of
the stomach. In one of these American examples, there was taken from the clay in the interior,
within tlie ribs, where the stomach must have lain, no less than seven biishels of vegetable
matter, consisting of leaves and small twigs more or less bruised and comminuted, which have
been ascertained by microscopical examination to belong to a coniferous plant, probably the white
cedar (Thuya occidentalis), one of the North American cjqjresses. These elephantine animals there-
fore browsed upon the common conifers of the country, in the same wav as the woolly-haired
Rhinoceros did on conifers in Siberia ; evidence that the}', like it and the Mammoth, and the trees
on M'hich thoj' fed, were all adapted for a cold or temperate climate.
Such an adaptation seems to have been common to the whole section of Mastodous to which they
belong. The remains of the trilophodont sj^ecics are, with one imperfectly known exception (M.
Paxdioxis), all found in the northern countries or regions, which we know to have been cold. One,
or perhaps two — wc have two names and two descriptions — have been found on the Andes in South
* Warren, .T. C, " Description of the Skfletoii of the JIastodon Gigantcus," 1855.
182 SIAMMALS.
America. These, from tlicir position, may reasonably be supposed to have been adapted to cold
climates; and as the remains are found only on the range of the Andes, it does not seem improbable,
that, when the glacial epoch advanced in North America, it forced the M. giganteus or some other
species south before it, driving it along the ridges of the Mexican mountains to the Andes. Many
a bitter freeze and sore extremitj' they maj' have borne before they left their pine-covered
land, but ere trees and vegetation had quite disappeared before the advancing ice, they must
have turned their broad backs to the blinding snow and heavy drift and, crashing through the
mountain forests of Mexico, have made their way southwards. Was their way taken through
unwonted timber, and did they taste strange food on the road, or did their native woods migrate
with them, and accompany them, pari passu, southwards in the slow progress of their journey, —
a journey not of days or years, but of centuries and ages? Probably both. Probably the jjine
found itself growing side by side with the aloes, so long as the temperature allowed them to
live ; and we have now in the numerous pines and firs, which clothe the Mexican moimtains the
descendants of those North American species, which were driven with the Mastodon before the
glacial cold ; and both, after undergoing modification by process of development and altered con-
ditions, have left evidence of their stay there, the Mastodon in the remains of M. Axdium and
M. HuMBOLDTii, now found on the range of the Cordillera, and the conifers in the Libgcedri
and Saxegotheas.
The other section of Mastodons (Tetralophodonts) were apparently suited to a warmer climate,
at least they are chiefly found in India, Ava, &c. Some, however, inhabited Europe, — more
especially the southern countries.
Mammoth — The Mammoth is, on many accounts, the most interesting of the Elephants,
whether living or extinct. It inhabited the northern hemisphere, and apparently our own land
long after man had taken his jjlace in creation — occasionally furnishing, there is little doubt, a
hard-won meal to our savage and hungry ancestors. Alongside its remains, and in beds
proclaiming their simultaneous deposit, flint-knives, hatchets, bone bodkins and needles, obviously
the work of man, have been found, and the fact of the co-existence of man and the Mammoth
has now almost ceased to be matter of dispute.
It is now felt that the old traditions of the Red Indians of America as to the existence of an
enormous animal, with a snout like an arm, may not be idle tales, but the genuine traditions of what
actually had been seen by the predecessors of the present race (it would be too bold to say ances-
tors, for many races may have been conquered, and enslaved, died out and been replaced, since
a living man in these lands looked on a living MaTumotli). The Chinese records too, according
to M. Boitard, speak of an animal living to the north, in extreme cold, shaped like a rat, but as
large as an Elephant, furnishing excellent ivory ; and other nations have similar traditions.
Moreover, not only have their scattered bones, and even their perfect skeletons, been found, but
the carcasses of individuals have been found congealed in ice in Nature's larder in the frozen
regions of Siberia. It is no wonder, therefore, that a special halo of interest surrounds the
Mammoth.
Thanks to the discovery of the frozen carcasses, we have a tolerably complete knowledge both of
the outward form of this animal, and of its internal organs and structure. Every one knows that
the first carcass was discovered by a Tongause fisherman in 1799, in a mass of ice near the place
where Pallas' Rhinoceros had been found ; and the bones and skin of that sjjcfimcn, or at
MAP XJ>IX.
ELEPHANTS & MASTODONS
JN PLlOCENt EPOCH
Juiinm fitssU i-emains
Tntrodwoedf
E.rttffutfril' „
Day% --.; li--^ :,'.
MAM.\rnTn. 183
least sc much of them as was left liv the wolves and white bears, were, when liberated by the
thawing of the ice (which it took seven of the short summers of that coimtry to effect), secured by
Adams, and deposited in the Museimi of St. Petersburg. But the depredations of these beasts of prey
had left it imperfect, and some part of the skeleton, as put up, is composed of wooden
substitutes for the bones. In fact, so important a point as the number of dorsal vertebrae is even
yet attended with doubt, although it is recorded that the spine, a shoulder-blade, the pelvis, and
three legs, were still held together by the ligaments to the skin, when the carcass was taken
possession of. Full details of what is known on this point will be found in Dr. Falconer's
paper, already referred to.* A pleasant writer on Natural History in the present day (Rev. J. G.
"Wood) tells us that " opinions differ as to the manner in which the animal (Mr. Adams' Mammoth)
got into the ice ; and the question ajjpears to have puzzled the savaiifs, much as the apple dumpling
puzzled George the Third. The general oijinion (!) appears to be that the creature must have fallen
into a cleft in a glacier, and so have been at once frozen up."t Que diable allait il faire dans cette
galere ? We can hardly imagine a Mammoth capering like a chamois over glaciers from peak to
peak.
Another entire specimen of the ]\Iammoth was found by Sarstschew on the banks of the
Alascia, which falls into the Arctic Sea to the east of Indigirsha, and had been disengaged from
the bank by the action of the river. It stood erect and was still covered ^vith its skin. There
are also preserved in the Museum of Paris a morsel of skin and matted hair, and locks of wool,
belonging to a third individual, found whole on the banks of the Arctic Sea.
More than one similar fresh carcass has since been met with in Siberia, one of which was
discovered about 18-16, and its soft j)arts were transmitted to St. Petersburg, and made the
subject of carefid histological study by Glebow, who published an account of them. J His
examination showed nothing new, as why should it ? The fibres and cells of the tissues presented
the same anatomical characters as those of living bodies to the most minute degree. M. Glebow
says, — " One never ceases wondering at the elementary anatomical parts of the tissues of all the
soft j)arts, without even excepting the brain having been preserved in such a degree of in-
tegrity, that it is impossible to distinguish them from the same parts of the fresh tissues of
living animals. And we see with admiration that a time so prolonged, which rmns the most
durable objects, and destroys the most solid things, as metal and granite, has spared the tissues
of the animal organism, so tender and delicate, and in their nature so perishable, as the fibres of
the brain, the cells of the epithelium, &c."
From the above materials we know that the Mammoth was of stupendous size, covered with an
enormous quantity' of long black hair, mixed at its roots with a thick fleece of reddi.sh wool, not
imlike cow's hair. At the removal of Adams' specimen, thirty pounds weight of finer hair, and
coarse long hair like horse-hair, was dug up out of the moist soil, into which it had been trodden
by the feet of the white bears and wolves when devouring the flesh. It had a great mane, and
the ears bore each a long tuft of hair. The tusks of the upper jaw were of tremendous magnitude,
but there were none in the under jaw.
The geographical range of this animal extended from Bhering's Straits, through Arctic Siberia
* Falconer, "Nat. Hist. Rev. " Jan. 1863, p. 92.
t Rev. J. G. Wood, " Sketches and Anecdotes of Animal Life," 1855, p. 82.
J Glebow in " Bulk-tin of the Imperial Society of Moscow," tome xix. p. 109.
184 MAMMALS.
to the west of Europe ; and in some of the isles in the Arctic Sea situated near the mouths of the
rivers where the carcasses have been met with, their remains occur in such quantity tliat the soil
is a mixture of sand, ice, and Mammoth bones. It stretched across the steppes of Russia, through
Germany and France, to England. Its remains have also been found in Italj-, although much
more sparingly south of the Alps than to the north of them. The great accumulations on
the shore of the Arctic Sea are doubtless the result of carcasses having been floated by
floods from the higher lands down the rivers.
It is usually said that it flourished in as great numbers in North America, but Dr. Leidy, and
some American palaeontologists, have thought that it was a different species which existed there, and
that the Old-world Mammoth was confined to Europe and Asia. At any rate plentiful remains of
a species of Mammoth are found all over North America, and in especial numbers on its Polar
shores, in similar conditions and places to those in Siberia, where the other species occurs. Most
other paleontologists, however, think the species identical. Dr. Falconer,* admitting that there is
a sufficient difference (although a very trifling one) to enable him to distinguish American
specimens from those of Europe or Asia. It is interesting to see that the same causes which have
have produced the variation between closely allied North American and European existing species
were already in action in the time of the Mammoth. The bridge at Bliering's Straits must have
been already sunk.
One of these differences is the comparative closeness of the laminae of the molar teeth. Dr.
Falconer gives an interesting comparison of the food used by the ditferent species, and the adaptation
of their teeth to its consumption, which suggests an additional argument for the formation of new
species in new coimtries where the food maj' differ from that in the country whence they first
came. Their molar teeth consist of broad tables composed of parallel transverse vertical plates
consisting of successive layers of cement, enamel, and ivory — each of different degrees of hard-
ness ; and different degrees of power are given to these implements by the number of plates
in each tooth, and by the extent of each tooth which is brought into operation at the same
time ; the greater the number of jjlates working, the more powerful the triturating surfaces.
Estimated according to this princii^le, the African Elephant has less powerfid grinders than the
Indian Elephant and the Mammoth. The number of plates in the teeth of these two are the same
(sixty-four ridges), while in the African species they are only half as many (thirty-two ridges), and
the Mammoth, although it has the same number of ridges, has them thinner, straighter, and more
regular. As the powers of trituration are feeblest in the African species, so its food is, in point of
fact, softest, consisting partly of roots and in a great measure of succulent plants, such as the Portu-
LACARiA Afra or Spekboom. The food of the Indian Elei^hant consists more of branches, and is
more siliceous, often containing a greater proportion of foreign matter, as sand about the roots of
grasses, and j'oung bamboos (Saccharum spontaneum) ; and its molars are the most powerful grinding
instrviments of any. The difference between its teeth and those of the Mammoth is that
between a strong coarse file and a fine one. The food of the Mammoth, again, was probably
the young twigs of soft-wooded Conifers, and required a less powerful apparatus. Falconer
* "The result of my observation is that the ancient paratively modern Mammoth of the superficial bogs of
Mammoth of the pre-glacial ' forest bed ' of the Norfolk North America, which I regard as being only a slight
coast differs less from the later form occurring on the geographical variety of the same species." — Falconer, op.
banks of the Lena, than does the latter from the com- cit. p. 79.
MAMMOTH. 185
maintains that we do not j'ct know what its food was ; but although it has not been actually
demonstrated, as in the Mastodon, there can be little or no doubt that it was much the same
as the food of that animal, only probably consisting of the smaller and more tender twigs of the
same trees as it fed on. It would not do, therefore, to suppose that an Elephant might be trans-
planted from any one country into another if only the climate suited it. The climate of Africa might
suit the Indian Elejjhant, but still it might not be able to thrive in it. The molar teeth are not
adapted to its food. It maj' be said that this might be true of the African Elef)hant if transported to
India, as its teeth might not have been sufficiently strong to suit the harder food it would have to
chew there, but that it would not apply to the Indian Elephant coming to a country where the food
was more succiilent than it required, and where of course there would be an excess of power instead of a
deficiency. But the maxim that the greater includes the less will not always apply to the adaptations
of nature any more than to those of machinery. The veiy thing here supposed has been tried. The
Indian species has not, indeed, been transported to and turned loose in Africa, but it has been made
to live upon more succulent and softer food than is natural to it. This is to a certain extent done
when it is domesticated in India, but most so when in eapti^aty in menageries in this country,
where it is fed upon carrots and turnips, corn and hay, instead of upon hard branchlets and silicious
grasses. The result is that the grinders fall out of repair. The cement or setting in which the
enamel rests is not worn awaj', and instead of being like a coarse rough file, the tooth degenerates
into a smooth surface like polished marble. The anterior portion of the tooth is not worn away
as it shoidd be ; the next tooth jDresscs forwards at the rate of growth allotted to it, and which
corresponds to the normal detrition of the tooth before it, each lamina of which breaks off
and falls out as it reaches the front of the jaw, but as that has been unnaturally retarded, the
capsule of the back tooth, instead of remaining distinct, becomes miited with the uncalcified
back portion of the capsule of the tooth in action, and the two separate molars are fused into
one unwieldy mass covered by a continuous shell of cement. Of course disease and its attendant
death follow in the train. Speedy extinction, instead of wide extension, wovild be the result of
introducing an animal to a new country under such circumstances, whether the teeth were too
powerful or not sufficiently so, unless nature had the power contended for, of remedying the defect
by altering her machinery ; that is, by developing all the individuals exposed to the new condition
into a new species.
The Mammoth is said to have . lived in two epochs (and to have been the onlj^ one of the
family which did so, whence the name proposed for it by Geoffi-ey St. Hilaire, Dicyclotherium —
beast of two cycles — /, e. before the glacial epoch and after it ; and notwithstanding that Dr.
Falconer thinks this a happy appellation, " one of the bright insjjirations of his (St. Ililaire's)
later A'oars," I shall venture to question its fitness. M. Lartet argues that it occupied different
countries during the two cj^cles, and that it was an Asiatic animal in Asia before the glacial
epoch — a European after. Tertiary (that is, pliocene), in the one — Quaternary in the other. But
in the pliocene the glacial epoch had already commenced, and its occuiTence in England, in the
forest bed of Norfolk, below the drift shows that it had found its way into England before that
land was wrapped in its winding-sheet of ice. The reader, however, •«-ill see that the idea of its
entrance into Europe from Asia after the glacial epoch corresponds well with my explanation of the
course of action subseqvient to that epoch.
Dr. Falconer thus sums up what is known of the geographical distribution of the Mam-
moth.
186 MAMMALS.
" Tlic state of our exact knowledge, at the present time, regarding the duration, geographical
range, climate, habits, and food of the Mammoth, appears to be thus :
" The species existed before the glacial period in Europe, and survived long after it in Europe or
America. The constitutional flexibility, which is implied by its dicyclotherian term in time, is equally
evinced in its vast geographical range of habitat ; extending from the valley of the Tiber to the Lena,
and from Eschscholtz Bay to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. Making due allowance for the
interference of the glacial phenomena, the extremes of north and south latitude, in which undoubted
remains of this ancient Elephant have been found, necessarily imply, that his constitutional flexibility
was like that of man, capable of adaptation to very great diflerences of climate. In Siberia, he was
enveloped in a shaggy, thick covering of fur, like the Musk-ox, impenetrable to rain or cold. But
we arc not obliged to suppose, that in his southern habitat he was thus clad. The dermal ajipendages
are very variable, and adajjtive according to climate. The fine siUiy fleece, from which the Cashmere
shawls are woven, is abundantly developed at the roots of the long hairs of the domestic goat in the
l^lains of Tibet, at, and upwards of, 16,000 feet above the level of our sea, where a liighly rarified
atmosphere is combined with severe winter cold. It grows, also, on the Kiang, the Yak, Cerrus
Wallichii, the Brown Boar of high elevations in Himalayah, and on the IMastiff Dog of Thibet. But it
disappears entirely from the same Goat, and from the Dog, in the Valley of Cashmere. The short,
crisp wool, of the Siberian Mammoth, which seems to have been the most protective portion of his fur,
may, in like manner, have disappeared from the variety that lived in the Valley of the Tiber, while the
bristles and long coarse hair were more or less retained ; and it is in the highest degree probable, that
the species presented varieties of external form, dependent on the nature of the dermal clothing, far
exceeding those which are seen in existing Elephants. That the Siberian Mammoth migrated
periodically from the more southern forests, towards the Polar sea, during siunmer, as his surviving
contemporaries the 5Iusk-ox and Reindeer now do, is also highly probable ; but we have no grounds to
believe that the Mammoth of Southern Europe ever made migrations to the north of the Alps."
There are one or two points in this view which seem to me open to question. In the first place,
as to the migration of the Mammoth from the southern forests to the Polar seas in simimer ; if Mr.
Falconer meant no more than is implied in the migrations of the species which he cites in illustration
— the Musk-ox and Reindeer — perhaps a couple of hmidred miles — I have nothing to say, but if, as
the context imj)lies, he imagines a migration of such extent that a dying Mammoth would in smnmer
leave his bones on the shores of the Arctic Sea, and in winter in the Vallej' of Cashmere — that he wore
in winter the coat we wot of, while in summer he was bare as my hand, then I should wish to express
my dissent. Neither do I think that the facts warrant the assertion that his constitutional flexibility
was lilce that of Man, capable of adaptation to very great differences of climate, or the attribute of a
A'ast geographical range of habitat accorded to it, so far as that implies a simultaneous range through
many degrees of latitude. I attribute the occurrence of his bones over the vast extent of latitude
through which we find them to a different cause. No one disputes that the retreat and advance of
the glacial ejjoch were gradual, and I imagine the occurrence of the bones of the Mammoth and its
usual contemporaries — the Musk-ox, the Reindeer, and Cave Bear — in localities where the climate is
now mild to have been due to the climate ha^'ing been polar there when the bones were deposited.
I think all these were circumpolar animals, that is, all habitually living, like the Reindeer, at or a
liltk' to the south of the margin of the Arctic Circle, for as regards this point the Arctic Circle might
* Falconer, op. cit. p. 112.
MAMMOTH. 187
be at tho Equator if the cold were great enough. "Wlieii the Arctic Circle stood in the latitude of
Paris, the bones of the Mammoth would be left over a little to the south of that latitude ; when tlio
Arctic Circle had moved on to Brussels, the band on which the bones would be left woidd be shifted
northwards in a corresponding degree ; so when it reached Copenhagen, or Hammerfest, a successive
advance would be made by the animals that lived in its temperature. This is, I think, the general
principle on which the dispersion of the remains of these animals is to be accounted for.
Next I demur to the term " dicyclotherian." It is perhaps true to the letter, but I do not
think it is true in spirit. If I ask a man to dinner, and he comes in time for tho soup and stays
until after the dessert, he has no doubt been with me both before and after dinner; but no one
would say that it was a bond fide account of his visit so to express it. He was with me at dinner-time,
not before dinner, nor after dinner. It was so with the Mammoth. Elephants existed in the miocene
time, but polar Elephants were not known until the glacial epoch brought them into existence.
Their cycle was the glacial epoch. So far from theii- constitution being flexible and capable of
adaptation to great differences of cHmate, I imagine it to have been the very reverse. They came in
with the extreme cold and have gone out with the extreme cold. They did not " by a miracle of
Providence " survive the two epochs. The glacial cycle is a cycle itself, not a line separating two
cycles. They are essentially " Monocyclotherian," and were strictly " Monotherraal." The law
which has presided over the creation of species of Mammals remains undisturbed. There is still no
well-established instance of any species of Mammal having lived in two epochs. There seems, how-
ever, no physical necessity that it should be so. It is only that a new cycle implies a change of
condition, and consequent change of form in species. If the change in condition were only partial
on the globe, or trifling, we should have plenty of " dicyclotherian" species, and a proof of it is that
in the depths of the sea, where the changes of condition going on above, are of course less lelt, we
have dicyclotherian animals. •
As to tho clothing of the Mammoth varying we of course can only indulge in conjecture. r)ishop
Heber, indeed, mentions seeing a young Elephant in the Ilimmalayahs as shaggy as a poodle, but
this does not go far. We do not find the full-grown Elephant putting on a shaggy coat on
ascending the Ilimmalayahs, and putting it off again when it comes down. The instances given by
Mr. Falconer are not pertinent. A Thibet dog taken into the Vale of Cashmere does not at once
discard his fur. It is only after a course of years that the difference of climate begins to tell.
It is especially noteworthy that the same slight degree of difference which we see in existing
semi-circumpolar animals in their different countries also occur in this extinct species. It lived
undoubtedly for a very extended period, and yet the American species deviated as little from the
Old- World form as does the existing Spermoi'hilus Parryi from S. Eversmanni. This, I think,
shows — 1st. That it was an Arctic species, always living in a boreal land ; 2nd. That, as already
mentioned, during the latter part of tho life of the species (that is, subsequent to the return of
warmth), the conformation of America and its relations to the Old World were not materially dif-
ferent from what they are now, because we see the Mammoth had an American type as the
reindeer, moose, polar hare, and marmots have now ; 3rd. That the change consequent upon exposure
to different conditions of life having been once effected, no further alteration takes place through
mere lapse of time, but the species remains persistent through future ages, so long as the conditions
continue the same.
OniER KxTiNcr Eli-piiants. — South of the Alps in Europe, a species named ELKriiAs iMEUiniox-
188 MAMMALS.
ALis, becomes the more usual representative of the Mammoth, although remains of that species are
sometimes found there too. South of the Apalachiau range in North America, another species,
E. CoLUMBi, Falc. acts the same part in that continent.
Dr. Falconer thus describes the country which seems to have been the chief abode of this more
southern species: his description will be of use in relation to other families as well as this : — Between
the Apalachian Mountains and the Atlantic there is a wide stretch of horizontal tertiary strata forming
three terraces, each about twenty miles wide. The lowermost or littoral platform rises from ten to
forty feet above the level of the sea, and stretches at least 400 miles northward to Newbern and the
Neuse, in Carolina. The deposit is flu^do-marine resting upon eocene strata. Although mainly
marine, it contains beds of fresh-water origin, in which the Mammalian remains occur. Lyell
considers it to be very analogous to the great Pampean formation of South America, as described by
Darwin, and to be of pleistocene age. The bones are found between four and six feet below the
surface, imbedded in clay, resting on yeUow sand, and belonged to Megatherium, Mylodon, Mastodon,
Elejjhant, &c. *
The E. CoLUMBi extends from Mexico to Georgia, including 18° of longitude and 12° of latitude
between the parallels of 20° and 32° N., and Falconer adds that there are gro^mds for suspecting that
it ranged into South America.
No other sjjecics of the more recent epoch have been found in America, but a fragment
of a stupendous tooth, obtained from the upper miocene beds of Niobrara, has enabled Dr. Leidy to
announce another somewhat older species under the name of E. imperator, which, although the
fragment is insufficient for description, Dr. Leidy, with perfect warrant I thiiik, assiunes to be
distinct from the Mammoth, on the strength of the locality and deposit where found. No Elephant
has been found in any part of South America, except perhaps in Guiana, where remains of E. Coltimbi
are thought to have been found.
In the Old World the great metropoKs of their kind has been India ; no less than eight species
being reckoned as discovered in it by Falconer, and all (except the existing species and one other)
belonging to the early miocene. Except a Mastodon from the Mauvaises Terres, we know of no
other species of Proboscidean but the Indian ones belonging to the lower miocene. And, with one
excejDtion, we have not yet obtained evidence that any of these siirvived, down to the uj)per miocene
or pliocene.
When the rigour of the glacial ejDoch had passed and Europe had thrown off her shroud, the
Proboscideans returned from Asia into Europe. In Europe alone Dr. Falconer reckons six Mastodons
and five Elej^hants, probably most of them Arctic. All these species may not be good ; but even,
although they were restricted in number, sufficient would remain tp show the extension into Europe
of several species.
It is natural that the great size of these most remarkable animals should add to the interest
with which we view them, and equally natural that when we have once got immense size fully
estabhshed in our minds as the tj^iical character of the race, we should feel no less interest in
meeting with a species contradicting its normal attributes, and while stiU an Elephant, possessing
in mature age no greater size than a young one. Remains of a pigmy of this kind have
recently been found. Dr. Falconer, in his paper on Fossil Elephants, to which I have already
repeatedly referred, gave a short notice of it imder the name of E. Melitensis. This pigmy
* Falconer, op. cit. p. 60,
EXTINCT ELEl'IIANTS. 189
species was obtained not long since by Capt. Spratt in the ossiferous caves of Malta. In size
it stood between a large Tapir and the small unicorned Rhinoceros of Java. To show that there
is no error in the case, such as mistaking a young one for an old one, he tells us, that the remains
he discovered of numerous individuals, which included nearly the entire dentition, from the new-
born calf up to the adult animal.* It falls into the section to which the existing x\.frican
Elephant belongs.
Another species, not much larger than the E. Melitexsis (neither of them exceeding five feet
in height), and from the same source in Malta, has since been described by Mr. Busk xmder the
name of E. Falconeri, in commemoration of the highly honoured and much-lamented naturalist,
from whose labours I have drawn so largely.
I may shortly say that Dr. Falconer divides the Elephants into three sections, according to the
number and closeness of the lamellae of the molar teeth. First, the sub-genus Stegodojj, with few
and broad lamellae, forming, as already said, the transition between the Elephant and the Mastodon.
Second, Loxodox, the type of which is the existing African species ; it has molars half-way between
those of the Indian Elephant and Stegodon. And lastly, Euelephas, with narrow and numerous
lamellfc, of which the Mammoth and existing Indian species are the tj'pes.
When and whence did Africa receive its species ? We may assume that it was not before the
miocene epoch, as no e%'idence of the existence of any prior to that period has anywhere been found.
If at the miocene period, then there must have been some other connexion between Africa and other
Continents than what now subsists — for at that time there were Elephants also both in North
America and India ; and the idea of three separate centres of creation for an animal is out of the
question.
It follows that a connexion between Africa and some other country, where Pachyderms were,
must have subsisted to allow of their appearance there ; and as, for many reasons, a connexion of
Africa with India seems more probable than one with any country, the Pachyderms furnish
additional confirmation of the hypothesis of a former connexion with it.
Dr. Falconer's views correspond with this in referring to India as the nursery of the European
forms both of African and Indian type. He says, that if the asserted facts be correct they seem
clearly to indicate that the older ElejAants of Europe, such as E. mertdioxalis (of the African
type) and E. axtiquus (of the Indian type) were not the stocks from which the later species,
E. PRiMiGENius and E. Africanus, spring, and that we must look elsewhere for their origin ;
and that the nearest affinity, and that a very close one, of the European E. meridionalis is with the
miocene E. planifroxs of India ; and of E. prijiigenius with the existing Indian species, f
That E. PRiMiGEXius may have sprung from the present or some extinct Indian species seems
extremely probable. As to E. meridionalis, we must remember that if it is near to E. plaxifroxs,
so is E. Africanus, aU three belonging to the same section, and E. plaxifroxs being the only
Indian one with the African type.
Another problem stUl more difficult of solution is the derivation of the Elephant (E. mirificls
Lcidij), in the miocene beds of Nebraska, of the same type (the Tetralophodont), and of even an oldir
date than the Sevallk beds. Although we may not have fallen upon any older speciuiens in India
than the Nebraska one, still the greater nimiber of species found there suggests that India may
have possessed them first. If, then, we assume that the original centre of creation of the Elephant
* Falconer, o\>. cit. u. 87. + Falconer, op. cit. p. SO.
190 MAMMALS.
in India or its neighbourhood, by what route can this species have reached Nebraska ? At the
miocene epoch we know of no other species except in India. How can the gidf between these
two distant regions be bridged over ? By Peru, and thence northwards ? No ; the species found
on the Andes belong not to the Elephant, but to the Mastodon, and to its more recent and
northern tj^pe, and they are more probably the result of migration from the north under the cold
of the glacial epoch. No miocene remains of any Proboscidean have been found in South Ame-
rica. By Bhering's Straits or the Aleutian Isles from Asia ? By a direct land connexion between
China and California, rid the Sandwich Islands ? By a continental union between Europe and
America ? There is little to guide us to a choice between these or other similar contrivances by
which an ingenious mind might seek to unite the two lands in question, and it would not be
difhcult to find arguments in favour of every one of them.
191
CHAPTER XXVIII.
MULTUNGULA COIlfillUcd EXISTING ELEPHANTS QUESTION AS TO BISTIXCTXESS OF SUMATRAX SPECIES
ELEPHANTS IN BORNEO.
Existing Elephants. — (5Iap 50.) The natural history and distribution of the existing species
are not less interesting than those of the fossil.
It has been ascertained that the African species was not only represented in Europe by the
small Malta species, E. Melitensis, but that remains of the existing African species itself (E.
Africanus) have been found both in Spain (near Madrid) and at more than one place in Sicily.
The identity of the Spanish remains with the African species is given by M. Lartet mth some
doubt, but there is none as to that of the Sicilian, which is vouched for by Dr. Falconer himself.
Although that species is no longer found wild in Africa north of the Sahara, its absence there is
due to man. In former times it undoubtedly extended over the whole of the habitable parts of
the Continent. The Romans and Carthaginians got their Elephants from the north of Africa
— and numerous coins and medals prove that their domesticated species was the African one, the
fonn and size of the ears being a sure indication of the .species. Schlegel suggests that there may
be more than one species confounded under the present African form — a north and a south breed.
As he says, most animals from the two chief divisions of Africa differ specifically from one another,
or at least show differences in size, &c., as, for example, is the case with the Ostrich of Algeria
and that of South Africa. This is scarcely a parallel case, however, for the most northerly Elejjhants
are not north of the Sahara ; and in any view we must take them as only one until proved to be
more.
If the existing African species extended into Europe there is reason also to believe that
the existing Indian species did so likewise — one or two teeth, undistinguishable from those of
the Indian species, having been found at the Bosphorus and in Italy. It is an interesting point
to be kept in view in future observations, but the evidence in its favour is still too slight to
allow this extension of the range of the E. Indicus to be received as more than a possible supposition.
The existing range of that species also furnishes matter for inquiry. If only one species is found in
Asia, then that species extends tlirough the East Indies, Assam, Burmah, Tennasserim, the Malayan
Peninsula, Siam, Cochin China, and Sumatra. It is not a native of Java, and, although found in
Borneo, it is more than doubtful whether it is aboriginal in that ishmd or not.
Until lately it has always been understood and admitted that there was only one Asiatic
Elephant, the E. Indicls ; but an attempt has recently been made to separate the Asiatic species into
two ; and before discussing the question of distribution, it will be as well to see our way clearly as to
w]iat distribution we are speaking of. The two supposed species are, 1, the insuhir, that is, the
192
jia:\imals.
animals found in Ceylon and Sumatra, and perhaps in the trans- Gange tic countries ; and 2, the
continental, limited to those in continental India.
It is the eminent Dutch naturalist, Professor Schlegel, who has first attempted to show
that there are two species. He brought the idea forward in a paper read before the Royal
Academy of Sciences in Holland, in 1861,* in which he tells us that in August 1845 he had
obtained several examples of the Sumatran Elephant for the Royal Museum at Leyden from the dis-
trict of Palanbang, in Sumatra. " As I was unpacking them, it appeared to me that they differed
in several respects from the Elephant of Bengal. I occupied myself therefore with drawing up the
characters of these two animals, compared with those of the African Elephant, and gave the results
to Herr Temminck, which he afterwards published in the ' Coup d'oeU sur les possessions Neder-
landaises dans les Indes Orientales,' calling the new species by the name of Elephas Sumatranus."
The character of most importance on which Professor Schlegel rests his distinction of species,
is the number of the dorsal vertebrae. The Elephas Africakus, according to him, has twenty-one;
the E. Suaiatranus, twenty ; and the E. Indicus, or Bengal Elephant, only nineteen. He thinks
that he can point out other differences — more particularly differences in the teeth of the two latter,
but they are very slight ; and if the difference in the numbers of dorsal vertebrae could be explained
away, the grounds for separating the Sumatran from the Indian Elephants would disappear,
for a specific difference could hardly be maintained on the strength of such distinctions as that
the Ceylonese Elejahant has higher fore quarters, and a smaller and lighter head, which is carried
more elevated, and a larger terminal fringe to the tail, while the Elephant of the Sal forests has
sometimes five nails on his hinder feet ; characters the most of which were pointed out by Mr. Hodgson
many j^ears ago,f and which differ in different individuals from either locality.
Dr. Falconer, however, in his paper J to which I have so often had occasion to refer, passes
the conclusion arrived at by Professor Schlegel under careful examination, and arrives at the con-
clusion that there are not two species. I need not foUow him in his exposition of the fallacy or
irrelevancy of the minor evidences adduced by Schlegel, Temminck, and others who have taken
up their views. It will be sufficient to say in regard to the number of the dorsal vertebrje,
that lie shows that instead of their number in the African species being twenty-one, they vary
from twenty to twenty-one ; and instead of being in the Indian species nineteen, they vary from
nineteen to twenty, and probably it will be found that the Cejdonese animal varies in like manner,
but materials for determining this point are still wanting. It follows that the number of dorsal
vertebrae is no sure indication of the species. Specimens of all three supposed species can be
shown with twenty vertebrae, and as the other characters are insufficient, there seem no adequate
grounds to warrant the separation of the species into two.
The settlement of this question by Dr. Falconer helps to extinguish a doubtful speculation as
to Ceylon and Sumatra having been formerly continuous, which was brought forward by Sir Emerson
Tennent, and adopted by Professor Schlegel. Referring to the supposed identity of the two Ele-
phants, and the differences between the fauna of Ceylon and Southern India, such as the Monkeys
being all, or mostly all, different, he suggests the possibility of the former continuity of the islands A
* Bijdrago tot dc Gescliiedenis van Elephanten-voor- t Hodgson in " Zoological Soc. Proceedings," 1S34,
namelijk Elkphas Sumatrands, " Verslagen eii Mededeelin- p. 96.
gen der kouiuklijke Academie van Wetenschappen Afd. J "Nat. Hist. Rev." Jan. 1SG2, p. 81.
Natuurkunde," 1861, p. 101, translated by Dr. P. L. Solater
in " Natural History Rev." ii. p. 72.
ELEPHANTS. 193
former communication may have existed, but it miist have been long before the last adj ustment of
the relations between land and earth. As Dr. Falconer well says, the range of low hills which
forms the sjoine of the Malay Peninsula, and which is separated by a narrow interval only from the
islands of the Archipelago, can be traced north, increasing in height and development till it joins
on with the Himmalayah. While Ceylon, as has been often remarked, presents all the physical
characters of being a severed portion of the distinct mountain-chain of the "Western Ghauts. With
certain exceptions, the mammalian fauna, as a general rule, confirms this view, as do also recent
investigations on the flora of the mountainous regions of the adjoining Indian Peninsida near to
its extremit}''. That a connexion formerly, and at no very remote jjcriod, existed between the
the Malay ArchijDelago and the continuous mainland, is clearly indicated by the species of large
Mammalia common to both.* In fact their fauna is the same.
Such a former connexion recalls tlie consideration of the peculiarities of the fauna of Borneo
ali'eady partially discussed in speaking of the Great Carnivora, and the reader will remember that
I suggested the hypothesis that that island, in its alternations of submergence and elevation, may
have had its last submergence, previous to its elevation to its present state, arrested before the actual
destruction of all its former inhabitants had been completed, but so very near such a time, that
it was only those animals which were more or less independent of dry land, (such as arboreal, aerial,
or aquatic animals), that did survive. In the enumeration of the exceptions to this fact, I showed
that the only large mammals whoso existence in the island is beyond question, are the Bos
SoNDAicus and the Elephant. The statement that the Hhinoceros and Tapir also inhabit Borneo
depends on unsupported allegation. No person can be pointed out or referred to who had actually
seen them, and I therefore think I am entitled until some evidence is brought forward in proof
of their occurrence there, to reject them as natives of Borneo.
The Sunda Ox is a domesticated animal, and is more likely to have been introduced than
to be aboriginal. Once introduced, it may, easily in such a jungle have escaped and become wild.
There, therefore, only remains the Elephant, and, so far as can be ascertained, there seem strong
grounds for believing it to have been introduced too.
Professor Schegel has so little doubt on the subject that he commences his paper on the
distinctness of the insidar from the continental Elephants of Asia ia these words : " It is well
known that Sumatra is the only island of the Indian Archipelago where Elephants are found
wild. Magelhaens has informed us that the Elephants which he saw in Borneo were introduced
there, and that the animal is as little indigenous to that island as to Java."t
As already said, however, Sir. Blyth, also well entitled to speak, takes the opposite view,
and maintains that the Elephants now. found in Borneo are aboriginal.
Mr. Spencer St. John, in his "Life-in the Forests of the far East," says, "Among the principal
animals which frequent the forests of Borneo may be mentioned the Elephant, Pihinoceros, the
Tapir, wild cattle, Deer, S-svine, Bears, a small Panther, Otters, and a variety of felines. The first
three have not been seen hy Euroi^eans. When ascending the River Baram in the north-west coast,
one of the guides I had with me said he had frequently traded in the country where Elephants
aboimded, and that was in the direction of the Kina Batafigan Eiver on the north-east coast. My
favourite follower Musa, when pulling iqj the great River of Kina Batangan, sleerid close in shore
* Falcoxeh, op. cit. p. 0.^.
+ ScHi.EGEi., o\>. cit. .supra. Sckter's translaticm " Nat. Hist. Rev." ii. 72.
c c
194 MAMMALS.
to avoid the strengtli of the current, and looking up to find what was moving near, saw a noble
tusked Elephant above him, with his proboscis stretched over the boat to pick fruit bej'ond. ' The
paddle dropped from my hand,' said he, ' life left me, but the canoe drifted back out of danger.'
" "\^Tien we went round to look for that district we failed to find the entrance of the river,
so my personal knowledge of the Elephant is limited to noticing their traces on the beach, though
I have met dozens of men who have themselves seen these animals wandering in herds, and I
have often had their tusks brought to me for sale at Labuan and Sulu ; one I measured was six
feet two inches in length, including that portion which is set in the head, and this was purchased
by Mr. Scott, the Governor of Natal.
"It is generally believed that above a hundred years ago the East India Company sent to the
Sultan of Sulu a present of some Elephants ; that the Sultan said these great creatures would
certainly eat up the whole produce of his Ultle island, and asked the donors to land them at Cape
Unsang, on the north-east coast of Borneo, where his people would take care of them. But it is
contrary to the nature of the Malay to take care of any animal that requires much trouble, so
the Elephants sought their own food in the woods, and soon became wild. Hundreds now wander
about and constantly break into the plantations, doing much damage ; but the natives sally out
with huge flaming torches, and drive the startled beasts back to the woods.
" The ivorv of Bornean commerce is generally procured from the dead bodies foimd in the
forests, but there is now living a man who drives a profitable trade in fresh ivory. He sallies
out on dark nights with simply a waistcloth and a short sharp spear ; he crawls up to a herd of
Elephants, and selecting a large one drives his spear into the animal's belly. In a moment the
whole herd is on the move, frightened by the bellowing of their wounded companion, which rushes
to and fro, until the panic spreads, and they tear headlong through the jungle crushing before
them all the smaller vegetation. The hunter's peril at that moment is great, but fortune has
favoured him yet, as he has escaped being trampled to death.
" In the morning he follows the traces of the herd, and carefully examining the soil, detects
the spots of blood that have fallen from the wounded Elephant. He often finds him so weakened
by loss of blood as to be luiable to keep up with the rest of the herd, and a new wound is soon
inflicted. Patiently pursuing this practice the hunter has secured many of those princes of the
forest."*
I am afraid I am of a sceptical turn of mind, but I cannot help saj-ing before I begin to
test the real import of Mr. St. John's information, that I find this hunter's tale very indigestible.
This, however, is by the way, and it does not affect the fact of Elephants being there to operate
upon, that we doubt the truth of the modus operandi.
Mr. Blytli doubts the possibility of the few individuals put ashore by the order of the Sultan
of Sulu, little more than a century ago, having increased to such an extent as to form the large
herds which are ><pokcii of as existing in the north-east Peninsula of Borneo. I beg the reader
to note, in passing, that these great herds are only spolicn of, nobody has seen them but the natives.
Mr. St. John no doubt says that he has seen " many tusks brought to Labuan for sale," but " many ^'
is a word of such diversity of acceptation that it conveys almost no information. Some men might
think a dozen many, others might think a ship-load few ; and I rather read " many tusks brought
1o Labuan for sale" as meaning "tusks brought at many times to Labuan for sale." But let me
not be hypercritical, — I only wish to put the di'ag on our imaginations to prevent us attaching a
* St. John's " Lifo in the Forests uf the Far East,' ii. p. 224. Loudon, 1862.
ELEPHANTS. 195
larger meaning to the numbers of tlic Elephants than is really intended. Jlr. Blyth disallows Mr.
Darwin's calculation of tlio probable minimum rate of tlio nafui'al increase of the Elephant, by
which he reckoned that in five centuries the increase of a single pair woidd exceed lo,00n,()ll() ;
but it was not necessary for his argument to take this objection, because it is all at the end of
the centuries that the rapidity of the increase takes place ; at the 120th year, according to Darwin's
datum of three pair of births in each Elephant's lifetime, the increase of one pair would not have
reached 500 individuals ; or, supposing three pairs of Elephants to have been turned loose, the in-
crease would not have reached 1500, but another thirty years or two make a great difference, the
increase then goes on with giant strides ; Mr. Darwin's rate of increase also is probably much too
low ; supposing the female to produce one calf onlj' at a time (and she has sometimes two), his rate
would give only one birth in fifteen years. It would not seem too much to double this, in which
case at 120 years after the introduction of three pair they might bo 20,000 in nuniber, or if we take
150 years then 60,000, a sufficient number to make some very respectable herds even after making-
allowance for the patriarchs dying off.
Another objection of Mr. Blyth's to the common account is that the remnant of a wild
race of Elef)hants existed in Sulu within the memory of jjeojile now Hving.* That a remnant of
Elephants existed there may be true, but there is no evidence that they were a irilil race. The
following information on the subject is given by Mr. St. John, in his notice of Sidu : — "Remem-
bering Forest's statement that Elephants were found in his time in the forests which clothed so
much of the soil of the island, I asked Dater Daniel about it ; his answer was, that even within
the remembrance of the oldest men then alive, there were still a few Elephants left in the woods,
but finding that they committed so much damage to the plantations the villagers had combined and
hunted the beasts until they were all killed ; I was pleased to find the old traveller's account
confirmed." t
Mr. Blyth asks why since there were wild Elejihants already on the island, should the few
tame Elej)hants presented to the Sultan of Sulu be landed in Borneo. I would answer his inquiry
(Scot ice) by another. Why should they have ever been presented to him at all if the Elephant was
already a native of his o^vn island ? The more natural supposition seems to be that he did not
dismiss the present of Elephants to Borneo befoi'e he had seen them and tried them. Until he had
done so, he could scarcely estimate the extent of their appetite, and that it was only after he found
it too large for his revenue that he despatched them to Borneo, and that even then he did not
send all. It is in accordance with human nature that he should keep one or two as a toj' to show.
These may very probably have been the progenitors of the Elephants destroyed by the ^-illagers,
while those now wild in Borneo are the representatives of the greater number turned loose there.
The probability of the Bornean terrestrial fauna ha\'ing been at one time entirely arboreal,
does not therefore thus far appear to be afiectcd by any of the instances of non-arboreal animals said
to occur there.
The Elephant is not iiow met with in any of the other islands in the Indian Archipelago except
Java and Sumatra. It is aboriginal in the latter, but not in the former. In former times, however,
it must have been an inhabitant of the Philippine Islands, as the names Gadya (Elephant) and
Nangagadya (Elephant-hunting), are preserved in the Tagal language.^
* Blyth in '■ Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal," 1SC2. J Bowring, Sir John, '■' A Visit to the Philippine
t St. John, op. eit. ii. 243. ' Islands," 1,S.59.
rJ6
CHAPTER XXIX.
MULTUNGULA COIltill 1(0(1 SIRENIA DIXOTHERUM MANATEE DrooXG RHYTINA.
Following Professor Owen's classification, which is in this respect that of Cuvier, I shonld
now pass on to a new section which he designates " Mutilata," and which is composed of the
SiRENiA and Cetacea. But tlic affinity of the Sirbnia to the Paclijrdermata appears to me so
much greater than to the Cetacea that I exercise tlie option I reserved to myself of following a
different arrangement from his in cases where my own con^ictions were very decidedly opposed
to the arrangement he adopted. In this case I cannot say that my convictions are opposed to his,
because he has in many places* stated that he had arrived at the conclusion that the Sirenia
constitute an order of mammals quite distinct from the Cetacea, and in some characters more nearly
allied to the Pachyderms ; notwithstanding which, he, in his well-considered sj'stom of arrange-
ment, removes them from the Pachyderms and places them in the same section as the Whales. In
one sense, it may be said that the matter is not of much importance, because, if ■s^e bring the
Cetacea after the Pachydermata, and place the Sirenia at the head of the former, their position
in the arrangement is the same in either \'iew. In another sense, however, it is of very consi-
derable imiDortance, because there is involved in it the question whether they are more nearly
allied to the one or the other ; to speak in a general way whether they are modified Whales or
modified Elephants. I think they are modified Elej^hants. Moreover, although we may place
the Whales after the Elephants, it cannot be said that that is on account any close affinity between
them. The Cetacea form a group ap)art. The thread breaks when we come to them, and we
must begin a new piece ; but with the Sirenia it is not so, the thread between the Elephants
and them is still continuous.
The mal-association in Professor Owen's arrangement is due to greater weight being given
to the form and purpose of the structure of the animal than to the p/aii of the structure. On
this point the ideas of Agassiz seem right in principle. The form and purpose to which they are
to be put are subordinate to the great jikin of the work, and affinities founded upon the congruity
of the former .should certainly give way to those founded upon the analogy of the latter. Not
to speak of more widely separated organisms, the form of the Whale and the pui-pose for which
its form is given is the same as that of a fish, namely, to live in water instead of air, but the plan
of their sti'ucture is diffoi'cnt. The purpose of the structure of the bat is the same as that of
the bii-d, but its plan is different.
Agassiz, in stating his views of the position of classes, orders, and families, takes the p/nii of
structure as the character for distinguishing the great divisions of the organic kingdom, called by
* Owen in " Proc. Zool. Soc." 1838, p. 45, &c.
SIRENIA. 197
liim types or brandies ; the cnmJiiuafion of structure, as tlic test for defining' classes ; the complication
of structure, as evidenced in the dccjrce of orijnnimtion, as that for orders ; form as the character of
families ; ultimate structural peculiarities as those of genera ; relation of parts to each other and to
the workl around them, as those of species.*
Although I quote this, I do not mean that I agree with all that Agassiz lays down on tlie
subject ; on the contrary, I dissent from the most of it. He believes in the existence of all these
subdi\nsions in nature. I do not. I see that organised beings exist in groups, but I see no two
groups bearing the same rank ; and no two equally well defined. It appears to me, therefore, that
the practice of natui'alists of which Agassiz complains, of using the terms class, order and
familj', loosely, and often interchangeably or indiscriminate^, is quite natural. How can one
use a term precisely for things which are never precise, but alwaj's irregular and uncertain ?
But at the same time, I think that most of his propositions, though not fomided on nature, will at
least prove useful for artificial arrangement. For instance, plan of structure is plainly at the
base of all arrangement, and the more nearlj' the plan on which different organic beings are
constructed corresponds, the nearer ought to be their place to each other ; such identity of plan
is the consequence of nearness of derivation from which all similarity of structiu'e proceeds ; and
altliough the difference between combination of structui'e and complication of structure, savours
more of refinement on words than of precise meaning, there can be little doubt that the general
principle involved in all his propositions is correct, viz., that before we come to employ the subor-
dinate objects or parts of structure, the more important modifications of its plan ought to be taken
into account.
We should go against this principle if we placed the Sirenia in the same section as the Cetacea,
instead of ■vrith the Pachyderms, because we sliould then give weight to form in preference to plan of
structure. Because it is a swimming fish-shaped mammal, with the anterior limbs turned into fins,
and the posterior limbs absent, we should place it beside another swimming fish-shaped mammal,
similarly situated as regards limbs. It is the same mistake that used to be made long ago, when
the Seals, for the same reason, were jDlaced in the same group ; and the parallel to that ornithological
arrangement, objected to bj' many ornithologists, by which the water birds are placed all by them-
selves instead of being distributed among their congeners, according to their plan of structiu'c — the
Gidls beside the Raptores, and so on.
There are, no doubt, one or two other indications of affinity wliich maj^ have weighed witli
Cuvier and Owen in inducing them to give the preference to the Cetaceous group as that to which
tlie Sirenia should be referred, such as, that the Rhvtina, one of the Sirexia, instead of liaving teeth
has horn-)' plates on the palate, suggestive of the whalebone of the whale ; that the cervical vertebra)
are only six in the Manatee, so far supplj'ing an ajiparcnt coincidence with the Wluiles, ^yhich,
sometimes from tlie effects of anchylosis, usually appear to have fewer cervical vertebras than seven ;
and that all the Sikenia have a broad transverse tail-fin like that of the Whales.
On the other hand, the nostrils are not placed as in the Whales, nor do they serve as blow-
holes as in them, but they occupy the usual position in front of the muzzle. Tlie hirynx is that
of the Elephant, not that of the Whale. With the exception of tlie TUiytina, the form, structure,
and number of the teeth, are as in terrestrial pachyderms, and not as in the Whales, which have them
conical, numerous, and milike those of any other mammals ; further, in the Sirenia, the molar teeth
* AoASSK, L., "Contributions to tlie Natural Ilistoi-v of the United States," vol. i. p. 137, et scq. Boston, 1857.
1 98 MAMMALS.
are bilophodont (two-ridgod), a structure peculiar to some of the Paclij'dcrms, Edentates, and Mar-
supials, e.g., tlie Tapir, Megatherium, Diprotodon, and Kangaroo ; as in the Elephant, thej^ are packed
in a sort of inner case, or matrix, within the bone ; and as in it they advance continuously from
behind forwards, the foremost dropping out, and the vacant alveoli being gradually absorbed suc-
cessively, and the roots of the teeth themselves being gradually absorbed as they come to the front,
so that they droj) readily out.* Their ear-bones are large, like cetolites, but any inference favourable
to their cetaceous character which might be drawn from that fact, is negatived by their still greater
resemblance to those of the Hippopotamus ; f and as in the Pachyderms, the anterior part of the
head of the first rib articulates with a fovea on the seventh cervical vertebra. Their generative
and renal systems are those of the Pachyderms. The teats are placed on tlie breast as in the
Elephant, and not far back on the belly as in the "VVliales. They have a neck which the "Whales
have not. They have thick fleshy lips, and, like the Elephant, the skin carries more or less
numerous hairs or bristles. The coat in which the Rhytina is inclosed is a close agglomeration
of hairs or horny tubes, so hard as to resist the blows of an axe, reminding us of the horn of the
Rhinoceros. The bones, too, are dense and heavy, while those of the Whales are light and spongy.
DiNOTHERiuM. Everj^ one must remember the figure of this animal as restored, reposing on
the bank of a tranquil lake, with good sturdy Ele^jhant-likc limbs ingeniously tucked up beneath it,
but with the termination of one which could not be well got out of the way, modestly concealed
by a tuft of grass ; with enormous tusks in its lower jaw bent downwards like the upper tusks of
the "Walrus, and clothed in flesh, aU but the points, like an old lady's fingers in mittens with the
tips cut ofl'; and finished oflf with a double-chinned proboscis flourishing about in the air in an
insane-looking manner. One is happy to think that it was a human artist, not -nature, that
devised this curiosity.
Professor Owen, resting chiefly on the close relation manifested by this extinct genus to the
Mastodon in its molar teeth and its inferior tusks, placed it among the Proboscideans ; another
proof, by the way, of the pachydermatous relations of this family. He believed it to be a quadrupedal
and terrestrial Pachyderm, with thick and stout extremities adapted to the support and progression
of the massive frame which characterizes the known Proboscidean Pachyderms. J
But De Blaiuville and Gooffroy St. Hilaire, from a consideration of the whole cranial and
and dental system, came to the conclusion, that it did not possess a proboscis, and, from the
resemblance of the fore part of the head to that of the Manatee, that it was an aquatic animal
* Cuvier figures the African Manatee with six molars were obtained from the Dju-dju of a native chief; the
in each jaw on each side, and the American with nine, Manatee being, lilve the sturgeon witli ourselves, a perqui-
which are never all in use at one time, the greatest num- site of royalty.
ber being seven so in use. Vogel gives the numbers in t So great is their resemblance to those of the Hippo-
thc Ajah as five, which Owen thinks may be due to the potamus, that Dr. Kirk, seeing a pair of these bones lying
animal being 3'oung. I possess two fine heads of M. Senega- on my table, from one of the two heads above spoken of,
LENSis, from Old Calabar, which I owe to the kindness of from the Old Calabar river, took them up with the remark,
my friend the Rev. W. C. Thomson, of the United Pres- " Hippopotamus' ear-bonesj " with which, of course, he
I>yterian Mission there. These two differ in the dentition, was familiar. It was he who drew my attention to the
having respectively nine and ten teeth on each side of each mode of the loss of the anterior teeth — the absorption of
jaw ; the teeth fully exposed and in use on the diflerent sides the alveoli and of the roots (the posterior roots being
of the jaw are unequal in number — nine and ten in the absorbed first, leaving the anterior to hold the tooth in its
one, and eight and nine in the other There are still place so long as required).
two or three undeveloped teeth stowed away in the rear J Owex in "Ann. Nat. Hist." vol. xi. 329, 1843.
in the matrix or c.x-se which holds them. My specimens
DINOTIIEUIUM. 190
without legs and with anterior pinniform extremities or fins ; and their view is now generally
adopted. According to them, in short, it was a gigantic Dugong with inferior incisors developed
into reversed tusks, like those of the Walrus, only developed from the under incisors instead of from
the upper canines. As their form and appearance are the same, so doubtless was their purpose :
viz., to support the animal's head upon the shore, or to help it in climbing up out of the
water. They may also have been of use in tearing up and exposing the roots of aquatic plants for
its food.
It would appear to have'been at least as large as the Elephant, and probably had a round,
long, and plump body like the Manatee ; but as nothing but teeth and bones of the head have yet
l)oen found, any expression of opinion on these points is mere conjecture.
It was from the Epplesheim beds near Hesse Darmstadt, now ascertained to belong to the
miocene epocli, that the fossil which revealed this extraordinary animal to us was first obtained.
It was a lower jaw of enormous size, which Cuvier described as a portion of a " Tapir Gigantesque,"
afterwards named Dinotherium giganteum by Kaup. Since then portions of the head and teeth
have been found in miocene deposits in various parts of Europe, Germany, France, and Switzerland.
It has also been found in Perim Island in the Gulf of Cambay, and Prof. Owen in 1843 indicated
the existence of a species D. Indicuii in the Sevalik beds in India ;* but he makes no allusion to
this while subsequently specifying other localities in his " Palaeontology."
IlALiTHKKirji, Kiiup. The Halitherium is an extinct genus of Sirene, of which several species
existed in the time of the later tertiaries in Germany, Franco, and Italy. ' Montpelier, Angers,
Beaucaire, Etampes, Longjumeau, and Pezenas, have furnished remains.
A nimiber of other genera have been projjosed upon remains which, according to Giebel, are
referable to species of this genus. There is Christol's Metaxytherium, Meyer's Halianassa, Kaup's
IIalytherium and Pygmeodon, Bruno's Pontotherium and Cheirotheriim, and Gervais's Trachy-
THERiUM. He refers them all to four species of Halitheriiun.
M.VNATEE. (Map 51.) The Manatee, or Lamantin, and the Dugong, or Halicore, arc the only
SiRENiA now in existence. Three or four species are known of the former, and two of the latter,
and, according to Harlan, another species of the former (now extinct) existed formerly in Mary-
land ; remains which he refers to it having been found in the tertiary beds of that district. The
Manatee inhabits, although it is not absolutely confined to, the Atlantic ; and the Dugong lives in
the Pacific.
Until of late years our chief knowledge of the Manatee was derived from specimens of the
species from the other side of the Atlantic, but our intercourse with West Africa has latterly so
much increased, that specimens of the M. Senegalensis are no longer so rare, and manj- questions
(as, for instance, the nimaber of its cervical vertebra;, now ascertained be}'ond doubt to be six), which
anatomists and physiologists had been discussing in the dark, are now known from that source.
This West African species is about eight feet in length.
Although usually said to be confined to the Atlantic, its range extends from Senegal round
the Cape of Good Hoj)e, and it has been found as far north on the other side of the Continent
as Quillimane, in Mozambique, where it is named by the Portuguese, " peixe mulhinj." It lives more
especially about the mouths of rivers, where the sea-weeds on which it feeds are more abundant.
* Owen iu "Annals of Nat. Hist.' vol. xi. 7, 184.3.
200 I\IAMMALS.
Another species is said to occur in the river Niger and its tributaries. We owe the fii'st notice
of this to Dr. Barth, and the first description of it to the unfortunate Dr. Vogel, who was murdered
not long after he had sent home an accoimt of it. The following is the gist of what we know about it.
In 1851, while Dr. Barth was journeying towards the country of the Adamawa in Central
Africa, he heard from the natives accounts of an animal named by them Ayu (erroneously written
Ajah), and which was said to frequent the rivers and marshes. He heard of the same animal under
the same name also up the river Kwora or Niger below Timbuktu, and he believes that it also exists in
the river Shari, which runs into the marshy Lake Tschad. Dr. Barth not having been able to satisfy
himself about this creature, directed Dr. Vogel's attention to it, and the latter gentleman fortunately
met with a specimen in SejDtember, 1855, in the upper part of the Binue or Tsadda ; and an account
of this Ayu having been sent by him to England, j^nd read at the British Association Meeting
at Cheltenham, Professor Owen thought that it presented sufficient peculiarities to allow of its being
distinguished as a new species, which he named Manatus Vogehi.
From Dr. Vogel's description it appears that it passes its time in the marshes inundated by the
river. With the subsidence of the waters the animal retires down the river to the ocean ; but re-
appears in the commencement of the rainy season with the rising waters, bringing with it one or two
young, at that period from three or four feet in length. Its food consists chiefly of grass. The
Ajah. reaches ten feet in length, and becomes exceedingly fat. Its flesh and fat are like those of the
hog — very well tasted. Its bones are as hard as ivory, and whips are made from the skin. It
ajjpears to be rare, for in the three months it remains on the Binue seldom more than twenty or
thirty are taken.
Dr. Balfour Baikie made every exertion to meet with it, but without success. He tells us that he
obtained a head of the known species of Manatee from a Dju-dju, or sacred heap, near a miserable
village on one of tlie intcruiinable dreary creeks at the mouth of the Niger ; but during the months
of September and October when he ascended the river he saw or heard of none. This may have been
the time when the beast was absent in salt water. I believe he was more successful afterwards, but
his untimely death has prevented any jjublication of his success, or of his opinion whether it is a
good species or not.
The authorit}' for the new species in the meantihie is rather meagre — resting entirely on poor
Dr. Vogel's description, and unauthenticated by the examination of specimens by competent authorities
Professor Owen's endorsation is not very decided ; all that he says is that it may be a distinct and
somewhat smaller species than the Senegalensis, and that the chief indication of specific distinctness
is the closer approximation of the eyes to the nostrils and to the end of the snout, as shown by the
admeasurement given by Dr. Vogel.
It may very probably be that the M. Senegalensis ascends the rivers of Africa as the South
American species ascends the Amazon and Oronoko.
Should it prove to be a distinct species it will, from Dr. Vogel's account, be found in the same
seas as those which the Senecjalensis has hitherto been supposed alone to occupy; and we may
find on a more careful examination of specimens and their respective localities that, on this as on
the other side of the Atlantic one species occupies the more northern ground and the other the
more southern.
The interest attaching to tliis animal would be still greater shoidd the icmuinder of Dr.
Barth's report prove true, and it be found that the animal exists in the river Shari, which runs
into the marshy Lake Tschad. This lalce, including of course ils tributaries, has no communication
MANATEE. 20 1
with (he sou ; and if a Manatee exists there we should have what at first sight would appear to bo
a parallel case to the occurrence of the Seal in the Caspian Sea and Lake Baikal. But it would
not be so in reality. It is only a repetition of the lesson which we are constantly receiving not
to assume that similar results are always produced by the same causes. If it were so, the only
means by which the Manatee could be supposed to have reached Lake Tschad would be by a
depression of the land suflicient to allow a water communicatiou between it and the sea. Lake
Tschad would then be a gidf of the sea ; and if the land rose and converted it into a land-locked
lake, the Manatees which happened to be in it would be retained there under new conditions of
life. But in Lake Tschad there is no need for such a machinery. The watershed between the Lake
and the Sea is not a lofty range of mountains, from one side of whicb the rivers run into Lake
Tschad, and from the other into the Niger, but a flat, marshy tract of land, so nearly level, that
it is almost an equal chance by which way the waters will run from it. It is like a large peat-
bog, or a gigantic sponge, out of one side of which creeps the Arre and Shari, and out of the other
the Biuue. The Hippopotamus goes easily from the one to the other, and in the rains, when the
coxmtry becomes flooded, the natives go about in boats. It is like an inundation, so that the
Manatee coidd with ease come up from the Atlantic, and find its way into Lake Tschad.
The case, therefore, is anything but parallel with the Caspian and Lake Baikal. But in the
great system of lakes, on the other side of the African Continent, there may be an instance bearing
more relation to them.
Dr. Kirk informs me that the natives of the Zambesi district spoke of a large animal, which
was not the Hippopotamus, but as large as it, inhabiting Lake Shirwa. Of course, the natives were
familiar enough with the Hippopotamus, and not likely to make any mistake as regards it ; but as
the animal was not actually seen by any of Dr. Livingstone's party, the statement is only of
importance as indicating a point to be inquired into when occasion serves.
The inquiry is of interest in many ways, from the inferences which may flow from it. The
fact of a Sirenian existing there might modify the present views of geologists as to Africa having
remained above water since the secondarj^ period ? Its existence there might compel us to admit
that a former communication must have subsisted between the lakes and the sea, as there is no other
means by which it could have surmounted the Murchison Rapids which lie between them; and
to admit of such a communication the land must have been dejDressed to a greater or less extent.
To what opposite conclusions might we not be led according as the Sirenian there should prove
to be a Manatee or a Dugong — a new species, or one already known ! If the latter, the course of
change must have been slow — if the former, it must have been comparatively rapid and sudden.
If the creature were a Manatee, it may have found its way from the south ; if a Dugong, it would
probably obtain access from the north.
But we must not allow ourselves to luxuriate in such speculations. The whole of our airy
vision depends upon " the vain breath of a Nerjro man." But, nevertheless, the Negro's knowledge of
species often beats that of the naturalist, and they are very cunning — in some better things than
bodiless creations.
Two other species of Manatee are found in Atlantic waters, but they are only found on the
coasts on the other side; on the shores of America between the Tropics. The fossil one described
by Harlan from the western coasts of Maryland, is scarcely accepted by naturalists, more
perhaps, from his determination not having been endorsed by any otlier Paliuontologist,
than for any other reason. His determination was made from the ribs and vcitcbra', and
1) D
202 MAMMALS.
if correct, the animal to which they belonged, must have been of colossal size, the vertical diameter
of the atlas vertebra having been nine inches, and the transverse diameter eleven inches.
The two living American species inhabit respectively the north and south angles of the Gulf of
Mexico. The Northern species, M. latirostris Harlan, strange to saj', is more nearly allied to the
African species M. Senegalexsis, than to its nearer neighbour, the South American M. australis.
It is found about the mouths of rivers, near the capes of East Florida, in 25° N. Lat. Harlan
says* that when he wrote (1825) they were found in considerable numbers, so nnich so that one
Indian was able to cajjture ten or twelve with the harpoon in one season. Like the African
species it measures from eight to ten feet in length. It resembles it as well as all the other species in
the excellence of its flesh as food, which is thought to resemble veal. CajDt. Henderson, in his
account of the British settlement of Honduras, speaks thus enthusiastically of the tail as a tit-bit :
" The tail, which forms the most valuable part of the Manatee, after laying some days in a pickle
prcjiarcd for it, with spices, &c., and eaten cold, is a discovery of which Apicius might have been
proud, and which the discriminating palate of Elagabalus would have thought justly entitled to
the most distinguished reward. "f
It may be a question of which species Henderson here speaks, Honduras being about the
debateable gromid where the Northern species may be expected to terminate, and the Southern
to commence. The latter species, M. australis, extends along the shore, down the coast of Brazil,
and ascends the rivers Oronoko and Amazon for g-reat distances. It is a little larger than
the other species, being about nine or ten feet in length.
One of the species of Manatee has occurred more tlian once on the shores of Britain. Fleming
records it as having been found at Shetland, in 1823, and refers the species to Senegalensis.
Baikio also records that species as having been met with in Orkney. I think it more probable that
they were examples of the American species M. latirostris, which had probably come with the Gidf
Stream. They do not apjiear to have undergone any discriminative examination ; and, indeed, none
could have been made, for the materials for comparison were awanting. So far from a specimen of
M. Senegalensis being accessible in Shetland or Orkney, I do not believe that at that time there was
one in all Britain.
DuGONG. — Hernandez mentions a species of Manatee as being found along the coast of
Peru. This without doubt must have been the Dugong or Halicoro (Halicore Indica), by which
the Manatee is replaced in the Pacific Ocean. The commonest species, Halicore cetacea, ranges
from about the mouth of the Zambesi, northwards all along the East African coast into the Red
Sea, thence along the Persian shore to the East Indies ; round which, and Ceylon, it passes onwards
into the Bay of Bengal, descends the Burmese Coast and the Malayan Peninsida into the Indian
Archipelago, throughout the greater part of which it is found. It does not appear to be known
north of tlie Indian Archipelago, or on the coasts of China or Japan. Riippel thought that the
individuals found in the Red Sea were distinct from the Indian Dugong, and proposed the name
of Halicore tabernaculi, for the species found there va. case it should prove distinct.^
The separation of the islands of the Indian Ai'chipelago and New Guinea into a Malayan
region and an Australian region, is bonic out even by this marine genus, for at the Straits of
* Harlan, "Fauna Americana," 1825, p. 277. * t Roppel, " Bcschreibung des imrothen meere vorkom-
t Mbnderson's " Account of Honduras," 1809, p. lOB. menden Dugong (Halicore)." 4to, 1833, p. 113.
iinYTiNA. 203
Timor a new species makes its appearance. This has also been met with by Jukes on the
north coast of Australia, at Endeavour Strait, in 22° S. Lat.* It has since been found in consi-
derable numbers in Moreton Bay, but not further to the south. It is, however, j)lentiful along the
north coast. It was figured and described by Professor Owen under the name of IIalicore
AUSTRALis. Records of the Dugong having been found along the northern coast of Australia are
numerous, and no doubt belong to this new species, although they are stated as being the old
II. CETACEA, for until the new one was ascertained to be distinct, the attention of observers was not
di-awn to. this point, and all who saw it took it for granted that it was the common species.
The chief distinguishing character is the development of six teeth in each jaw, while the Indian
Dugong has only five ; a most insufficient character, if the dentition of the Dugong is at all of
the same nature as that of the Manatee, in which the nvmiber of teeth is an individual affiiir de-
pendent upon age, not a specific character. The species may be a good one, notwithstanding. There
must have been something in it which first suggested the idea of its being distinct before scientific
specific characters were sought for ; and if so, they wiU doubtless still be found ; and, moreover, the
dentition may very possibly be on a different system, for the adidt possesses two incisors in the
upper jaw, which the adult Manatee does not. It also greatly exceeds the Manatee in size, reaching
as much as eighteen or twenty feet in length.
Rhytixa. — A not less interesting subject than the Manatee anq). Dugong, is the other section
of the Sirenia, named Rhytina, which is characterised by several remarkable peculiarities. One of
these is, that instead of teeth it had a waved or transversely furrowed horny plate on the anterior
part of the palate, opposed to a similar one between the lower jaws ; these, when the animal was
alive, must have been flexible and clastic, for those of preserved specimens became so after being
steeped for a few days in water. Another peculiarity was, that what appeared to be the skin was
a coat of nearly an inch in thickness, composed of perpendicular horny tubes, analogous to hair,
agglutinated together like the horn of the Rhinoceros. This skin was — (it is distressing to have
to speak of it in the past tense, but it is a hundred j'cars since it was killed and eaten off
the face of the earth by gluttonous man), — was blackish brown and rough and wrinkled, especially
on the sides, resembling in some respects the rough bark of a tree, and was so hard that the
blows of an axe could scarcely penetrate it. The animal was of great size, its length having
reached twenty-four feet, and its circumference nineteen feet.
It was discovered in 1741 upon the shores of Bhering's Island, an island lying to the south-
west of Bhering's Straits, and near the Asiatic end of the Aleutian Isles. Bhering's second expedi-
tion was shipwrecked upon it, and ten months were spent there by his shipwrecked crew, during
which they were mainly supported by the food obtained from this animal, which was then so numerous
that SteUer, who formed part of Bhering's expedition, estimated that they were sufficient to feed the
whole population of Kamschatka. This apparently inexhaustible depot of superior food of course
became bruited abroad, and the hunters and whalers soon made a practice of wintering at Bhering's
Island and provisioning their ships with these animals, and made such havoc among them that
they were speedily extinguished, the last ha-song been killed in 1768.
Steller, notwithstanding the unfavourable circumstances — (enduring the hardships and priva-
tions of a shipwreck in that inclement region) — under which he was placed for making scientific
observations, or writing scientific treatises, prepared an admirable account of the beast, which was
* Jukes' "Voyage of the Flj," vol. ii. p. 323.
204 MAMMALS.
published at St. Petersburg-, in 1751.* He did not live to superintend its publication, and tbe
specific name which he had intended to give it was properly altered to Rhytina Stelleri, in memory
and honour of him.
Since then various more or less successful attempts, chiefly by the Eussian authorities, have
been made to procure the bones of this species from its old haunts ; and Professor Brandt has
profited by those specimens which have come into the St. Petersburg collection, to publish two ex-
cellent accounts of the history and structure of the animal.f More recently, Professor Nordmann, of
Helsingfors, has published an account of one which had been obtained by the Imperial university
of that place.J This had been procured by Professor Nordiuann, through a friend, the Governor of
Russian America, who got an immature specimen (a baby of only some sixteen and a half feet in
length), dug up in Bhering's Island by two Aleutians. The whole skeleton seemed to belong to
one individual, the only parts deficient were the hand-bones, some of the caudal vertebras and the
ej)iphyses of the shoulder-blade, humerus, ulna, and radius. Curiously enough, one of these de-
ficient parts is a part on which information was particularly wanted, ^'iz. the hand-bones. Steller
especially notes as a remarkable anomaly, the absence of fingers in the pectoral fins. Nord-
mann does not seem to accept this as correct, for he simply says that if an expert had been
present he would ijrobably have found the missing parts likewise. I doubt it.
The account of this animal is therefore not absolutely complete, and I cannot refrain from
echoing a suggestion made in a recent number of the "Natural History Review," § that
" the crew of one of the vessels of war on the Pacific station might be very usefully emploj'ed in
visiting Bhering's Island, and obtaining for our national collection a skeleton of this very singular
mammal. At present we have not a fragment of it in this countrj^, except two ribs, purchased by
the British Museimi some two years since from St. Petersburg. A cruise up to Bhering's Island
in the summer months, and a little digging, would involve neither hardship nor risk to the vessel
selected for the service, and might be the means of much increasing our knowledge of this curious
animal."
I would only venture to add to this most excellent suggestion, that ice-bound Mammoths
and Rhinoceroses are still to be obtained on the Arctic shores of Asia, and that the cruise recom-
mended might be extended with advantage as far as the mouth of the Lena or Jenesei, with a -s-iew
of securing one or more of these creatures ; suitable preparations, of course, being made for car-
rying oif a specimen shoiild one be met with. A somewhat similar suggestion or proposition has
recently been made to the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg for promoting the discovery of the
congealed remains of gigantic mammifers in Siberia.
The only place where the Rhytina Stellert was found in any numbers was Bhering's
Island, but it appears to have been sparingly scattered along the coast of Kamschatka, and,
according; to Harlan, the west coast of North America, and among the Aleutian Islands. Can it
also have ranged along the whole of the north coast of Siberia and Europe to Greenland ?
Otho Fabricius quotes it as an inhabitant of Greenland in these terms ; " a veiy rare animal
in the Greenland sea, a partially consumed craniimi of which was all that I saw, in which were
spurious teeth (the hornj' plates) closely congested, such as Steller describes." ||
* Stelleh, G. W. "De Bcstii.s Maviuis." Nov. Comm. J Nordman, "BeitragezurKenntnissdesKnochen-baiies
Petr. xi., p. 294, 1751. der Rhytina Stelleri," Acta Soc. Sc. FennicfE, vii. 1861.
t Brandt, '• Symbola; Sircnologicrc, in Mem. Acat^. S. § " Nat. Hist. Rev.," Jan. 1865, p. 18.
Pet(a'sb. Sc. Nat." 1849. || Fahuioius, O., " Fauna GrcEuIandica," p. 6, 1780.
205
CHAPTER XXX.
CETACEA WHALES AND DOLPHINS ZEUGLODOX PLATANISTA.
The few points of analogy which can be specially traced between the Whales and other orders
of mammals are chiefly with the Pachyderms ; and most of these are rather points of analogy or
resemblance than of affinity. Their size is the greatest argument for their relationship, and most of
the other coincidences are probably only a necessary consequence of the size, as that the transverse
diameter of the encephalon exceeds the longitudinal, a proportion observed onlj- in Cetaceans and
Proboscideans. There are others which have no apparent connexion with the necessities of the
structure, but are more indicative of nature having been working in the same groove, as if the
idea which had been already used in the one animal, again occurred to be used in a difi'erent form
in the other. The whale-bone of the Baljena, for example, may be said to bo the same idea, differently
expressed, as the hornj' plates in the mouth of the Ehytixa, which we have just left ; or the
long tusks of the Narwhal, may be homologous to the tusks of the Elephant, both growing from a
permanent pulp (an organisation, however, shared by the Rodents), or their usual monodont develop-
ment to a similar heterodox arrangement which seems to have been common in the under tusks of the
Mastodon.
The dentition of the Cetacea, however (and a more Important part of its structure cannot
be cited), differs so greatly from that of the Pachyderms, that only the most distant relationship
can be surmised. When we inquired into the probable derivation of the Seals, we had some
faint light to guide us, because they undoubtedly belonged to the Carnivora ; but we are without
any such giude-posts here ; although the Cetacea are carnivorous, as well as the Seals, their structure
is so different, that they cannot be ranged under the same category as them, any more than along
with the Pachyderms. They stand apart a peculiar order. No discovery of extinct animals has
ever thrown any additional light upon it. ■^^^len a new animal, as the Zeuglodon, turns up, it
has always fitted readily to a place in one or other of the already recognised sections of the order.
Their first appearance seems to have been at the later eocene, or earlier miocene. There is,
indeed, a statement that, like one of the Seals, remains of a AVhale had been found in North
America, in the greensand of New Jersej', which corresponds to our strata below the chalk.
Their supposed existence in the greensand rests upon the rather slender basis of two question-
able vertebrae. These were described by Dr. Lcidy* of Philadelphia, as belonging to two species
of a new genus of Cetaceans, which he named Priscodelphinus. Sir Charles Lyell saw these in
1853, and afterwards traced one of them to a Miocene marl pit in Cumberland County, New Jersey ;
consequently it was put out of court. The other, which had been mistaken for a bone of the
* " ProcoodinofS of Aca.l. Nat. Sc. Philarl.," 1851.
206 JIAMMALR.
Plosiosaurus by Dr. Harlan, and wliich in the museum stood labelled " Mullica Ilill," would, no
doubt, as observed by LyoU, be a cretaceous fossil if reallj' derived from that locality, but he remarks
that its mineral condition makes the point rather doubtfvd. The occurrence of the other ver-
tebra belonging to the same genus, not in a cretaceous but in a miocene deposit, adds to the doubt ;
for it seems exceedingly unlikely that two vertebras belonging to the same species or genus of a
new animal, should be found at about the same time, the one in secondary, and the other in
tertiary strata ; the two deposits being, the one far down in the secondary, and the other far up
in the tertiary series. It is much less credible that the same form of life should have jjersistcd
in a mammal through these two epochs, than that a transposition or error should have been made
in one of Harlan's labels, especially when it is considered that the importance attached to the
discovery was not anticipated at the time it was made. No other mammal has ever survived
from one epoch into another. The Mammoth (almost the onlj' other alleged example of such an
event) being, as I trust I have proved, only " dicyclotherian" in name ; its so-called " dicyclotherian "
life, moreover, being a mere span of time compared to that implied in the space between the deposit
of the greensand and any miocene bed.
It is chiefly in the deposits of the miocene epoch (of course the marine) that Cetacean remains
are met with. Remains of at least two species of whalebone Whales are known, viz. one belonging
to the section Bal^na, or right Whale, from the Paris Tertiaries, and the other, a species, or perhaps
two, of Bal.^noptera, " the finner," from Pulgnasco, near Placentia, in Italy. Remains of a Dolphin-
Whale, Bat,^^nodon gibbosus, occur in vast numbers in the red crag of Suffolk ; they chiefly consist
of teeth and " cetolites," or ear-bones, and have been washed out of pre\aous strata into the red
crag. " These fossils," says Professor Owen, " belong to species distinct from any known existing
Cetacea, and which probablj', like some contemporary quadrupeds, retained fully developed char-
acters, which are embryonic and transitory in existing cognate mammals. The teeth of these
Cetacea were determined in 1840, the ear-bones in 1843. The vast numbers of these fossils, and
the proportion of phosphate of lime in them, led Prof. Henslow to call the attention of agri-
cultural chemists to the red crag as a deposit of valuable manure. Since that period it has yielded
a large supply, worth many thousand pounds annually, of the superphosphates. The red crag is
found in patches from Walton-on-Naze, Essex, to Aldbro', Suffolk, extending from the shore to
fi.ve or fifteen miles and more inland. It averages in thickness ten feet, but is in some places
forty feet. Broken up septarian nodules form a rude flooring to the crag, left by the washing ofl"
of the London clay, and are called ' rough stone.' The phosphatic fossils or ' cops,' as they are
now locally termed, occur in greatest abundance immediately above the ' rough stone.' Thousands
of cubic acres of earlier strata must have been broken up to furnish the Cetacean nodules of the
' red crag.' This is a striking instance of the profitable results of a seemingly most unpromising
discovery in pui'e science." *
A large number of fossil remains of Cetaceans has recently been found in the excavations
occasioned by the fortifications of the city of Antwerp. Five or six other distinct species have
been described in miocene and pliocene formations in Western Europe ; for instance. Professor
Owen has named and figured the ear-bones of what he considered four difft'rent species, from the
red crag above mentioned, but they are imperfect, and the amount of variation on the ear-bones,
nay, for that matter, on any of the bones of the Cetacea, is not yet sufficiently known, and must be
* Owen's "Paleontology," p. 343, ISGO.
••?
WHALES. 207
inquired into, before i^erfect reliance can be placed on species foimded on such fragmentary portions
of a solitary organ.
The classification and the characters of the existing Cetacea were for long in a most un-
satisfactory state, and it is only now that the labours of Gray, Eschricht, Van Beneden, Flower,
and others, who have spent much time and given much thought -to the elucidation of this most
difficult group, have begun to clear ujd the darkness in which they were enveloped.
The residt of their labours has been practically to destroy all confidence in the determination
of any of the species hitherto described, which have not undergone the searching scrutiny which they
show to be essential to an identification of species. Mr. Flower, for example, has pointed out*
that the size of the animal is a very important element in determining its species, and that this
is very constant, subject to the variation due to age: and that the difference in age, which for
practical purposes may be divided into three stages, is indicated by the state of the bones ; being
soft and spongy, and with their ends incomplete in the young, more advanced in the middle-aged,
and perfect in the adult. The proportions and form of the bones also vary according to age ;
therefore it is plain, that no description founded upon a skeleton can be of much value unless it
mentions the condition of the bones, and the probable age of the specimen, — a thing that has rarely
been attended to by describers. The points where variation occurs were also not known, nor which
were of specific value, and which might be mere individual aberrations ; and indeed, these points
are but imperfectly known even yet, and only in a few species.
As may be expected, our knowledge of the geographical distribution of species, whose identi-
fication is so difficult, is by no means to be depended on, and the localities which are recorded of
many of them must be taken as applying to genera than species.
Whales are di^•ided into two verj^ natural sections, — the T^Tialebone Whales and the
Doljjhins ; the former with baleen and no teeth (after birth), tlie latter with teeth and no baleen.
To which we may add a third, the Zeuglodontid.e — Extinct "Whales with teeth bearing some
resemblance to those of Seals.
These sections, again, have been divided by Prof. Eschricht, Mr. Flower, and Dr. Gray, into
families, sub-families, and genera. These may be of use for the purposes of systematic classification ;
for geographical distribution the old genera will be sufficient.
Bal^nidje. — Right whalebone -whales (Maps 52 and 53.) '\^nialebone Whales are divided into
Eight- Whales and Finners. The " right " "Whales of the whalers, that is, the right kind to kill,
may be briefly characterised as having long baleen, and no dorsal fin ; the Finners, by short baleen
and a dorsal fin. Until recently the right Whales have been supposed to consist of only two species,
one the B. mysticetus, confined to the Northern hemisphere, the other the B. australis, restricted
to the Southern. Johnston, in his Phj'sical Atlas,t and Lieut. Maury,* give maps in which they
show the range of both of these. The Northern right Whale, according to these maps, occupies
the Polar seas, the Atlantic north of a line drawn from Newfoundland to Madeii-a, and terminating
at Cape St. Vincent, and all the Pacific north of an irregidar line whose most southerlj' points are
30° and 33° and the most northerly 45° or 50^ But the researches of Eschricht and Reinhardtg
* Flower, in " Proceed. Zool. Soc," 1864, p. 384. § Eschricht and Keixhardt, " Oni Nordhvalcii.'"
+ Johnston'.s "Physical Atlas." 1861. A transl.iliuii of the Uauish mouograph is intended
X Maury " Ou the Physical Geography of the Sea," to be published by the Kay Society,
nth ed. 1 860.
208 MAMMALS.
seem to have proved that the habitat of the I3aljENA mysticetus is, and has ahvaj's been, exchi-
sively confined to the Polar Seas, and that it has therefore no claim to a place in the European
fauna. It would appear, however, from Von Baer's account of the mammals inhabiting the seas
of Nova Zcmbla, that the "Whale is not found there. The right "VVliales of the North Atlantic,
formerly chased by the Basque Whalers, belonged, according to Eschricht, to a species B. Biscay-
anus Eschricht, which has more affinity to the right Whale of the Southern hemisiDhere. At
all events, it has the characters which Mr. Flower uses as generic to distinguish the Southern
right "Whale from the mysticetxts. Whether a similar double series of species exists in the
Southern hemisphere, is not known, but there is some indication that it maj', for Dr. Gray
has described a second Southern species, B. antifodarum, from New Zealand. Which of these
Southerners, B. australis or B. antipodarum, is the more Antarctic, or whether there is one more
Polar than the other, is not known.
The occui-rence in the opposite Polar regions of species so closel}' allied, and whose consti-
tutions are similarly adapted for life in the coldest regions of the earth, and apparently incomjjatiblo
with a residence in warmer latitudes, is a suggestive fact, which may throw some light upon
a much-disputed point, regarding the glacial epoch ; viz. whether the cold of that period was a
local refrigeration confined to the north, and due to the pecidiar distribution of land and water,
or to some cosmical cause, affecting only the northern hemisphere ; or whether it was a general
diminution of heat affecting the whole earth, and to be ascribed to some more imiversal cause.
There is plenty of proof that the glacial ice did not extend over the whole earth. Dr. Falconer
says, we have distinct proof that the glacial refrigeration which characterised the Alpine valleys,
and plains of Europe north of the Alps, was greatly modified in intensity on the southern side
of the chain. The enormous glacier of the Yalley of the Adige, after emerging from the ' Lago
di Garda,' melted away, leaving on the margin of the Valley of the Po a vast mass of moraine.
On the southern side of the Apennines, glacial phenomena have nowhere as yet been traced down
upon the plains on their flanks.*
The glacial phenomena in North America come to an equally abrupt termination before they
reach the Gulf of Mexico, and from the general uniformity of the line of termination, and other
circumstances, there is reason to think that at the time when the glaciers, which have so left their
mark, were in existence, thej^ ran into the sea as the ice now does on the coasts of Greenland, which
may be a reason why no marks of glacial action are now found south of what may have been the
old line of coast. These facts, I believe, to be due to the greatest part of these southern plains in
Europe, and the whole of them in America, having been under water during the most part of the
glacial ejDOch ; but I do not the less arrive at the same conclusion as Dr. Falconer that the Arctic
Circle did not come much farther south than the seas which covered Italy in Europe, and Georgia
in North America ; and that the cold was, as it should have been, less intense in the tropics than
nearer the poles.
We can hardly expect that evidences of glacial action similar to those left in the northern
hemisphere should be found in the southern, because all tlie land nearer the Pole than the latitudes
where in the north the action ceased, viz. (Italy in. Europe, and Georgia in America, in other words,
35° and 45° North hit.) was there imder water, except New Zealand and Tiei-ra del Fuego, and il
is precisely in these lands that glacial cold has been ascertained to exist — marks of its action ha\'ing
* Palconer, iu "Nat. Hist. P.ov.," Jau. 1863, p. 111.
WIIALKS. 209
been found there, and great glaciers still existing in both. It is expected by some that similar
proofs of cold will also be found in the mountains in the south-east of Australia — an anticipation
wliich I do not share, because it is nearer the tropics than the limit of glacial cold in the northern
hemisphere (except on very high mountains). Any evidences of glacial action in the soutlurn
hemisjjhere are no doubt susceptible of the explanation that they may onlj- be of recent phenomena,
or that they may have occurred at a different time from, or been alternate with, the glacial cold in
the northern hemisphere, but we shall see that such explanations are not reconcilable \\'ith cosmical
facts or with the phenomena of the distribution of Whales.
In the first place, all that we know of the past temperature of the globe, confirmed as that
is by the evidences of organic life in the North Polar regions, is opposed to the idea of cold
ever having invaded it previous to the glacial epoch ; and as it appeared in the north then,
and is present in the same degree, both there and in the south now, the presumption is that it first
appeared in both at the same time.
Previous to the glacial epoch the Dolphin section of Whales had obviously lived in enormous
numbers, — at least in the northern hemispliere, — witness the cetolites of the red crag of Suffolk
and of the Antwerp beds ; but there is no evidence to show that any of the present Whales
then existed. There was one right Whale (B. Lamanoni) whose bones have been foimd in the
tertiary beds of Paris, but it was not a polar one, for the heat was greater then than now ; and
as the range of large marine animals is even now very extended, it probably was still greater \n
the miocene ejioch, when the temperature was more uniform.
Now the jircsent cold-living Arctic and Antarctic sjiccies must either have been developed
out of the miocene species separately in the Arctic and in the Antarctic regions, or they must
not. If they were, then, of course, tlie cold must have been present in both hemispheres. If they
were not, — and they only first appeared in the polar regions of one hemisphere, — then the species
so produced, or their descendants, must have found their way to the polar regions in the other
hemisphere across the Equator. But in the present state of things this would be impossible, for,
to use Lieutenant Maury's words, " The torrid zone is to the ' Pight Whale ' as a sea of fire,
through which he cannot pass." It must, therefore, have been cold enough to allow it to do so,
which equally implies that the glacial cold must have extended over both hemispheres. There is,
indeed, another alternative, namelj', that out of the Northern Right Whale may have been pro-
duced one or more new species fitted for equatoreal life, and that from these again may have been
developed in the southern hemisphere fresh species fitted for polar seas. But this is at best but
a climisy hj'pothesis ; and it is open to the objection, first, that a reversion to a polar type in a
similar form is opposed to the usual working of nature, which never repeats herself; and next,
that, in the event supposed, we should still have had the intermediate equatoreal species, of whicli,
on the contrary, we have no trace. The inference is to my mind strongly in favour of a general
extension of cold having affected both hemispheres ; and I prefer the idea of its having been so
great as to have allowed the genus to have passed to and fro from each hemisphere.
FiNNEKS. (Map 54.) — The Bal.^noptera, Rorquals, or Finners, are the largest of known ani-
mals, whether fossil or living. These were separated by Cuvier into three species, the Rorqual of
the Cape ; the Rorqual of the Mediterranean ; and the Rorqual of the North. Each of these has
now been made the type of a genus. Meg.aptera, the hunchbacked Whales ; Physaltjs, the razor-
backed Whales ; and Sibbaldius, wliich latter has again been further subdivided.
E E
210 MAMMALS.
The first, Megaptera, is best known by one species, M. longimana, which stands in natural
history books as a citizen of the world. The result of the recent inquiries of which I have spoken,
however, seems to show that each sjjecies has only a limited range, and probably makes a greater or
smaller migration within its district ; and it is possible that even this species, whose wide range is
better authenticated than that of any other, may turn out to have acquired this reputation by mistake.
Certainly one specimen from the Cape is preserved at Paris, which was considered by Eschricht, and
also by Van Beneden, to be undistinguishable from the Greenland sjieeies. The cervical vertebra)
of another specimen from the Cape, however, are in the British Museimi, and Dr. Gray has pointed
out and figured some difierences between them and the same parts of the M. longimana from the
Northern seas which he considers most striking specific distinctions. *
The same diificultj' occurs with another of those gigantic finners, Sibbaldius laticeps. Its
usual habitat is the North Sea, but a sjjecimen of a AVhale of this genus and sub-section has lately
been received from Java by the Leyden Museum, and this has been examined and described by
Mr. Flower,t and liis conclusion is, after having compared it bone by bone with the northern
SiBBALDius LATICEPS, that they agree in every particular, and must be considered zoologically identical.
This opinion is the more reliable, that it is obviously wnmg from liim most reluctantly, as is ap-
parent when he says that on account chiefly of its peculiar habitat he has some difficulty in placing
it with LATICEPS, and as he is sure that its identity wiU be disjDuted by many cetologists on ac-
count of the habitat he names it provisionally S. Schlegelii. It would rather appear therefore
that one or more of the Bal^nopteka range over the whole world.
The majority of species known, however, belong to the Northern hemisphere, a preponderance
doubtless in part due to its having been better examined, and in part to the greater extent of
soundings and coast on which their food breeds.
Delphinid.i;. — Sperm-Whale. (Map 52.) That the Sperm Whale, Physeter, or Catodon Ma-
crocephalus, is a Dolphin, is apparent from its teeth at a glance. It was formerly thought that
several species existed, Lacepede having made as many as eight ovit of this single one.
Its range is very wide. It has been seen and captured in almost every part of the ocean
between latitude 60° South and 60° North. Several ancient authors have stated that it has often
been seen at Greenland. Sir Thomas Brown,J (1686), after stating that " many conceive the
Sperm Whale to have been the fish which swallowed Jonah," adds, that " Greenland inquirers seldom
meet with a Whale of this kind." Seldom, is perhaps here used only as a saving clause against
never. Cuvier refers to reports that it had been seen there,- but these are now believed to be
erroneous ; at any rate, no modern instance is recorded of a Sperm Whale being found so far north
as Greenland. They have been recorded as found oW the north of Scotland, but no farther. Beale§
gives a list of their favourite places of resort twenty years ago. He says that they are seldom or
never seen on ' soundings,' that is, where the bottom of the sea can be touched by the deepest sea
line, or on the ' banks,' as they are termed by whalers, that exist in various parts of the ocean, as
' Brazil banks,' which are only discolorations of the water eaused by the myriads of animalculse,
which perhaps form the substance of the common black Whale's food, along with cuttle-fish, medusa?,
and other small animals. But the Sjierm Whale has been sometimes taken near the borders of the
submarine pastures, particularly near those of Brazil.
* Dr. Gray on Bi'itisli Cetacea in " Proceed. Zool. Soc- t Sir Thomas Brown, " Roligio Medici," 1686.
1864," p. 195. § Beale, Thomas, " Natural History of the Sperm
t Flower in "Proc. Zool. Soc, 1864," p. 401. Whale," Loudon, 1836, p. 189.
D^h. SuntDWBTrrt) Lat\
Z.tf B r.L;.iLuaw»3.ijtxi
WHALES. 211
The particular places which Mr. Bcalo mentions as its favourite resorts are the following :
viz. on the north coast of New Guinea from 140^ to 146^ east longitude; New Ireland from Cape
St. George to Cape St. Mary ; from Squally Island to the northwards ; from St. George's Channel
to the southward ; on the east coast of New Britain ; about the islands of Bougain\-ille and Bouka
Bay, particularly off the northern shore of Bougainville as far as the Green or Bentley's Islands ;
Solomon's Archipelago, as far to the northward as Howe's group ; Malanta, along the north-
east and south-west parts ; and in the Straits as far to the north as Gower's Island ; and off the
west points of New Hanover ; off anj' part of King's Mill group, but more particularly off the south-
west parts of Roach's Island distant from the land thirty or forty miles ; and off the south-west
portion of Byron's Island on the equinoctial line from the longitude of 168° to 175° east longi-
tude. About three or four miles off the south side both of Ellis' group and Mitchell's group ; about
fifteen to thirty miles off the south-cast side of Rotumah ; off the eastern coast of New Holland
from 2o° to 34° south latitude, and along the north-west coast ; from the East Cape to North Cape
of New Zealand, the land dipping; and off the shore to the north-eastward as far as Curtis's
Island ; off Middleburgh Island and adjacent Isles of Tongataboo ; off the south-west side of
Tootooillah, at the Navigator Islands ; and from Fenning's to Christmas Island ; off the north point
of Moratay, one of the Moluccas ; and off the east and west sides of Gilolo and the adjacent Isles ; off
the east side of Bonton and in the Straits of Timor ; off the south side of Omby, Panton,
and the adjacent islands as far as Sandalwood Island to Java Head ; and off the shore in latitude
12° to 1G° south, and longitude from 112° to 120^ ; off the eastern side of ilahee Island ; off Johanna
Island, in the Mozambique Channel ; off the Island of Aldabra ; off the Cape of St. Mary's, Madagas-
car ; in the Persian Gidf and Red Sea, on the line from 55° to 60° west longitude ; in the China
Sea ; all round the Benin Islands within forty miles of them ; along the coast of Japan, Volcano
Bay, Loo Choo Islands ; off shore ground of Japan from 28° to 40° north latitude ; off Cape St.
Lucas, and off the Tres Marias Island, on the Californian coast ; off the shore of Peru, from longitude
west 90° to 130°, in latitude 5° south, to the line. The coast of Peru from the line to 16° south
off Paita Head used to be very famous, but from Mr. Beale saj-ing " used to be," it is to be implied
that it is or was then no longer so. At the Galapagos Islands, off the south head of Albemarle
Island, Weather and Lee bays, or Elizabeth's and Banks' bays ; on the middleground between the
Continent and the Galapagos Islands ; off the Island of Chiloe to the northward along the coast
of Chili, and as far south as 37°, the land dipping.
They are also occasionallj^ seen about the equinoctial line in the Atlantic Ocean, but these
would rather seem to be cither straggling " schools " which have rounded Cape Horn (they have
never been known to double the Cape of Good Hope),* or unprospering colonics, for thej' are
becoming scarcer and scarcer in more than their due proportion. It is from those that the specimens
which have occasionally been met with in the North Atlantic, or in the English seas, have wan-
dered. They have been now and then cast ashore, and then they are usually in an emaciated
condition. They seem to be unprepared for, or not to be adapted for, shallow seas. Accustomed
(perhaps not individually, but bj' hereditary practice or instinct) to swim along the Coral islands
of the Pacific within a stone's throw from the shore, they cannot understand, their instinct is not
prepared to meet, shallow coasts and projecting headlands. If Ihey were habitual residents in our
seas, they must either be speedily extirpated, learn more caution, or be developed into a new species.
* Madry's "Physical Geography of the Sea."'
2 1 2 MAMMALS.
They have been stranded or captured on our coasts, amongst other places,* at Teigniuouth,
Whitstable Bay, mouth of the Thames, coast of Essex, coast of Kent, Holderness, Hid], Limekilns
in the Frith of Forth, Thiu'so, and not mifrequentlj' at the Orkneys.
Dr. Gray quotes the following letter from Walderwick, on the coast of Suffolk, March 7, 1788 :
"After a hard gale of wind northerlj^ no less than twelve male Whales, which undoubtedly came
out of the Northern Ocean, were towed and driven on shore all dead, and in a high state of putre-
faction, excepting one. Six were found upon the coast of Kent ; two on the coast of Holland ;
one at the Hope Point in the River Thames was the only one seen alive, he ran aground, and
smothered himself in the mud, and was afterwards made a show of in the Greenland Docks." f
On running over the above localities I observe that almost every place that has been above
mentioned as a favourite resort of the Sperm Wbales, although out of soundings, has claims to
be considered the site of submerged land. The islands in the Polynesia, which are its special
feeding-ground, are the beacons left by the submerged Pacific continent. In pure deep seas
animal life is usually scarce, and the absence of breeding-ground is probably the chief cause of it ;
but this only applies to a certain kind of animals, those which require a bottom on which to
deposit their spawn ; but there are many which do not require this. The spawn of some floats
about unattached ; for others a frond of weed is sufficient attachment ; and it has occurred to me
that the distribution of the Sperm Whale may in some way be connected with the geological
antecedents of the ocean it inhabits. I think it not imj^robable that the site of a submerged land
may swarm with life which originally proceeded, or was dependent on it, long after it has been
in the deep bosom of the ocean buried. The Sargasso Seas, which swarm with Eolid^ and
Crustacea, are examples of this life ; it is not invariably either present or absent in deep water,
and it is its presence or its absence which is instructive. Those animals which required a bottom
to spawn upon may have died out or been developed into others which do not ; and those which
do not require such a support may have multiplied correspondingly. In one of the maps in Lieu-
tenant Maury's book, already cited, there is a space of sea opposite the western coast of South
America, and lying between Patagonia and New Zealand, marked " Desolate region, distinguished
by the absence of animal or vegetable life;" — no Sperm Whales here, — nothing for them to feed
vqDon, — and no symptoms, either by banlcs of Sargasso or coral islets, of any land ever having existed
there. There is no apparent reason why this place, except from some special cause peculiar to
itself, should be more desolate than any other in the same latitude, — than the deep sea on the
east side of Patagonia, for example. I can imagine that, if the bottom of the sea should subside
gradually, where animal life had once abounded; animal life — not that animal life, but animal life
due in some way to it — might continue to linger over it long after it had passed beyond the depth
at which it coidd practically have any effect upon the animal life above it ; but if a part of the
circumference of the globe has always been under water, before and ever since the creation of life,
no life is likely to be found on that spot, because it has never had a starting-point of life from
which to begin ; and, as already said, a slender barrier stops the spread of species, and species
wovdd certainly not sjDread to a spot where there was nothing for them to feed ujjon. Again,
animal life could not begin to feed upon animal life until vegetable life had previously prepared
the way, by providing food for the animals whieli were to furnish food for others ; and vegetable life
* Gray in " Proceed. Zool. Soc. 1864," p. 231.
t Letter ill Sni Joseph B.s.nks" copy of the "Phil. Trans." in the British Museum.
C ^ & Son t LtniBdj L
Zf-iy i S/^'.tjnea^ . 1
WHALES. 213
could not begin to grow witliout a foundation of land, accessible either above or below water. The
total and constant absence of all life at any particidar sjiot appears to me, therefore, to furnish a
presumption that there has never been dry land or shallow water there. Whether the continu-
ance of deep water in one spot for some interminably long time might not have the same effect
is another question, which, whatever way it may be answered, would not affect my explanation
of the cause of the absence of the Sperm AVliale from such spots.
Eemains of an extinct species of Physeter (P. antiquus) have been found in pliocene
beds in the south of France.
Dolphins. (Maps 56 and 57.) — The common Grampus tumbles through the heavy waves all the
way from Britain to Japan, via the North-west passage. It is common both in the North Atlantic and
the North Pacific. The other species allied to it are chiefly northern, one from the Cape, and one
from Japan being all that are knowTi to come from any other district than the North Atlantic.
The Bottle -nosed ^^Tiales and Dolphins are more equally distributed, or better known, more
than a dozen being known in the North seas, and from fifteen to twenty from other parts of the
world. The common Dolphin is found in all the seas of the Northern hemisphere, and fossil in
sandy downs on the coast of France and at Montpelier. New Holland and the Indian Archipelago
furnish each four ; the Cape, two ; Madagascar, one ; the southern coasts of South America from
La Plata to Chili, three ; and the Red Sea, one.
The Beluga, or White Wliale, is found in the north of the Atlantic, from the mouth of the
St. Lawrence to Spitzbergen, also at Bhering's Straits, and probably all round the Polar circle.
It is possible that a cai'eful examination by competent authorities may discover that more than
one species exists in these regions. Mr. Newton mentions that those he had seen in the Gidf of
St. Lawrence had a tallowy appearance, while those of Spitzbergen had the clear, semi-transparent
hue of spermaceti ; and I have been informed by those who have seen them at Bhering's Straits
that there they have the colour of a leaden sjjoon.
MoxoDON MONOCEROS. — The Narwhal is peculiar to the Polar Seas, although three specimens
are recorded as having wandered to, and been captured on, the shores of Britain. The Greenland
seas, and the seas around Sijitzbergen and Nova Zembla, as far east as New Siberia, are well known
as haunts of this animal. It is also found in the seas about Bhering's Straits.
Platanista, &c. There are some instances of a notable deviation from their normal character
in this marine family, — viz. three river, that is, fresh-water species: one, Inia Amazoxica, about
seven feet long, which inhabits the river Amazon and its larger tributaries, up to the Andes.
In the Old World thei-e are two Indian species, one peculiar to the Ganges, — Platanista Gax-
GETiCA, and another allied species, P. Indi, from the Indus. These animals are also about seven feet
long, and have a long, sword-shaped snout, compressed laterally. Their eyes are so small that on a
superficial view they might be supposed to be entirely blind. The blow-hole has a form quite
imusual among Cetaceans. But it is not only on account of their personal peculiarities that these
animals are interesting ; both the Old and the New-world species have special independent points for
interesting inquiry.
As to the two Indian species, the question is. How each should occur in a river which has now
no communication with the other, and which empties itself into the sea on the opposite sides of the
Peninsida. This is the only case of the kind which we have yet met with, nor do I remember
any similar fact recorded of any other mammals. There is, indeed, a certain similaritv in the
214 MAMMALS.
distribution of fresh-water fish. The minnow is a fresh-water fish ; it cannot live in sea water ;
neither can its spawn, and j^et it is found in ahnost every streamlet in Britain, although
belono-ing to opposite watersheds and different sj-stems. So is it with the loche, the stickleback,
and most of our other fresh-water fishes — we are so familiar with the phenomenon, that it seldom
occurs to us to inquire how this wonderful fact has been brought about. We shall have to
make up our minds upon this when we come to the Fishes, but in the meantime the present
case is still more extraordinary. The Dolphins are not only in different systems of rivers, but
belong to a marine genus. We have to account, not only for a marine animal being developed
into a fresh-water si^ecies, but also into two allied species in two unconnected rivers.
They are so closely allied, that they must have taken their origin from a common and not
very distant ancestor ; and it docs not seem at all a satisfactory explanation to suppose, that this
common ancestor frequented the shores of India, and first gave off one new species in the delta
of the Indus, and then repeated the process on the other side of the peninsida at the mouth of
the Ganges. Moreover, it implies a step taken by the common ancestor, which is, according to
my reading, against the first principles regulating the origination of species. The animal never
voluntarily seeks the change which produces the development of a new species. It is most
comfortable in the country in which it was born, and for which it is adapted — Inertia is strong
to keep it where it is. It is like Sydney Smith, when he said that where etiquette prevented
him doing things disagreeable to himself, he was a perfect martinet. Where personal comfort
retained the Dolphin within the bounds of its original habitat, it would not readily seek to wander
beyond them ; therefore, I cannot conceive it possible that a Doljohin, or rather a school of Dol-
phins, (for the reader will remember that my theory of the origin of species only acts upon a
large body) should desert the congenial open sea, for the imcongenial muddy flats of a delta, and
by remaining there voluntarily for a sufiicient nimiber of ages, give rise to new fresh-water river
Dolphins. In general, the change originating a species comes to the animal — not the animal
to the change. Hunger and the struggle for life may make exceptions to the rule, but on looking
back at the past historj' of the globe, it seems very evident that cases resulting from such causes
are very exceptional indeed. So I argue that here the change from salt to fresh water must
have been forced upon the Dolphins.
The hypothesis which seems to me best to account for the facts is this : — -
1. The five rivers, the Indus, the Jhelum, the Chenab, the Ravi, and the Ghora, flow through
a desert which also extends over a great space on the west of the Indus in its lower course.
This immense sandy waste was undoubtedly at no very distant date in geological time the bottom
of a sea continuous with the Arabian Sea ; it still bears the aspect of the bottom of the sea ; and
I assume (no very great assumption) that when India was last raised above the waters, that
great sandy desert was left as a great gulf or bay, extending up almost to the Himmalayahs .
and that in it numerous marine dolphins played and sported as they do now in the Arabian
Sea or the Bay of Bengal.
2. As the land continued to rise, this gulf was shut off from the sea by the elevation of the
coast between Bombay and Kurrachee, then of course became a salt lake, without exit, in which
also of course were shut up our marine Dolphins.
3. Into this lake flowed the waters which now supply the five rivers above mentioned, as
M'ell as the sources of the Ganges, and of its upper tributaries, from the snows of the Ilim-
malavah.
poLPiiixs. 215
4. Under the operation of such an immense influx of fresh water, the lake gradually became
fresh water.
5. The change from salt to fresh water was not so rapid as to destroy the Dolphins, but
sufficiently so to induce a change in the species. It must have been more rapid than in Lake
Baikal, and under its influence the Dolphin became changed into a fresh-water Plat.\nista.
6. The dividing water-shed which now seiJaratcs the sources of the Ganges from the sources
of the Indus, had not yet been sufficiently elevated to divide the two, and as soon as the lake
was full to overflowing it overflowed, and the waters escaped into the line of the Ganges.
There would then only be one great river in the north of India, and that the Ganges. By
the time this happened, the transformation of the Dolphin into the Platanista had been com-
pleted, — it may have been either Platanist.\ Indi or P. Gaxgetica that was produced, or it
may have been a common ancestor of both. When this hajjpened, the Platanista, whatever
its species, would inhabit both the lake and the Ganges, but they could not go back to the sea,
via the Ganges, for by this time they had been changed into fresh-water species.
7. But the land continued to rise, and the llimmalayahs, in their rise, also raised" that portion
of land lying between the sources of the Ganges and this great lake. Of course, this cut off tlic
exit by the lake into the Ganges. Those individuals of Platanista, which were out in the waters
of the river, woidd find themselves cut off from their natm-al home or reserve, and restricted to a
river- life in the Ganges ; a new condition, perhaps, of sirfficient importance to induce a second
change into Platanista Gangetica.
8. The lake, cut ofi" from its exit by the Ganges, continues to rise until it again overflows
elsewhere, and this time finds an exit where the mouth of the Indus now is, and the Indus
flows through the midst of it ; old channels show that the Indus once so flowed, and not, as
now, to the west of it. The surviving shoals of Platanista, in their tiu'n, would find their lake-life
turned into a river one, and Platanista Indi is the residt.
I have no doubt that Inia Amazonica, the Amazonian species, was produced bj^ a similar
concurrence of circumstances, with the exception that there it was not a double event, but only
a single-barrelled phenomenon, at least so far as species is concerned. A species has indeed
been described under the name of I. Boliviensis, but it is imderstood to be only a sjTionyme of
the I. Amazonica. We know that the Amazon flows in the course of an ancient arm of the
sea, that Brazil and Guiana, &c., were once islands, and the ancestors of Inia must have been
caught in a sea gulf turned by a rise of land, into an inland lake without an outlet, and in
this lake been converted into fresh species in the same way that Platanista first was. The fact
that it is found at a great distance from the sea, and above cataracts which must have proved
an absolute barrier to its ever having ascended from it by the present channel of the river,
sufficiently proves this. In some natural history books, it is said in general terms to inhabit the
great rivers of South America,* conveying the im^u'ession that it occurs in more than in the
Amazon and its tributaries, and I have a recollection of seeing somewhere the Orinoko given as
one of its habitats, but I cannot find the reference. If it really does inhabit the Orinoko as well
as the Amazon, it would infer something like a repetition of the history of the Platanistas of the
Ganges and Indus, with the exception that only one species has been developed.
* Dallas, W. S. " Natural History of the Animal Kinsdom,"' 1856, p. G83.
216 MAMMALS.
Zeuglodonttd^. — Zeuglodon CETOiDES of Owen is a great fossil Whale -with peculiarly formed
teeth ; according to Giebel, it is intermediate between the Whales and the Seals. The teeth
give some countenance to this idea, appearing when looked at transversely to be formed somewhat
on the plan of those of the Seal ; at any rate, more so than on the j)lan of the teeth of the
Dolphins ; but its character is at once settled by its possessing a single nostril with an upward
aspect above and near the orbits, being the usual structure of the spout-hole in Whales, and by
its immense bulk, seventy feet in length, either of which goes far to prove it a cetacean. The
entire skeleton has been obtained from the miocene deposits of Alabama, so that we know
nearly as much as we can ever expect to do of this creature. Its head was long and narrow.
The teeth indicate a carnivorous diet, and Prof. Owen points out that their mode of succession
conforms more to the general mammalian tj'pe than to that of the living Cetaceans ; certain teeth
displacing and succeeding each other vertically.
The first teeth were found at Malta, and are preserved in the Woodwardian Museum at Cambridge.
Remains have since been found at various places in America. These were described by Dr. Harlan
under the name of Basii.osaurus, the king of the Saurians, he having taken it for a reptile.
Arkansas, South Carolina, and Alabama, are the American districts in which its remains have been
met with. Respecting this creature Sir Charles Lyell says, that its colossal bones are so plentiful
in the interior of Clarke county, as to be characteristic of the formation, an eocene white rotten
limestone. The vertebral column of one skeleton found by Dr. Buckley, at a spot visited by him,
extended to the length of nearly seventy feet, and not far ofi' part of another back-bone, nearly fifty
feet long was dug up. He obtained evidence during a short excursion, of so many localities of this
fossil animal, within a distance of ten miles, as to lead him to conclude that they must have
belonged to at least forty distinct individuals.*
To this family probably belongs a new genus, Pontogeneiis priscus, described by Leidy from a
cervical vertebra, and of which remains have been found in Louisiana and Carolina.
* Lyell, " Elements of Geology," 6th edition, 1865, p. 308.
^
217
CHAPTER XXXI.
EDENTATA EXTINCT SPECIES DATE AND RANGE OF MEGATHEROID SPECIES IN NORTH AMERICA
EXISTING SPECIES.
Edentata. (Maps 58 and 59.) — Although the fauna of most countries is clistingiiished by-
some element which it possesses in a greater degree than any other, and which gives it its
peculiar character, none of them enjoy absolute and sole possession of the special forms which
give the fauna their character. Thus Africa is the land of the Antelopes and heavy pachyderms,
Australia that of the Marsupials, and South America of the Edentata ; but Africa has to share
the Pachyderms and Antelopes with India ; Australia, the Marsupials with South America ; and
the Edentata of America are represented (although but feebly) in Africa and India.
There is considerable resemblance between South America and Australia in the past history and
in the present conditions under which their special fauna exists. In both it has flourished in
greater vigour than it now does ; in both the Carnivora are feebly represented — both have some
typical forms in common ; and in both the place of the feeble and small animals which now
inhabit them was filled by gigantic animals allied in structure but strange in form, which puzzle
us as to their appearance and the means bj^ which they gained their living. Nature has framed
strange fellows in her time, but none of them stranger than some of the Edentata.
The Edentate fauna of South America is one of the instances which is most frequently brought
forward in illustration and support of the view, that each country has a special fauna, due to some
general law, which has been in operation through past ages as well as now, in some mysterious way
suiting the animals to their abiding place, and preventing them wandering into other bounds. I
have already shown how I think the law of change origmating new species explains this. That
species do not pass the limits of their special range, except when driven, is, in the first place, due
to their being most comfortable where they are, and consequently indisposed to leave their present
quarters, and in the next place, when driven beyond their bounds, either by geological changes or
insufficient food for their numbers, the change of condition alters them into new species, so that,
although they are virtually the old creatures in new lands, they are not recognisable.
The further back we go in the history of the globe these influences must have had less and less
effect. The conditions of life were then everywhere more uniform, and the passage from one
I^art of it to another entailed little alteration in the circumstances of the animal. Hence the rarity
of change of form and of new species. In those long gone-by times, too, pro%ances may have
retained their specialty from another cause, neither more nor less than the law which keeps the
prisoner in his dungeon, and the bird in its cage. " I can't get out," may have been with them
the sole cause of their then staying where they were.
F F
218 MAMMALS.
The facts relating to si^ecial faunas in the eocene and early miocene times seem to show
that when the peculiar facies was imjjressed on the famia and flora of any country it was at that
time isolated from all other countries ; that when it was united to other lands, the typical form
spread into them under the same, or nearly the same form.
We see this in North and South America, which have at different times been separated and
again united. Wlien isolated, the Edentate and Marsupial fauna, considered characteristic of South
America, increased and flourished there. When united it overflowed and spread into North
America. This is proved by the fossil remains of Edentate animals found in that country, and
by the persistence there to the present day of small species belonging to that and the marsupial
type.
But if the affinity of the North and South American Edentata proves former continuity, so must
that of the Old-world and the New-world species. This affinity is something very different in
degree from that of which we have been sf)eaking. The Old-world species are of a peculiar type.
There is the same general structure, and the same idea shows itself in various ways : but it has
taken a different direction. In the New-world Armadillos, the animal is enveloped, more or less,
in impervious horny plates, under which it can obtain protection. The Old-world Pangolins are
clothed, on the other hand, with scales. One species, the Cape Orycteropus, is not ; it is merely
clothed with hair ; but both Pangolin (Manis) and Orycteropus are Ant-eaters, and truly represent
the Ant-eaters of South America, which have coarse hair too ; but the Pangolins have borrowed
the idea of their horny cloak from the toga of the Armadillo, the cousin of the American Ant-
eater.
Whence have these creatures come ? some common ancestor has doubtless worn a coat made
of such stuff. The general structure of the Moxotrf.mata comes nearer to that of the Edentata
than to that of any other animal. They have often been classed together, or next each other.
Cuvier formerly so classed them. Giebel and others, in our own times, do so now ; and although
the Monotremes are more generally placed after the MarsujDials, and next the Birds, in right of
their duck-bill and lower organisation, even those who place them there admit that the Edentata
possess a similarly low organisation.* The Echiuna bears a coat so far similar to that of the Pan-
golin, that it is horny ; only, instead of horny scales, it has solid horny quills. We have not qmte
the same barrier here raised up which met us in our attempts to trace the Placental animals
directly from the Marsupial, viz. the impossibility of believing that nature has several times re-
peated the same change. In the Monotremata we find the change half operated to our hand.
The marsupial pouch has disappeared, — the marsupial bones remain.
We may thus suppose the Edentata to be not very distantly related to the Monotremes. Their
common ancestors may have lived in the Pacific Contiaent which we have suiDposed at one time
to have existed in the South Seas, or between Australia and Africa. Whether there was a com-
munication between America and this suj^posed land, or whether the species had to arrive by
Africa, and thence across the Atlantic, by land then in existence, is one of those problems for the
solution of which we have no sufficient data. I shall only notice as possibly haviag a bearing on
* "The unusual number of three-and-tweuty pairs of cerebral development, the absence of medullary canals in
ribs, forming a very long dorsal, with a short lumbar, the long bones in the Sloth ; and by the greater tenacity
region of the spiue, in the two-toed Sloth, recalls a lacertine of life, and long enduring irritability of the muscular fibre
structure. The same tendency to an inferior type is shown in both the Sloths and Ant-eaters. — Owen, in " Proc.
by the abdominal testes, the single cloacal duct, the low Linn. Soc.'" ii. ii3, 1857.
EDENTATA. 219
it, that two out of tliree species of the Oryctekopvs occur on the west coast of South Africa opposite
where the Ant-eaters occur in South America. No doubt another species occurs in South Nubia,
and no doubt, also, the Manis is found in Senegal and "West Africa too, and it has scarcely less
affinity to the Ant-eaters than the Orycteropus, there^fore the circumstance is not worth much.
One most interesting fact bearing upon this point is that the remains of an extiiict Edentate
animal (named Macrothertum giganteum) have been found in the Old World (from Miocene
beds at Sansans, in the south of France, and at Linz), and although they are very imperfect,
sufficient has been made out, first, to lead Cuvier to class them with the Pangolin ; and now, when
additional, though still most meagre materials have been obtained, to cause Gervais to suppose
them most akin to Orycteropus ; lastly, to enable Professor Owen to say with confidence that
they belonged to a gigantic genvis intermediate between the ]\Iaxis and Orycteropus.* It is right
to add, however, that this determination is not that of all Pahrontologists. Dr. Giebel fliKls no
resemblance in the remains to those of Orycteropus. He thinks them much closer to the smaller
Armadillos. The determination of this point has much interest. If the animal was a Pangolin,
it shows that the only Edentate fossils in the Old World belong to the same type as stUl continues
to inhabit it ; while, on the other hand, if more nearly allied to the Armadillo, it furnishes another
instance in addition to that of eocene opossums, from the Paris gyjisum, of a fonn supposed to
be peculiar to South America, having at that time also lived in Europe. Professor Owen regards
its Old-world relations (between Manis and Orycterop)us) as deeply interesting, on account of
the geographical position of both these Edentate genera, viz. on tracts of land, which are now most
contiguous to the continent containing the remains of the extinct osculant genus ; but although
most contiguous now, we must remember that at the time when the Macrotherium lived, ^Vfrica
was wholly disarticidated from Europe, and India probably from Asia ; the communication between
the country to the north and that to the south of the line of the Himmalayan range and its ex-
tensions, being apparently difficult or wholly interrupted. In fact, there appears then to have been
freer communication between the New World and the Old, than between the Africano-Indian
region and Europe.
In the classifications of the Edentata, all systematists agree that there are at least two sections
which, for distinction, might, after the plan of division of vertebrata and invertebrata, be called the
Ant-eaters and the non- Ant- eaters. This was Cuvier's di^asion. It is now Van der Hoeven's. Owen,
on the other hand, increases the .subdivisions to three, — the Bradytodid.^ or Sloths, the DASYPoniD,E
or Armadillos, and the Edextata or Ant-eaters. Giebel again divides them into four families, — the
Ant-eaters or Vermilixguia, the Armadillos or' Fodientia, the extinct Megatheroid animals or
Gravigrada, and the Sloths or Tardigrada. In forming an opinion as to the relative merits of
these views, there is one general principle, which will prove a safe guide. Where two structures
characteristic of different sections are found in the same animal, the value of each should be estimated
by its relative importance. Is the land of food an animal feeds upon, or the mode in which it
procures it, of most importance ? The fact of Mammals being universally divided into the great
sections of carnivorous, herbivorous, and insectivorous, almost answers this question. If the modi-
fications of structure dependent on the kind of food consumed are found to furnish the best
characters for the great groups, while what I call accidental structure is used oidy for small
ones, it sufficiently shows the general estimate of their relative imiwrtance. Now, in the Edentata
* Owen's " Palaeontology," p. 348.
220 MAMMALS.
we have animals feeding upon three kinds of food, — the Ant-eaters feeding upon ants and other
insects, as their name declares ; the Armadillos, omnivorous, feeding on almost anything, — fruit,
leaves, roots, insects, flesh, and having no prejudices against off;il ; and the Megatheroids and
Sloths, whose sustenance was and is wholly vegetable. For each of these kinds of diet the animal
has a special organization, and the mode of procuring it is quite a minor consideration. If it does
so by burrowing or by climbing trees or by walking on the ground, its limbs will be modified to
suit that mode of getting at its food ; but the main organs will remain untouched. They are
essential : the others accidental. For this reason I prefer Owen's division, in which he places
the Megatheroid animals and the Sloths in the same section. It may be right to divide that
section into the large extinct burrowing species and the small existing arboreal animals ; the ac-
cident of their getting the same food in different ways, as well as their difference in size,
(for, as already said, size is an element in the affinities of nature,) justify this ; but it is a divi-
sion of different value and less importance than that between the other groups of the family.
For the same reason I think that Giebel has made a mistake in carrying tlie_0RYCTER0Pus from
the Ant-eaters to the Armadillos. He has doubtless placed it among the Fodientia or Burrowers,
because it burrows ; but its true affinities are with the Versiilinguia. The form of the tongue in
the Monotremata, the Myrmecobius, and MyrmecojAaga, is a long, round thing, like an earth-
worm, and that of the Orycteropus is of the same type, long, thin, but flat, like a piece of tape ;
their j)urpose is the same, although their mode of application is slightly diflerent. The general
structure of the animals is, moreover, essentially the same, and their geographical distribution
may be interpreted in accordance with their affinity.
In compliment to our latest acquaintances, the Whales and the Pachyderms, I shall commence
with the largest, — the Sloths and Megatheroid animals.
I. Bradypodid^. (1). Gravigrada. The Megatheroid animals are now all extinct. In
South America their remains have been found in Brazil, in Paraguay, in Uruguay, near Buenos
Ayres, in North Patagonia, and on the other side of the Andes at Lima. Agassiz proposed to divide
this group into two sections, of which the Megatherium and Megalonyx were the types ; but, as
his distinction was mainly founded on the idea that the one (the Megathere) had a long trunk,
and the other, the Megalonyx, a short snout, an assumption which, as regards the Megathere, turns
out to be untenable, I do not adopt it.*
A species of Megatherium, not the South American M. Cuvieri, but an allied one, M.
jiiRABiLE, formerly inhabited Georgia and South. Carolina, but traces of it have not been found
further to the north. Remains of a species of Mylodon different from that of South America, occur
through a great part of North America, from Natchez on the Mississippi to Big-bone Lick, in
Kentucky, in the east, and to the Williamette River, in Oregon (one of the tributaries of the
Columbia), on the west. One sj)ecies of Megalonyx lived in North America f whose remains
have been found in caves in Tennessee, and in deposits at Natchez, and in Virginia. Bones of the
Ereptodon priscus have been found in the deposits through which the Mississippi runs.
* Agassiz in "Boston Soc. Nat. Hist." Sept. 1862, North and South America, and of the interior of the
p. 102. United States, it is not a little remarkable tliat neither in
t Ur. Falconer, in his paper on " Fossil Elephants," al- the lower mioeeue of the Nebraska, nor in the pliocene
ready so often quoted, says, " Knowing as we do, what au fauna of Niobrara, both of which have been so ably in-
important feature the lai'ge extinct Edentata constitute vestigated by Leidy, has a single edentate form been dis-
in the newer pliocene fauna of the littoral regions, both of covered." — Nat. Hist. Rev. iii. p. 62.
Diy t Sca,llMTavl 1.
EDENTATA.
221
■ To wliat cause should their extinction be referred ? It may have been simplj- that their time
was up, — that the life of the genus had run its course ; or if wo look for a more direct cause,
it would not be difficult to find one in the glacial cold, were it not for the statement which has
been made on the best authority that, like the Mammoth and Mastodon (animals which seem to
have owed their origin to the change at the glacial ejjoch), these Edentates sur\-ived that time.
Dr. Falconer, in his paper on " Fossil Elephants," says : " Of two asserted facts, which it was
of the utmost importance to determine with accuracy, one appears to have been cleai'ly established :
namely, that the extinct Edentate and Proboscidean fauna of the United States existed long after
the deposition of the northern di-ift. This was put beyond doubt by Lj-ell many years ago ;"* and
then he goes on to cite instances where the Mastodon Ohioticus (which was within the special
scope of his paper) was certainly so found : but he gives no instance, nor does he refer to any
authority, in support of his statement regarding the Edentata ; and as to them, Lyell says in 1865,
" Whether the ' loes ' and other fresh- water and marine strata of the Southern States in which
skeletons of the same Mastodon are mingled with the bones of the Megatherium, Mylodon, and
Megalonyx, were contemporaneous with the drift, or were of subsequent date, is a chronological
question still open to discussion." f Supposing it to have been contemporaneous with its early
stage there is nothing inconsistent with their having died imder the cold, or they may have passed
their time in exile in the trojjics dming its continuance, and on its retreat have returned to their
old place, but, unable to stand the modified climate, soon dropped off.
I have endeavoured to arrive at some conclusion on the subject, and although it becomes me
to speak with the greatest diffidence in a matter on which professed geologists have come to
a different opinion, I may be allowed to express a doubt that the North American Megatheroids
did sm-vive the period of the drift, that is, the glacial epoch. I believe that the general under-
standing that they did so, has arisen from their bones having been in one or two instances found
in company with those of the Mastodon and other animals which did survive that epoch, but that
these exceptional cases are capable of explanation. Professor Owen's memoir on the " Megathe-
rium," and Leidy's on the "Extinct Sloths of North America," supply us with notes of every
locality where their remains have been found, and an examination of the age of the deposits at
each of these places gives the following residt : + —
Species.
Locality.
Lima (ITOO) (no particulars)
Paraguay (179.")) (no particulars)
Formation in which Ke- Before on after Gijicial
MAINS FOUND.
JMegathcrium — Banks of the River Luxan near Tliocene
Cuvieri Desm. (Ameri- Buonos Ayres (1789)
cauum Uiceii)
Unknown
Uraguay, in the bed of the Que- Pliocene
guay(l82:j)
EPOCH.
Before glacial epoch. §
Unknown.
Before glacial epoch.
* Fai.conf.b, np. cit. p. 02. § For shortness T call the pliocene beds '■ before the glacial
t Lyell's " Kleiuents of Geology," Loiidon, 1865. epoch," although, stiictly speaking, I believe its cold began to
} This list has had the advantage of being submitted to show itself in the pliocene times. In using that pluase here, I
Dr. Leidy pre\ioas to publication. merely mean before the glacial epoch had put on its full rigour.
222
MAMMALS.
Species.
Megatherium —
Cuvieri {continued).
Locality.
FOKMATION IN WHICH RE-
MAINS FOUND.
Megatherium mirabilo
Leidy
Megalonyx Jeffersoni Cu
Megalonyx dissimilis Leidy
Megalonyx gracilis, Lund
Mylodon Darwinii, Owen
Mylodon robustus, Owen
Mylodon Hailanii, Owen
Ereptodon priscus Leidy
Gnathopsis Oweui Leidy
Bed of Salado, near Buenos Ayres Pliocene
(1831)
Lower bed of cliif called Puenta Pliocene (out of 23 shells
Alta at Baliia Blanca, — clitf com-
posed of cemented quaitzoze shin-
gle (Darwin, 183-t)
Uiver Luxan near Buenos Ayres
(1837)
Las Averias, an estate north of the
Rio Salado (1838)
Skiddaway Island, Georgia (1834)
White Bluff, Savannah in Georgia
Ashley River, in South Carolina
White Cave, Tennessee
Blue Ridge, Western Virginia
Big Bone Cave, White County,
Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Natchez
Alabama
Kentucky, Virginia
Natchez
Caves of Brasil, and superficial de-
posits, to the Straits of Magellan
Southern parts of South America
La Plata
Mammoth Rarine, Mississippi
Ashley River, South Carolina
Williaraette or MuUonah River, a
tributary of the Columbia, Ore-
gon
Benton Co., Missoui-i
Bigbone Lick, Kentucky t
Natchez
Mississippi
South America
from same bed, 12 to 16
recent)
Pliocene
' Pleistocene Marl "*
Disputed
)»
Pleistocene
Pliocene
Pleistocene
Pliocene
Unknown
Pliocene
Miocene or Pliocene
Pleistocene
Pliocene
Unknown
Before or after Glacial
EPOCH.
Before glacial epoch.
{de quo qiurritur)
Disputed.
(rfe quo qufprititr)
Before glacial epoch,
((/f quo quteritur)
Before glacial epoch.
Unknown.
II
Before glacial epoch.
{dc quo q^uri-ilur)
Before glacial epoch.
Unknown.
* Lyell proposed this term " Pleistocene" for the Newer
Pliocene, as opposed to Post-pliocene, that is, equivalent to
before the drift as opposed to after it. The question as to the
remains found in these Pleistocene deposits is twofold : first,
the data of the deposit, — that is, whether it is Pleistocene or
not, — a question which I imagine must be answered in the
affirmative ; and second, how the bones came into the deposit.
Tliey may belong to an older date, and have become mixed up
with more recent remains in the newest bed.
t I do not know the original authority for this. Lyell does
not put it very strongly. He says, " Besides which a few
bones of a stag, horse, Megalonyx, and bison, arc slated to liave
been obtained, &a." — Lyell's " Travels in North America,"
First Series, vol. ii. p. C), 1845.
EDENTATA. 223
From this, it appears almost certain that the majoritj' did not survive the glacial epoch. If
any did it must have been the Megalonyx or Mylodon, and their age depends upon caves which
might have served for two epochs, and have little to guide one but their contents. I believe, too,
(although I do not speak with certainty,) that in the few instances in which remains have been
found in post-glacial deposits, a single bone or tooth found on a single occasion is all that has
been met with ; which, I need not say, is the fashion in which bones washed out of an older
deposit and preserved in a more recent one invariably occur. One may, therefore, speculate on
the causes which led to their extinction, without being hampered by the feeling that the excei^tions,
which appear to have survived the glacial epoch, are absolutely incapable of explanation ; and if
that be so, no more Likely cause for their extinction can well be given than the change of climate
brought about by the glacial epoch. I have the less hesitation in doing so, in that the statement
of my doubt may suggest inquiry to those who have the opportunity of making it, and lead to
an authoritative settlement of the question.
"We have already satisfied ourselves that the cold of that epoch affected the whole earth, tropics
as well as poles (of course in different degrees). The larger Edentata seem to have been, not only,
from their habitat, but also from their mode of life, peculiarly tropical animals, and it therefore
follows, peculiarly unfitted to bear any great degree of cold. An amount of change which, in other
animals, may only have been sufficient to stimulate the action of development into the creation of
new species, may in them have been too great for the continuance of life, and have killed them off
altogether.
The reasoning by which the habits of these large Edentate animals have been inferred from
their structure, has always appeared to me a series of the happiest exercises of the inductive faculty.
Seventy years ago, Curier (then in the fulness of his fame) was the first to throw light upon their
natm-e. A nearly complete skeleton had been found on the banks of the river Luxan, near Buenos
Ayres, in 1789, and transmitted to Spain by a Spanish official, where it was preserved in the museum
at Madrid ; and a memoir containing a description and figure of the bones was published by Signers
Garrigo and Bru,* in 1796, and submitted to Cuvier for his opinion. Their judgment went little
further than that announced in their title-page that it was "un quadrupcdo muy corpidento y
raro," — a very bulky and rare quadruped. But Cu\-ier at once assigned it its true position as one
of the Edentata, and he thus summed up his conclusions as to its habits and food : " Its teeth
proved that it lived on vegetables, and its robust fore-feet armed with sharp claws make us believe
that it was principall}' their roots that it attacked. Its magnitude and talons must have given it
sufficient means of defence. It was not of swift course, nor was this requisite, the animal needing
neither to pursue nor to fl)'."! And subsequently (1823) he pronounced that it had the head
and tl\e shoulder of a Sloth, whilst the legs and the feet offer a singular mixtui-e of characters
peculiar to the Ant-eaters and Armadillos. J
About the same time (1821) two German naturalists, Drs. Pander and Dalton, who published
a beautiful monograph of the skeleton, gave it as their opinion that it was a fossorial animal, and
not merely an occasional digger of the soil, as Cuvier concluded, but altogether a creature of sub-
terranean habits, — in fact, as Owen expressed it, a sort of Earth-whale or colossal Mole.
* "Descripcion del Esqueleto de un Quadrupcdo muy in the " Annales du Museum," 1796.
corpulento y raro." Don Joseph Garrigo, Madrid, 179C. X CuvniR, " Rcoherchcs sur les Ossemens fossiles," V.
t CuviEu'.s translation of the Memoir by Don Garrigo part I. 1823.
224 MAMMALS.
Tbe inquiry next became complicated with the question whether it was not provided with a
carapace like an Armadillo, portions of the carapace of the Glyptodon ha^^ng accompanied some
bones of the Megatherium which found their way to Britain. Dr. Buckland, in his " Bridgewater
Treatise," warmly espoused this view. The discussion is instructive, but was brought to an end by
the receipt of the bones and carapace of the Glyptodon together in such connexion that all doubt on
the subject was removed. "While the question was still in doubt however. Professor Owen had
ranged himself on the side of those who held that there was no ground for supposing the animal to
be provided with any such armature. Dr. Lund next conceived, from the numerous points of
resemblance to the Sloths, that its habits must have been the same as others ; and in spite of
the improbability of an animal eighteen feet in length, and nearly as bulky in its body as an
Elephant, performing such a feat, he conceived that it passed its life clinging to the underside of
branches of trees, as the small arboreal Sloths now do.*
A masterly analysis, by Professor Owen (from whose paper I have picked the above details),
of the form and relations of every bone, both of the Mylodonf and Megatherium, J pointing out
their affinities to those of other animals, and probable use to themselves, at last settled the matter,
and his view is now universally adopted.
Guided by the general rule that animals having the same kind of dentition ixsed the same
kind of food, he concluded that the Megatheriusi must have subsisted like the Sloths on the foliage
of trees : but the greater size and strength of the jaws and teeth led him to suppose that, as in the
Elephant, small branches might also form a portion of its food.
The first part of the question which then naturally presented itself, viz. how it reached the leaves
and branches, he answered by referring to the structure of its feet, which he showed, independent of
the objection derived from the weight and bulk of the creature, were inconsistent with its being a
climbing animal. Neither were they adapted wholly for fossorial purposes. Burro\dng animals are
not provided with clavicles, but the Megatheeium has very largely developed clavicles ; the fore
paws have smaller claws than the hind paws, and are turned inwards, adapting them for grasping ;
the hind feet have enormous claws, and great, broad projecting heels, and the whole structure of
the peh-is, tail, and hind-legs, show that they were the seat of enormous muscular power. Owen
thence inferred that it obtained its food by uprooting and prostrating trees, and that it effected this,
first by clearing away the earth about the roots chiefly by its hind-feet, and that then, clasping
the tree with its fore-legs, it tugged and strove until it literally tore it up by the roots.
The next point was, how it plucked off the small branches and leaves for its food : having no
incisors it could not nip them off, and its molar teeth being far back in the mouth, it could not use
them for that purpose. Its hand was practically limited to one claw, so it could be of little more
use than the iron hook, which is sometimes to be seen worn, fastened to their stump by soldiers
or sailors who have lost a hand. The only other means which we know to be adopted by nature
for such a purpose, arc a nasal trunk, as in the Elephant and its allies, or a long muscular tongue,
as in the Camclopard. Cuvier, and subsequently Agassiz, thought that the Megatherium had a
proboscis like the elephant, and that it used it for plucldng nutritive fibres and spongioles from the
roots ; but, as Owen remarks, it had no pre-nasal bones, and if it had, the snout of the Sow would
have been better adapted for such a purpose ; and a truuli would have answered equally well for
* "Blik paa Brasiliens Dyreverden for sidste Jordom- t Owen on the Mylodon. 4to, Loudon, 1842.
VEeltnin af Dr. Lund." -Ito. Kjobeiihaveu, 1838. X Owen on tho Megatherium. 4to. Loudon, 18C1.
MEfiATIIEIUUM. 225
phicking leaves. The real objection to this, however, lies in the fact that the sub-orbital foramina
are too small to have siipj^lied a trunk of the size of an Elephant's with vessels and nerves. If a
trunk did exist it could not have exceeded in size that of the Tapir. There is evidence, however, in
the strength and articulation of the hyoid bones (which by a rare chance have been recovered with
one of the skeletons), and the unusual area of the foramina for the nerves of the muscles of the
tongae, that it possessed a long tongue of great size and power, perhaps not without affinity to
the round, slender tongue of the Ant-eater (although adapted for another purpose and of yevy
different pi-oportions). The fore-part of the under-jaw projects in front with a long rounded groove
in tlie middle, apparently for the reception of this long cylindrical tongue ; such a tongue would
render a trunk, of any size, not only an unnecessary appendage, but positively an encumbrance.
It is not imjirobable, however, that it had well-developed upper lips, for the number of small
foramina in the anterior termination of the under-jaw show that it had a largely developed and
very sensitive under-lip, and tliis would almost (although not absolutely necessarilj-) implj- a cor-
resijondingly developed upper lip to meet it.
I have said that Professor Owen's conclusions arc generally adopted. The onlj' exception would
appear to be the Professor himself, for both the skeletons of the Mylodom and Megatheriiim, set
up under his direction in the Royal College of Surgeons and British Museum, are put up, in
contravention of his views, in the position of a auadruraanous animal about to clamber up a tree.
Agassiz obj: ets to this position. He w-as of opinion that instead of being set up so, it should
have been placed in a crouching attitude, with the hind-legs bent, sufficiently to allow the tail to
touch the ground, — with the head bent down between the fore-legs, the broad chest resting upon
the ground, supported b}' the fore-legs, extended in such a way that they should rest for nearly
their whole length, and leave simph* a free play for the extremities to reach out beyond the head.*
His suggestions have not, however, been followed in his own adopted country. The cast of one in
the Museum of Boston, in the United States, has been moiuited in even a more arboreal attitude
than our own. It appears to me that it can have only had two characteristic attitudes, the one
that of a burrowing animal, something like that described bj' Agassiz, lying flat on the earth,
with its back bent up and shovelling out the earth with its hind-feet, and the other, which I should
have preferred, standing erect, resting on the tarsi of its hind-legs and on its tail, like a dog
begging, and clasping the trunk of a tree to its breast.
Before reverting to our interrupted argument, from which this is scarcely a digression, the
leader may be plea.sed to notice two things, — one, the fitness of the structure of the animal to tlie
surface of the earth on which it lived, — a fine alluvial deposit, which its claws would shovel up with.
the greatest ease. Darwin sjjeaks of the speed with which its relative the Aj-madillo makes its way
(hrough the soil : " In the course of a day's ride near Bahia Blanca several were generally met with.
The instant one was perceived it was necessary, in order to catch it, almost to tumble off one's horse ;
for in soft soil the animal burrowed so cpiickly, that its hind-quarters would almost disappear before
one could alight." f
The other thing to bo noticed is that the forest region in North and South America must tlien
have been greatly more extensive than it now is. The northern half of the Pampas must probably
have been covered with trees, which must have extended as far north as Oregon and Nebraska,
with scarcely an interruption, except from the Rocky ]\Iountains, so far as then in existence.
* "Boston Soc. Nat. Hist." May, 18C3, p. 19?. t "Journal of a Katurali.st," 2iid edition, p. 06. London, 1845.
G G
226 MAMMALS.
I have made these remarks by way of proving that these Mcgatherold animals must,
from their habits and mode of life, have been fitted for a very warm, damp climate, similar to,
and, perhaps, even hotter than that of the Brazilian forests in the present day ; the habits which
have, I think, been successfully proved to be theirs being inconsistent with anything but a tropical
climate. It is plain, that whole tribes of these great creatures, twelve and eighteen feet in
length, could never have been supplied by loaves and twigs obtained by the wasteful j)roccss of
uj)rooting trees, except in a country where the vegetation was most luxuriant and the growth
exceptionally rapid.
It seems not improbable, therefore, that it is to the glacial cold that we owe the extinction of
these larger Edentata ; for, as Professor Owen remarks, the chemical conditions of life are such, that
the larger an animal is, the less resistance can it make, and the more readily does it succumb to any
unfavourable change ; which is one of the reasons why we find small species surviving, while the
larger species have, in many instances, disappeared, and are only now to be met with in a fossil
state.
(2.) Sloths. (Map 61.) The Takdigrada inhabit the north-east of South America, reaching, in
the north, almost to the Isthmus of Panama, on the west to the Andes, and on the south to the south
of Brazil, but not into Paraguay. A new species of two-toed Sloth, Ch(1lcepus Hoffjianni, has
lately been found in Costa Rica, and described by Dr. Peters, who has discovered in it an abnormal
number of cervical vertebrae — in the reverse direction from the three-toed Sloths. They have nine
cervical vertebrae instead of seven. This animal has only six.
II. Armadillos. (Map 60.) Those little mailed creatures, whose restless activity is so attractive
to the public in our Zoological Gardens, were represented in the pliocene and post-pliocene ages by
animals which must have been considerably more staid in their demeanour and deliberate in their
movements ; for thej' were almost as large as the Megatherium, and enclosed entirely in an imj-ielding
bony case, bearing some resemblance both in shape and pattern, on a great scale, to a portion of the
shell of an Echinus or Sea Urchin. The existing Armadillos, as the reader knows, are invested
in a succession of bands of jointed plates, which, like a suit of scale armour, conforms itself to the
motion of the body, and allows the animal, when it chooses, to roll itself up into a ball, which is more
or less protected, according to the number and breadth of the bands ; and these, like the band of tlie
plated armour of our defended ships, are always applied round the most vital parts of the body.
But the extinct species, the Glyptodons, were wholly enclosed in theirs, except on the belly. Even
the tail had a coat of mail, and the head was protected by a piece of armour, like the chamfron
of a war-horse in the days of the Crusaders. The remains of these animals and of other extinct
Armadilloes have chiefly been obtained from superficial deposits near Buenos Ayres, and from the
bone-caves of Brazil.
The living sjDecies have pretty much the same range, but they extend further to the south ;
one, D. MiNTJTUS, reaching as far south as 50° south latitude. The different species are local,
and the range of each not extensive. The difi'erence in the constitution of animals, as affecting
the origin of species, cannot be better illustrated than by the Armadillos and Ant-eaters of
South America. The Armadillos have apparently been susccjjtible to the most trifling change.
They appear not to have been able to pass from one district into another, — from Brazil into
Peru, or from Paraguay into La Plata, — without experiencing the change so keenly as to have set
up the action of the modifying jiower, and produced a change of species. Dr. Burmeister has
D:^ ^ Son I IifflTtr.*!; L^
ARMADILLOS — ANT-EATERS. 227
studied on the spot the mammals both of Brazil and La Plata ; and in his works on these districts
he has enumerated the different species found in them, and out of twelve species of Armadillo
found in these two regions, he did not find one both in Brazil and La Plata.* The Dasypus
Peba, or nine-banded Armadillo, from Central America, has been stated to be an exception.
It occurs in Brazil, and in Guiana, and is said to be common in Mexico, and not uncommon
near the lower shores of the Rio Grande in Texas ; but it turns out that the Brazilian and the Texan
species are different, f I would preserve the name, D. novemcinctus, for the Brazilian species,
and Peba for the Texan. On the other hand, the great Ant-eater (Myrmecophaga jubata) is
found throughout the whole of South America, east of the Andes and down to La Plata, wherever
there is wood. No doubt it may be said that the physical condition of a wooded country is greatly
more homogeneous than one not entirely wooded, and less change is felt in passing from one part
of it to another. But the fact that there are onlj^ two species of Ant-eater as opposed to a dozen
of Armadillos, over the same extent of coimtry, shows, I think, that the one must be more
susceptible to the changes which induce modification of form than the other.
The curious little mole-like Chlamydophouus truncatus, the Pichyciego, or blind Armarlillo of
the natives, is found in the neighbourhood of Mendoza ; but it does not extend across the Andes
into Chili, although Chili is usually given as its habitat. Neither it nor any other Armadillo occurs
on the western side of the Andes, until we reach Guj^aquil. Burmeister has lately found a second
species of this curious animal, also in that district, which he has named C. retusus.J
The Armadillos have been divided into various sub-genera. Two sections seem sufficieutlj'
distinguished ; some having the fore-feet provided only with four toes, while others have the
fore-feet five-toed. But these distinctions do not seem to have any geographical import. The
Texan species (Dasypus Peba) belongs to the four-toed section ; but that section goes as far south as
the five-toed. Some of each being found in all parts of their range.
III. Ant-eaters. (1.) — Manis. (Map 60.) The Pangolins inhabit the Indian Archipelago and
the land surrounding the Bay of Bengal, also the east coast of Africa from Sennaar to the Cape, and
the west coast from Senegal to the Niger. I do not find any record of its occurrence on the
south-west coast between the Cape and the Niger, its place there being seemingly occupied bj' the
Orycteropus, for which the arid, sandy coiratry is more adapted.
FociUon, in a review of the genus (Manis)§ divides them into long-tailed and short-tailed
species. These have not much geographical significance, however ; the long-tailed, to be sure, is onlj-
found in Africa, but the short-tailed is found both in Africa and the East.
(2.) Orycteropi. (Map 60.) Wholly African, and foimd on the west coast of Africa and South
of Nubia, near the White Nile. Owen observes that of all Edentata the Orycteropus most
nearly resembles the extinct genus Scelidotherium (one of the Megatheroid South American forms)
in the form of its cranium ; and next to it in this comparison, the great Armadillo (D.vsytus gigas.)||
Although burrowers, and on that account classed by some with the Dasyi-i, tliey arc, as already
mentioned, entomophagous, and most nearly allied to the Ant-caters.
* Burmeister, H., "Systematic Uebcrsiclit der thiere X Burmeister in " .Vbh. d. JJat. Gesellsch. zu Halle,"
Brazils," 1864. Burmeister, H., " Erlautening zur Fauna vii.
Brasiliens," 1856. Burmeister, H., " Reise (lurch die La § Fociixon, Ad. in •• Rev. et Mag. de Zool." Sept. l>sr)0,
Plata Staaten," 1861. p. 465.
t Baird, on "U.S., Bac., R. R., Repub.," Vol. viii., || Owen, in " Zoology of the Beagle."
624, 1S57.
228 MAMMALS.
(3.) Myrmecophaga. (Map 60-) The Ant-eaters occupy the whole of South America cast of
the Andes, aud nortli of La Plata, wherever there is wood, liurmeistcr did not find them in La Plata,
although they are said to be found in the wooded northern parts of that country.
The females of these animals appear to be more frequently met with than the males. Schombui'ck
mentions that he several times j)rocured females of the Ant-bear and never males, ai.d says: "If
it could be substantiated that the nimiber of males is considerably smaller than that of the
females, in that circumstance woidd rest an additional ground for supposing that the extinction of
its species like those of the Edentata in general is determined upon."* It is to be hoijcd not; for in
our own race the number of males is smaller than that of the females, and we shoidd be sorry to
imagine that on that account an edict for our extinction had gone forth.
' "Auu. ofNat. Hiat."iv. 200. 1840.
220
CHAPTER XXXII.
INSECnVOHA MOLES, SHREWS, TUl'AIAS, HEDGEHOGS.
In winding up oui' skein of Mammals, as we exi^erienee some diiEculty in disentangling a knot
in which the Edentates, Mouotremes, and ilai-supials, are mixed up together, I shall leave that
end of the thread, and, seeking out another free end, begin of new, and try to reach the Monotremes
on their other side. I shall take the Inscctivora.
Tlie most intimate relations of the luscctivores are with the Eodents, and I have already re-
marked on the repetition of the same tj'pical forms in this oi'der as are met with both in the Rodents
and in the Marsupials. The Mice being represented by the Shrews ; the Jerboas by the Ma-
CROSCELIDES ; the Squirrels by the Tupaias ; and the Porcupines by the Hedgehogs.
The most noteworthy point in their distribution is, that they are not found at all in South
America nor in Australia. One genus, of difficult location, Solenodon, is found in Cuba and St.
Domingo ; and the North American Shrews descend into Mexico ; but no animal belonging to this
order has yet been found in either of the Marsupial countries. It has been suggested that perhaps
the presence of the one (the Marsupials) doing insectivorous duty may have something to do with
the absence of the other by whom that work is usually performed elsewhere, but I do not look upon
this as more than a coincidence. Tlie real cause is to be sought for in their derivation, and it seems
not an unreasonable inference, that their original starting-point or sj)ecific centre must be looked for
in other lands than these, and probably at a distance from them ; and neither their insectivorous
function, nor the analogy of some of their forms to Marsupial types, ought to militate against this ;
for it is to bo observed that there is no poiut of resemblance which can be traced between them and
some of the Insectivorous Marsupials, such as between the Shrews and the Amtechtnt. tlie Macuosce-
LiDES and the Phascogales or Perameles, which does not also occur in the Rodents in a more
marked degree. Thus, if there is a similarity between a Shrew and an Antechi>"us, the
resemblance is still greater between the Mouse and the Axtechixus (sec Frontispiece) ; and the
same with any others showing indications of resemblance. The Rodent steps in between the Mar-
sujjial and the Insecti\ore, in every instance of siniilarif}', and can show greater resemblance to
both than either can to the other. To the Rodents then we must look for the derivation of the
Inscctivora, in preference, at least, to the Marsupials.
Small as the Inscctivora are, their remains form a very important chapter, if not in Fala-
ontology, at least in PaliDontological literature. We have already seen that tlie first traces of
JIamnials found by geologists belonged to the insectivorous Marsupials ; but remains which have
been referred by some to the true Inscctivora have also been found at a very early date, — as, for
example, the Steueogn.^tiu s, irnni the Stonesfield beds, which is claimed by some for this order,
230 MAMMALS.
although by others it is referred to the Ruminants. It was the lower jaw of a small so-called
insectivorous animal, Spalacotherium tricuspidens, found in the Purbeck beds, whicli has proved
the existence of Mammalia about midwaj- between the older oolitic and the older tertiary periods.
Professor Owen* says that the particular modification of the pointed cusf)s, as to number, propor-
tion, and relative position, resembles in some degree the Caj)c Mole — Chrysochlora aurea ; but'
both in these respects and in the number of Molars, accords more closely with that of the pre-
viously existing Amphitiieritjm, which had been referred to the insectivorous Marsupials. The
insectivorous natiu'e of these species receives a certain amount of confirmation from the fact, that in
the beds where they have been found, especially in the Purbeck beds, plentiful indications of
insect life are also met with. In the tertiary beds numerous remains of Insectivora occur, which
have received the generic names of Dimylus, Geotrypus, Hyporysius, Pal.wjspalax, &c.
Dr. Wagner f includes the Galeopithecus amongst the Insectivora, an arrangement which
seems unsound for reasons already mentioned. In other respects, his arrangement of them is very
natural, viz., into Cladobates, or Squirrel-like species ; Shrews ; Moles ; and Hedgehogs. Ano-
ther arrangement, including both fossil and living species, had been previously proj)osed by M.
Pomel, in an article on the distribution of the order. J And more recently. Professor Peters, of
Berlin, has projjosed another, adopting some of Wagner's suggestions, more especially the reception
of Galeopithecus into the order.§
The zoologist may like to compare these different systems of classification. I have therefore
contrasted them in a tabic in the Appendix. The arrangement which seems to me best is, 1. Moles ;
2. Shrews, including Macroscelidcs ; 3. Tupaias ; 4. Hedgehogs.
Moles. — (Majj 63.) The Moles are distributed over the whole Northern hemisphere. A genus
of them is also found in South Africa, but none have been met with in the intertropical parts
of the World, nor in South America nor Australia.
There are three types of form which are peculiar, respectively, one (Talpa) to Euroj^c and
Asia ; another (Scalops) to North America ; and the third (Chrysochloris) to South Africa,— all
very limited in number of species.
The European Mole extends eastwards in the temperate latitudes from Ireland (where it has
erroneously been said not to exist) through Europe and Asia, until it passes the Altai Mountains. It
is there replaced by another species (T. Wogara) first described by Temminck, from Japanese
specimens, but since found by Raddo to extend as far westwards as Irkutsk. A new genus (Urotri-
CHUs) has been found in Japan, and no doubt will also be met with on the mainland. The most
interesting fact regarding it is, that another species of the same genus has lately been found in
California. Mr. Lord says he can perceive no difference between the Japanese and Californian
species ; || biit Dr. Baird, who describes the latter, seems to have entertained no doubt that they
were distinct, and, moreover, mentions that the eye and ear cannot be perceived, whereas in the
Japanese species they are only said to be very minutc^f
* Owen, " Paloeontology," p. 317. § Peters, uuber die Saugethiere-gattung Solenodon ia
t Wagner, in Schrrber's " Saugethiere," Supplement, " Abhand. Ak. Wisscu," 1863.
Vol. V. II Lord, in "Proc. Zool. Soc," lS(i4, p. ICl,
X "Bulletin de la Societe Geol. de France," Second IT Baird, op. cit. viii., 7U.
Series, VI., Nov., 1848-56.
Enraptforv MoU
Spcri^.s' of Styilf'ps
Vrrtrirfyr/^
MOLES — SHREWS. 231
It was for long thought that the Mole was found in North America as well as in Europe.
This was a mistake, owing to the extreme similarity of the American Scalops to our Mole. In fact,
until the natiu-alist takes them in hand and points out the differences, they would be passed by any
modcratclj- observant jjerson as identical. They are foiuid in nearly every portion of North America
as far south as Mexico. One rather remarkable form constituting the genus Condylura, the Star-
nosed Mole, which is characterised by the point of the nose being star-shaped, inhabits the northern
parts of the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific. One species of Scalops, perhaps two, is
restricted to the Pacific coast, one to the Atlantic. One is found sparingly in New York, Massa-
chusetts, and Ohio, and another on the prairies of Michigan, Illinois, and the west. The genus
TIrotrichus has hitherto been found only on the west side of the Cascade Mountains, "Washington
Territory, California.*
The Cape or Gilded Mole, Chrysochi.oris, so called from the greenish golden gloss of its fur,
is wholly South African. It differs somewhat in its structure from the true Moles, having, for
example, only three fingers developed in the fore-pavrs instead of five. The number of teeth
is smaller ; but its general apj)earance and habits are the same as those of the Mole, their
galleries, perhaps, being only somewhat deeper. Three species are known to belong to it ; one
from the Cape, another fi'om Natal, and a third from Mozambique.
I know of no fossil remains of the Mole.
Shrews. — (Map 64.) The Soricix.e first make their appearance in small number of species
during the miocene period, and continue through the glacial epoch to the present time, without
material change of form or size.
Although they have been divided into many sections it will be sufficient, for the purpose of
showing their distribution, to separate them into three. The long-tailed Shrews (Sorex, Amphi-
SOREX, and Crossopus), which are found in the northern part of both hemispheres, extending all
across Europe, Asia, and North America ; the short-tailed Shrews (Blarina), which are confined to
North America ; and the section Crocidi'Ra, whose habitat is in the tropical part of the Old World,
with a few species which extend a little be3'ond the tropic of Cancer into Europe and Asia. The
last are chiefl}- distinguished from the other Shrews by their dentition. In outward appearance
they do not materially differ from them. The Desman (Myogai.e) is a Shrew with a naked, more or
less compressed tail, of which one species is found in the south-east of Russia, and another on the
banks of the streams at the foot of the Pyrenees. Its bare and laterally compressed taU, like that
of the Musk Rat in North America, shows another point of affinity in this order to the Rodents.
Remains of an extinct species of Desman have been found in the miocene beds at Sansans, in the
south of France.
SoLENODON. Until lately, this singular genus was only known from a description, by Professor
Brandt, of St. Petersburg, of a species found in St. Domingo, five-and-twenty years ago,t of which
there were only two specimens known, one in the St. Petersburg Museum, and another (imperfect)
formerly in the collection of the Zoological Society, now in the British Museum. It is about the size
of a Rat, with a tail nearly as long as itself ; has a snout like a Shrew, but a number of affinities
* Baibd, in " United States Pacific Railroad Explora- Geuere, " Mem. Acad. St. Petersburg," ii. p. 459, 1836; and
tion," 1 8.57, vol. viii. "Mammal. Esoticor, Descriptioncs et Icones," pp. 1-20.
t BuAKDT, De Solenodonte, Novo Mammalium Tab. 1, 2, 1835.
232 MAMMALS.
with different menibers of the lusectivora, and has been a stiunbling-hloek to naturalists on account
of the difficulty of finding its projier place. ]?\^o other specimen was found until 1863, when
Sefior Pocy, of Havannah, obtained a second species in the mountains of Bavamo, in Cuba.* This
example came into the hands of Professor Peters, of Berlin, and he has carefully examined and
described it,t and has come to the conclusion that although it presents various points of affinity
with the Xorth American Moles (Scalops) and the Shrews and the Desman of Russia, and in some
respects with the Hedgehog, it must be placed in the same group as the ^Madagascar genera,
Cextetes, ERiCTJLrs and Echixogale (a group which usually, although not by Dr. Peters, is placed
in the same family as the Hedgehogs.) Dr. Peters parallels this most remarkable geograjohical
location by some otlier instances. He remarks that Madagascar is the only island where, if we
except the Brachylophxs fasciatis of Xew Guinea and the East Indies, iguanoid lizards with
the Pleurodont character, occur out of America, and the same island alone in the Old World
furnishes examples of the American Colubrine forms Xijihosoma and Heterodon. It is true that
one or two remarkable instances of resemblance between species froni Madagascar and America do
stand recorded in our books ; but they all require careful sifting, not only as regards their
affinities, but also the authority for the locality. It is part of my business for the purposes of this
work to do so, as we successively encoimtfr them ; and as regards the jiresent instance, the
SoLExoDON, I have to say that the grounds for referring it to the Madagascar type appear to me
to be iusufficient. That it has more outward resemblance to the Shrews than to the Cextetid-IL
cannot be disputed ; that it has many points in its anatomj' corresponding with that of the Shrews
is admitted ; and that the judging between their value and number is a nice and difficult operation
is also not denied. Therefore, even although the Madagascar element did seem to prevail in its
physiological relations, I confess that I should stiU prefer to question Dr. Peters' decision, and to
trust to the superficial resemblance, and the other admitted affinities nearer home, rather than to
the balance of physiological relations struck by him. A fair estimate of these, however, by no
means leaves the same impression on me as they have on Dr. Peters. "Wnere modifications of an
abstract type occur in exactly the same number and degree, in important organs and in less im-
portant ones, it may be that he awards the greater value as indicative of affinity to what he
considers accordance in the more important ones. On that footing these in the Solenodon may
possibly bring it nearest the Madagascar tj-pe. But this principle of valuation is, I think, erro-
neous. On the principle laid down by Agassiz, I hold that deviations on the more important
structures ought rather to refer to the larger divisions of the order than to the minor sections.
At first sight it may appear otherwise ; for it seems a natural inference that the more important
the organs in which correspondence occurs the more nearlj' alHed should be the animals in
which such correspondence appears. But these are the organs which go farthest back in time,
and indicate the general source from which the whole family sprung. Modifications on f/icm
speak of remote affinity, whereas resemblances in the less important and less vital characters,
such as outward appearance, colouring, hair, and anything not relating to what I may call the
foundation or great beams of the house, indicate more recent affinity. I, therefore, place Sole-
nodon next its nearest neighbours in geographical position, and those likest it in external
appearance, — the Shrews.
* See for an account of its habits " Memorias sobra la t Peters, " Heber die saugc-thiev-gattung St.lcnodc n.
Ilistoria Natural de la Isla de Cuba:" Pai- Felix Pocy, Abh. Ak. Wiss. Berlin. 1SG3.
liabana, 1861.
HEDGEHOGS. 23
o
Macroscelides. — (Map 65.) These are the representatives in the Insectivora of the Jerboas in the
Rodents and of Perajieles among the Marsupials, -with the latter of which thoy have, in addition to a
general resemblance, an agreement in the imperfect ossification of the palate, it being perforated by
many holes. The group is very limited in number (six species being all that are known). If we
contrast their distribution witli that of their Rodent analogues, the Jerboas, it will be found that
their districts are not the same, but lie next each other, the one, rather belonging to the northern
hemisphere, the other to the African region.
To them probably belongs the genus Rhynchocyon, from Mozambique, although it has also
affinity with Gyji^sura, in next Section.
TuPAiA. (Map 65.) The Insectivora possess no analogues to the Flying Squirrels, or to the
Marsupial Petauri ; but the Cladobates, including the old genus Tipaia, represent the ordinary
form of Squirrels, although more slender and with a more elongated muzzle, which gives them what
may be called, without a pun, a more shrewish cast of countenance. They have also the same
habits and food, and are called by the natives by the same name— Tupaja. They are confined to
the Malay and Burmese districts, reaching from the Khasia Hills on the north and west, to Java
and Borneo on the south and east. Only six species are known, all arboreal. The Hylomys
SuiLLUS, found in Java, Sumatra, and Borneo, at a height of from 1200 to 2000 feet above the sea,
likewise belongs to the same group. It also is arboreal. Ptilocercus Lowii, also a Bornean
rat-like animal with a pinnated tail, is another form of Tupaia. The genus Gymnura, from Malacca
and Sumatra, although bandied about from place to place, seems properly to belong to this group,
apparently differing most in not being arboreal. The tail is scaly, and Van der HiJven thinks it
resembles in external appearance the American Opossum. It has something the look of a Hedge-
hog, and has long bristles scattered among the hairs of its back.
The Madagascar genus Eupleres used to be placed here, but it is now properly removed by Dr.
Gray to the Genetts, with which its outward appearance and dentition best correspond.
Centetina. — Madagascar Hedgehogs. (Map 66.) This family is composed of three animals from
Madagascar and Mauritius, bearing the spines and prickles of Hedgehogs, and resembling them a
good deal in appearance, but without the power of rolling themselves up in a ball. Three genera —
Centetes, Ericulus, and Echijjogale, — have been made for the reception of the three species. As
above mentioned. Professor Peters wishes to add the Sot.exodox from Cuba as a fourth.
Hedgehogs. — (Map 66.) From the fossQ remains which have been found of this genus, it appears
to have been pretty widely spread in middle Europe, both in the miocene and post-glacial epoch.
Bones of the existing European Hedgehog (Erinaceus Exjrop^us) have been found in deposits of
the latter date. It now extends all over Europe and across the northern half of Asia. In the southern
half it is replaced by another species with longer ears (E. auritis). Various other species are found
in Asia — two or three occur in India, and about the same number in Africa. These, with the
exception of one at the Cape of Good Hope, are foimd in the north of Africa, and one of them which
inhabits the Desert of Sahara, like many other animals, is clothed by nature \\-ith a dress scarcely
distinguishable from the prevailing hue of the soil on which it lives. None have yet been found
in West or Central Africa ; but, doubtless, links will be found connecting the solitary Cape species
with some of the other African forms.
H u
234
CHAPTER XXXIII.
CHEIROPTEKA — BATS FRUGIVOROUS BATS — INSECTIVOROUS BATS (lEAF-BEARING, AND NOT
LEAF-BEARING.)
" The Cheiroptera," says Professor Owen, " witli the exception of tlie modification of tlieir digits,
for supporting the large webs that serve as wings, repeat the chief characters of the Insectivora ; "*
and so they do with some few excejitions, such as the pectoral mammal. That modification in itself
is of little importance. It is to be regarded merely as an " accidental " element in their structure,
consequent on the mode in which they are to procure their food ; and, therefore, not calling for
their removal from an order to which they otherwise belong, any more than their flippers require
the removal of the Seals from the Carnivorous Mammals ; or their dejjrivation of limbs, the sepa-
ration of the Sirenia from their Pachydermatous allies. But whilst they are clearly Insectivora,
an inquiry into the past history of the order suggests doubts of their being modifications of the
terrestrial species. It is rather the latter that are to be looked on as modified Cheiroptera ; for,
according to all ajopearance, the Bats can trace the most distant parentage of the two. Looking back
into the past geological formations, it is impossible to avoid being struck by the extraordinary
resemblance which they bear to the Pterodactyles, or flying Lizards, of the oolitic period.
The first impression which would imdoubtedly strike any one unacquainted with anatomy would
be that they belonged to the same class of animals. The form of the head ; the relative proportion
of the limbs ; the processless vertebrae ; the general idea of the wing ; the disproportion in the
length of the digits ; the dermal wing-membrane, of which fine traces are still preserved in the
Solenhofen specimens of Pterodactyles, are all repeated in the Bat. Fig. 1, representing the wing of
the Pterodactyle ; Fig. 2, that of the Bat ; Fig. 3,t that of a Bird, show the comparative affinity
of the Bat to the Pterodactj-lo more strongly than any words can do ; and although the anatomist
comes and disillusionizes us by pointing out that the vertebra) of the Pterodactyle are articulated
after the Rejitilian plan ; that the dentition is Reptilian ; that the cranivnn, pelvis, and other parts
of the skeleton, are so likewise ; and that even the microscopical structure of the bones is ReptUian,
we find it impossible to believe that the two creatures have not something to do with each other.
How strongly, for example, did the discovery of marks of feathers on the Archaeofteryx add
to the conviction of its aflinity to a bird ? and shall we deal a difierent measure when we find
impressions of a leathern wing, like that of the Bat, loft among the wing-bones of the Pterodactyle ?
It is incredible that two animals so identical in plan could have been repeated by chance. And we
* Owen, in " Proc. Linn. Soo." ii. p. 23, 1857. published in the Royal So^ietj's "Philosophical Transac-
t These figures are copied from Professor Owen's draw- tions," vol. cliii., part 1, 1 863, p. 33.
ings in his paper on Archaeopteryx LrrHOGRAPHicuM,
D;w 1 o&i.Luicite^J . Liih
BATS.
235
refer the Bat back to the Pterodactyle as its progenitor, whetlier it has been derived directly from
the Reptilian type, or its elements have been filtered through the Birds. In either view it seems
more likely that the terrestrial Insectivores may be derived from, or be a modification of the Bats,
than the Bats a modification of them.
Bats are found all over the world. Some groups are confined to the Old and some to the New
"World, whilst others are cosmopolitan ; but although the same genera are sometimes found both in
le Old and the New World, there is no instance of the same species being so found. Thej^ are
very numerous ; nearly 400 species having been described ; and they are all so similar to each other
that the greatest difficulty has been found in discovering generic characters, by which to enable the
^^
Fig. 1. Pterodactyle.
Fig. 2. Bat.
Fig 3. Bird.
naturalist to classify them. This has been done by the combination of characters which, in other
orders, would not be considered of more than specific value ; and in many of the genera the specific
characters have been reduced to the size of the aniinal, and the quality and colour of the fur.
Frugivorous B.\ts. (Pteropi.) (Map 67.) The frugivorous Bats have been named Flying Foxes,
from many of the species in India being of the colom- of the fox, with a head sonu'what like a fox,
and, when their wings are expanded, looking nearly as large.
About forty species of Pteropine Bats are known, but one genus is sufficient to contain the
whole, with the exception of about a dozen peculiar species, for which special genera have been
established. One species is found in New Holland and Van Dieman's Land. One or two on the
different islands scattered about in the Pacific and Indian Ocean. In some instances species occur
peculiar to the individual group of islands on which they are foimd, — as at the Andaman, the
Nicobar, and the Marianne Islands ; but generally both in this group aiul in the insectivorous Bats
the species have an extensive range ; one, for instance, which has been taken at the Samoa Islands, is
236 MAMMALS.
also found at Timor, AmbojTia ; another, Pteropus Edwardsi, ranges from the Indian and Austra-
lian districts, to Madagascar and the Commoro Islands, although it has not been recorded as reaching
Africa. The great focus of this family is India, the Malayan region, and the Indian Archij)elago,
Sumatra possessing more species than any other island.
They arc not found either in Eurojie or America.
Some imperfect remains found in the Solenhofen lithographic stone (oolitic) had been referred
by M. Kruger to an extinct species of Pteropus. There is little doubt, however, that they belonged to
some one or other of the species of Pterodactyle which are found in that formation. No extinct
Pteropine Bat has hitherto been discovered, but it is very probable that they maj^ yet be
detected in the countries which they still inhabit, as in the bone-caves of Borneo (deposits full of
promise, which have not yet been examined).
IxsECTivoRous B>.Ts. If no extinct Pteropine Bats have yet been discovered, it is not so
with the Insectivorous Bats. Although their remains are no doubt often overlooked, a sufficiency has
been discovered to settle definitively that they existed during the upper eocene ej)och, and have con-
tinued through all the subsequent periods in very much the same form as at present. They have been
found in the Paris gypsum, in the London claj% and in bone-caves and post-glacial deposits in all
parts of Europe. Cuvier obtained a tolerably complete skeleton of a species from the gypsiun of Mont-
martre, which he named Vespertilio Parisiensis. De Blainville considered it very close to, if not
identical with, the living species, V. serotixa. The other remains showed similarly close resemblances,
and he thence inferred that the physical condition of Europe was not then materially different
from what' it now is ; a conclusion which, although probably true, is scarcely warranted by that fact,
for at the present day many species ratige through the most dissimilar climates, as the Rhinolophus
FERRiM-EQUixuM, which raugcs from England to the Cape of Good Hope.
The Insectivorous Bats are divided into two easily distinguished sections. The one (the Ves-
PEuni.ioxiD.E), witli tlieir nose and lips not differing from those of other quadrupeds, — whence one
of their sectional names, Gymnorhin.t; ; the other having the upper lip or nose expanded into diversi-
form prolongations, usually membranous, and bearing resemblance to leaves and other objects, — whence
their names, Phyllostoma, Rhinolopiius, Istiophora, &c. It is only the former of these (the
Vesperti;,T()xi]).'k) that have left fossil remains in Europe ; but of the latter, which are largely
represented in the Tropics both of the Old and the New World, remains of six fossil species have
been discovered by Limd in the bone-caves of Brazil. One, if not more of these, has been referred
to a species still living in Brazil. Whether justlj^ or not may be a question.
Nasal-Leab'-Bearixg Bats. (Istiophora.) (Map 68.) — This section contains some of the
most bizarre and curious-looking head-pieces that exist on the face of the earth. AVhat the use
of the extraordinary processes by which the face of these bats is furnished — (we ought not to
say disfigured, but still less can we say adorned) is not known with ccrtaintj' ; but it is supposed
rather to be connected with increased delicacy in the sense of touch than that of smell (^Adiicli
is the supposition wliich most naturally occurs to one), for tlie leaf-processes are mere re-dupli-
cations of the skin, not supplied by any branches of the olfactorjr nerve. As I have just said,
they are largely represented in the Tropics, both in the Old and New Worlds, and more feebly the
farther we remove from them. And we have a repetition here of what takes place in the Monkeys.
They are divided into two great groups, — the Rhinolophi and the Phyllostomata ; the former
peculiar to tlie Old World, and the latter to the New.
3n'£S(K[Ijis7~d.i
BATS. 237
E.HINOLOPHI. The most northerly species of this group are the Rhinolophus ferrtjm-equinum,
and Rh. hipposideros, which are found in the south of England (the latter also in Ireland) and
extend across the whole of Middle and South Europe. The former ranges also over the whole
of Africa. There are many species in India and the Malayan Peninsula and Indian Archipelago.
The Indian district is the chief focus of this section. We do not know so many from
Africa, although from the number fomid by Professor Peters in Mozambique it is probable that
other parts of it, if as well searched, would be equally productive. One or two are now known
on the eastern coast of New Holland. "We have no record of species foimd in Arabia and Persia ; but
there is no doubt that manj^ of the species found on their borders will also be found mthin their
territory. The same remark applies to China.
Phyllostojiata. These are the Vampires, or Blood-sucking Bats, so well known in story. They
are not, however, ;dl blood-suckers. Some, which might be supposed more especially sanguinary
from the admirable organisation of their lips for sucking, are wholly innocent of offence ; they
suck nothing worse than ripe, fleshy fruits.* The family is confined to South America, the West
Indian Islands, and Central America. A single species (Megaderma Californica) is fomid in
California ; but it is obviously a mere advanced sentinel of the main body from the south, and
is, moreover, closely allied to a West Indian species. None are found in the south-eastern states
of North America, notwithstanding that this is usually laid down in Physical Atlas Maps. Besides
this, another species of Bat has been found in California (Ajvtrozous pallidus)- belonging to the
section without nasal appendages, but with a dentition closely approaching to that of the Vampire
Bats, in their most constant character (four incisors in the lower jaw) as well as with enormously
developed ears, which is another of their characteristics, — being in both respects the onl}^ North
American species so endowed, and apparently indicating a transition between the leaf-bearing Bats
and the Gymnorhin^s; ; f a transition which has a bearing on the view entertained by some
naturalists that the leaf-nose is not a character of essential importance ; for some species which
bear it, differ from others in their general appearance and in their flight, which is a good,
although not easily definable character, while in these respects they correspond with species which
have no nasal leaf. The fact, however, of those bearing them being confined to a special pro\'ince,
seems to me in itself sufficient to show that the character is not of the indifferent systematic nature
implied in this idea. The Vampire, par excellence, is the species named Ph. spectruji ; but it is
no better entitled to a pre-eminence in blood-thirstiness than many other species which have similar
habitudes. It and they extend over the whole of tropical South America, as far south as La Plata.
They are not, however, found in that district. Not a single specimen of Phyllostomatous Bat was
found by Dr. Burmeister during his three years' sojourn there. Indeed, the whole family
is most poorly represented in that naked land ; there being only four species known in it, while
thirty-one are described from the neighbouring territory of South-cast Brazil. The absence
of anything on which to hang or rest themselves after the Bat fashion, is in itself sufficient reason
why few should be found there.
Bats without Nasal-Leaf Appendages. (Gymnorhin.^.) (Map 69.) — The greatest part
of this group consists of the Vespertilionid.«, which may all be treated, geographically, as
one large genus. There are a very few — the Noctilionid.'e — which, like. Ajjtrozous, arc transi-
* Bates, in " Proc. Zool. Soc." ISGO, p. 09. America," Smithsonian Institute Collection, 1S64. ji.
t Allen, Di-. H., "Monograpli of the Bats of North 68.
238 MAMMALS.
tional between the Leaf-bcarcrs aud the true Vespertilios. One of these Noctilios (N. leporinus)
fills the anomalous position of a fishing Bat. Mr. Fraser, who observed its peculiar habit in its
native country (Ecuador), describes it as skimming along the bank of the river, every now and
then making a dash at, and, actually strildng the water, catching the minute shrimp)s as they pass up
stream, and adds that it had a very fishy smell.* Dr. Shortt has subsequently recorded similar fishing
propensities of the Pteropus of India — the prey there being small fishes. f
The statement occurs quoted by Mr. Tomes, in an account which he gives of the mammals collected
by Mr. Fraser at Ecuador, and it suggests the following reflection to him : " From the great
resemblance which exists between the fur of the New Zealand mystacina, and that of the Water
Shrews, and, indeed, that of other mammalia with similar aquatic habits, I had long ago been led to
suspect that that Bat might be aquatic in its mode of life, but I coidd never gather direct evidence on
the subject. Certainly I never suspected that this Noctilio took its food in the manner noticed by Mr.
Fraser." The identity of the structure of the hair of the V. mystacina with that of the Shrews
is to my mind evidence not of a similar teleological purpose, but of a common descent. The same
peculiar structure of hair occurs inter alia in the Moles, the House a^d other Mice, the Shrews, and
some Bats ; and as the structure is very peculiar and not found in other famiKes, the circumstance
certainly seems suggestive of a common origin. I am one of those who think there is no evidence
equal to circumstantial evidence. And if I were a hanging man, to borrow the phraseology of the
betting ring, (which I am not — not from any soft-hearted, humanitarian weakness, but solely on
principles of economy — thinking as I do that I could put the hangee to a better use) ; but if I tccre
a hanging man, I woidd hang a man without remorse on circumstantial evidence, where I would
not touch a hair- of his head on dii-ect testimony. An identity of structure between the hair of a Bat
aud that of these other animals is cii'cunistantial e^ddence of a strong kind ; for it is in trifling
matters of an unlooked-for kind, that circmnstantial evidence is most pregnant in its bearing. The
reader will remember that the hair of the difierent orders of animals differs materially in its micro-
scopic appearance and structure. J
To this group belong the great majority of our English and Eurojiean Bats. It is divided
into two large sections, the Scotophili and the Vespektilioxes, — both tolerably well marked.
The distinction between these is chiefly in the wing-membranes, and the thickness of the ear; and,
although difiicult to describe, is easily recognised when once pointed out. The difierence extends to
their facial expression. As Mr. AUen describes it,§ the diflerence may be compared to that between a
mastifi" aud a terrier dog. The former (the Scotophili) massive, with broad head, joendular lips, and
wide ears ; the latter more slender, with a narrower face, and delicate, upright ears. A very large
number of species, however, stand in scientific works mider the genus Vespertilio, which cannot be
satisfactorily allotted to the one or the other, for want of suflScient information. In the list which
I have given in the Appendix, such species are included imder Vespertilio as the more general head.
The PipistreUe and the V. noctula, perhaps our best known European Bats, occur all over
Europe north of North Italy, and over North Asia, north of the Ca.spian, from Sweden to Spain and
Greece, and from Eussia to Japan. It is recorded as fomid fossil in a bone-cave at Antibes, near
Nice. The Barbastelle has only been found beyond Europe in the Himmalayah. The Plecotus
* Tomes, "Proceedings Zoological Society," 1R60. scopic character of Hair, in "Proc. Liter, and Philos.
t Shoktt, in " Proc. Zool. Soc.," 1SG3, p. 4.38. Soc. of Liverpool," No. vii. 1854, ^. 83.
X See Inman, Dr. T., On the Natural History aud Micro- § Allen, D. H, op. cit. p. 27.
BATS. 239
AURiTUS, or Long-eared Bat, has the same, but a slightly more extended range, reaching into North
Africa, and is also found in the Caucasus, Georgia, &c.
In the Leaf-bearing Bats, the same genera are never found in both the Old and New "Worlds.
In this section the same genera sometimes occvir in both, but the same species never. The covmtries
most nuracrou.slj' supplied with species are India and the Malayan districts in the Old World, and
Brazil in the New. The range is indeed very much the same as that of the leaf-nosed Bats,
except that they have a wider and more northerly range; and that, unlike them, they occur
in North America. A good many are found in Australia. These are chiefly of the form of the
Eurojjcan Pipistrelle. Mr. Tomes remarks, ap-opon to Nyctophims rNicoi.oR, that all the species of ,
Bats wliich he had seen from Van Dieman's Land, " differ remarkably from those of the mainland,
in having all the fur everywhere short and cottony, and perfectly devoid of lustre and imi-coloured."
He says elsewhere, however, that " he has often been surprised that Australia does not furnish a
single fonn among the Bats that is not common to nearly all the world besides ; indeed many of
the species are found in the Indian islands, and, curiously enough, in China." This, however,
chiefl}' applies to typical form ; it indeed also applies to a few of the actual species, but the majority
of those found in Australia are limited to that country. One or two peculiar species occur in
New Zealand. None in either this or last section are recorded from Madagascar ; but this may be
owing to deficieut information. There are several oceanic species, and the Nicobar Islands, which
possess peculiar species both of the frugivorous and leaf-nosed Bats, have an endemic sj)ecies of this
group also. Of Bats in general, the Novara Expedition* has produced no fewer than four new
endemic species from these islands alone. Considerable variety exists in the size and colour of
some of the Indian species of Bats, as hapj)ens in the Squirrels and some other mammals, those
which inhabit South India and Ceylon being smaller and darker in colour than those living more
to the northward, and species intemiediate in size and colour being found at intermediate localities.
This does not hold with all, however, and I am not aware that it extends beyond the territory
of the Indian region.
* "Die AusbeutederOestcrreichisohenNaturforscber gelung Sr. Majcstat Fregatte Novara," von D. L. J.
an Saugethicren und Reptilien wahrend der Weltumse- Fitzinger, 1861.
240
CHAPTER XXXIV.
RODENTS TOSODON.
The Rodents should follow the Pachyderms and precede the Marsupials. If I had so arranged them,
we should have heen left without a place for the Whales, Bats, and Insectivora ; and I have
introduced these orders between the Pachj-derms and Rodents rather as a necessary digression
than as a natural connexion. I beg the reader now to revert to the Pachyderms, and suppose
that we have onlj^ just finished them off, and that we are now to adjust the Rodents in continuation
of them as satisfactorily as we can.
Mr. Waterhouse has studied the Rodents with much care and success, and his works have greatly
lightened the labour and cleared the path for any one who wishes to acquire a knowledge of the
order.
In his first essay* on the subject he divided the order into three great families, — the Mice, the
Porcixpines, and the Hares. In his subsequent works on the subject,! he added a family for the
Squii-rels, and first proposed a sub-family, or separate group, for the reception of the Rats with
external cheek-pouches. That grouj) has been adopted by others, and raised by Baird to the rank of
an independent family. It appears to me that "Waterhouse is right throughout ; and Baird and those
who adopt his view wrong in this step. I shall explain why I think so when we come to the Pouched
Rats. In the same way I think that Brandt and Giebel err in establishing the families Spalacini
and DiPODiNi for other sections of Rats. I look upon them merely as subsections of the other Rats
and Mice. So far as relates to these members of the Rodent family, therefore, I adopt Mr. Water-
house's main arrangement, j)ure and simple, subject to some modifications in the details of the dif-
ferent families. But I add to the order two genera, or families, which Mr. Watorhovise excluded,
the Hyrax and Toxodon. These have usually been included among the Pachyderms. They seem
to me, however, to be too essentially rodent in their characters to be so treated, and their admission
here necessitates some modification of Mr. Waterhouse's arrangement, to allow them to fit in
properly. The last of the Pachyderms were the aquatic section, Sirenia. I begin the Rodents with
the Toxodon, an extinct water Rodent, or gigantic Capybara. Its affinity to the Capybara requires
that animal to follow it, and that brings with it the whole of the Hystricid.?;, or Cavies, and
Porcupines. Next to them I place the genus Hyrax, which, on the one hgnd, is also connected
with the Capybaras, and, on the other, with the Hares and Pikas. I then get back again into Mr.
Waterhouse's groove, which I follow without any great deviation, except transposing the Mice and
* Waterhouse, "On the Arrangement of the Rodcntia," vol. iv. 1858 ; and " Table of Rodents,'' in Keith Johnston's
in Charlesworth's Magazine of Nat. Hist., 1839, p. 90. "Physical Atlas."
t Waterhouse, " Natural History of the Mammalia,"
RODENTS TOXODONTIDiE. 241
Squirrels. ]\Iy classification mil thus stand : 1. The Toxodontid^. 2. The Hysteicid^, Cavies, the
Porcupines, &c. 3. The Hyracid-=e. 4. The Leporid-'e, Hares. 5. The Scix'kid.e, Squirrels, &c.
G. The MuRiD-E, Mice. Mr. Waterhouse's arrangement is supposed to be in an ascending order,
the Hares being lowest, and the Squirrels most advanced in organisation. I pay no attention
to this : it is not advancement — but affinity which is my guide. Tlierefore I content myself
with placing those next the Marsupials, which appear most nearly allied to the members of that
order.
The Rodents are found in every quarter of the world, but their metropolis is South America.
Next to it in preponderance of species comes North America. The two together counting nearly as
many species as are to be found in the whole of the rest of the globe. No species is found both
in South and North America ; no sj)ecies both in South America and Africa. None aboriginal in Aus-
tralia are foiuid anj'-n-here else. No species are foimd both in the Old World and the New. Some
authors make a few exceptions to this, but we shall presentlj' see that even these are doubtful.
Africa, Asia, and Europe, have species which are found in all three. In what I have above said
I of course do not take account of introduced species, house Rats and Mice, and such small deer.
The exceptions above alluded to are five or six boreal species, regarding which it is doubtful
whether those found in the north of Europe and Asia are or are not the same as those inhabiting
the north of America. These doubtful species are the Polar Hare, the Beaver, the Musk Eat,
the Lemming, and Spermophilus Parryi. With these exceptions, which may be determined either
way, according to the ideas which each individual may entertain of what constitutes a species, there
are no two sjjecies common both to the Old World and the New.
ToxoDONTiDyE. — When Speaking of the Nesobontid,^, I mentioned the circumstances imder
which the bones of it and of this genus were found by Mr. Darwin. They were discovered in
South America, near Bahia Blanca. Unfortunately all that were jjrocured were imperfect
portions of skulls, which, however, were so remarkable as greatly to add to the disappointment
that more complete specimens had not been found. D'Orbigny since then has added the descrip-
tion of the fore-arm of a second species of Toxodon. But that is, I believe, all that is j-et
known of the genus.
It may well be supposed that with such scanty materials even the order to which these genera
belong is a matter of doubt, and it is only provisionally that they are placed here. That they
were animals of great size is apparent from tlie dimensions of the skull, that of Toxodon Platensis
being two feet four inches in length, and one foot four inches in breadth ; but whether they are
Rodents, Pachyderms, Ruminants or Sirenians, to all which they have been referred, or whether
they were aquatic or terrestrial, whether they had legs or fins, was all unknown «hen Professor
Owen described them, and is not much better knowni yet.
The Toxodon Platensis had incisors like tlie hare ; a very small one behind a very large
one in each maxillary bone ; it had no canines, but a large vacant space between the incisors and
molars, as in Rodents ; the molars, seven on each side, diminishing in size as they advance to the
anterior part of each jaw, as in the Pachyderms, and also as in the Capybara, which, in this
respect, as well as in other peculiarities, shows afiinity to the Pachyderms.
In Professor Owen's words, the dentition closely resembled the rodent tj-pe, but manifested
it on a gigantic scale, and tended to complete the chain of aflinities which link the Pachj-dermatous
with the Rodent and Cetaceous orders. The masticating and temporal muscles must have been
242 MAMMALS.
both large, and Professor Owen presumed that the great incisors were used like the canines
of the Hippopotamus, to divide or tear up the roots of aquatic plants. The osseous parts per- .
taining to the senses of sight and hearing resembled those of the aquatic Rodentia and Pachydermata.
The aspect of the nostrils is placed upwards, as in the Sirenia, but they differ in having narrow
canals of intercommunication between the nasal passages and the frontal sinus. The articulating
condyles of the cranium were thought by Owen to indicate that when the body of the Toxodon
was submerged (for Owen appears soon to have come to the conclusion that it must have been a
" submerged " animal) the head could be raised so as to form an angle with the neck, and bring
the snout to the surface of the water, without the necessity of any corresponding inflexion of the
spine. Wlien Owen wrote his description there was no evidence to determine the character of
the extremities, whether they were ungulate, unguiculate, or pinnate, while the structure of the
nostrils suggested that the habits of the animal were not so strictly aquatic as to warrant the sup-
position that the under extremities were altogether wanting. D'Orbigny's discovery of the fore-
arm of another species of this genus (T. Paranensis), has proved that it is not a pinnate animal,
but has limbs not imlike the Tapir or Capybara. It is to the latter that it seems to me to
have most afiinity ; it moreover inhabited the continent which is par excellence the country
of Rodents ; and I have accordingly preferred to place it here among the Rodents, instead
of to follow Professor Owen, and j)lace it among the Pachydermata. The Capybara, however,
roaches a size of no more than three or four feet, whereas, judging by the proportions of the
head, the Toxodon must have been at least twelve or sixteen feet in length.
Note Tntensiiyofivi/nirTrwU'r-a/'wpfvpmi/ifTYtnre cf Species
D^£5an;Liminj>Luf'
Dj^'t SxiiJlietfcdi 1^
243
CHAPTER XXXV.
RODENTS continued — HYSTRICID.E CAPYBARA — CA^'IES CHI^-CHILLAS OCTODONS ECHIMYINA
AGOUTIS PORCUPINES.
The Hystricid.^ (Map 72) take their name from the Porcinjines ; but by much the larger
portion of them is composed of other ingredients. Besides "the Porcupines, the family contains the
Cavies or Guinea-Pigs, the Chinchillas, the Chilian Squirrels or Octodons, the Spiny Eats or
Echimjdna, and the Pacas and Agoutis, or Dasji^roctidac. All these are South-American forms ; and,
with the exception of the Porcupines, so entirely so, that only two species belonging to them are
found anywhere else than in the New World, and only five or six out of South America. The Por-
cupines are different. They are found in all the four quarters of the world, but are divided into
two well-marked groups ; one pecidiar to the New World, and the other to the Old.
Cavies. (Cavini.) (Map 73.) I take the Cavies first, and first of the fiimily I take the
puzzling Capybara as having most afiinity to the Toxodon. This animal may be called a Pachyder-
matous Rodent. Even its outward appearance indicates this double relationship. When viewed
at a distance, from its manner of walking as well as from its colour, it resembles a pig ; when
seated on its haunches, and attentively watching any object with one eye, it reassumes the
appearance of its congeners, Cavies and Rabbits.* It has, more of the Pachyderm in its con-
stitution, however, than merely a resemblance to a pig. It has the body of its molar teeth com-
pletely traversed by nine or ten plates of enamel, reminding us of the plates of which the Elephant's
tooth is composed, and which also are united by cement somewhat in a similar manner. Other
analogies with the Pachyderms, even in their habits, can be traced, indicating a certain amount
of connexion between the two orders. For example, when the animal is swimming in the water,
and has young ones, they are said to sit on its back, as the young of the Hippopotamus do on
its back.
Aprojjos to this species, Mr. Waterhouse says, " As in the class Mammalia, the largest
known species are aquatic, so in the minor divisions of the class we find, as a general rule, the
the largest species have aquatic habits. Few species of the order Rodentia attain a size approaching
to that of the Beaver or Coj-pu, whilst in the Capybara we have presented to us by far the largest
species of the group, — a gigantic Water Cavy."J If Waterhouse had thought of the Toxodon
as a Rodent he would have had a still stronger case in point.
But although the sjiecidation is ingenious, and receives support from some cases, on a view
of the whole class it applies in too few instances to allow us to regard it as a normal law
* DAmviN, " Journal of a Naturalist," p. 50.
+ Waterhouse, op. cit.
244 MAMMALS.
of nature. The Gorilla is the largest of the Quadrumana ; it has not aquatic habits. The Lion
is the largest of the Felidfc ; it has not aquatic habits. The Wolf is the largest of the
Dogs ; it has not aquatic habits. The Manunoth was the largest of the Pachyderms ; it had not
aquatic habits. And so on with aU except some half-dozen. If he intended to say, that when
any species had aquatic habits it was one of the largest of its order or group, it woidd be more
just. The Polar Bear probably attains a greater size than any other Bear, it is aquatic; there
are few Polecats larger than the Otter, it is aquatic ; the Hippopotamus is a good-sized Pachyderm,
if it be a Pachyderm, and larger than a Sow, if we reckon it and the Swine as sole members of
the omnivorous family ; in the Rodents the ride seems to hold well ; the Toxodon beats every
thing else ; even abstracting it the Capybara is the largest of the Guinea-pigs ; and the Beaver of
the Squirrels, if it is a Squirrel, or of the Voles, if it is a Vole.
Tlie Capybara extends over the whole of South America east of the Andes, and north of the
Rio de la Plata, wherever there is water. Mr. Darwin says that it occasionally frequents the
islands in the mouth of the Plata, where the water is quite salt, but is more abundant on the
borders of the fresh-water lakes and rivers. He never heard of its being found south of the Plata ;
but as he sees in a map that there is a Laguna del Carpincho (the local name for the Capybara) high
up on the Rio Salado, he supposes such must have occurred. And why not ? Such a stream as the
Plata might be an effectual barrier against the passage of a land Cavy, as the Uruguay has been
against the migration of the Viscacha ; but against a water Cavy it would be an in\dtation instead
of a deterrent. Still the fact appears to be that they now keep on the north side of it.
Fossil remains, apparently belonging to the existing Capybara, and some bones which he refers
to a second species, have been found by Dr. Lund in the bone-caves of Brazil. Four other fossil
Cavies are also enumerated by him as having left their bones in the same caves. Waterhouse
speaks of them as evidently nearly allied to existing species, although more than one of them are
probably distinct.
The Cavies have to mom-n or rejoice in (as they take it) the absence of a tail. Doubtless
they rejoice in it, because if they required it, or could have used it to advantage, it wovdd have
been given them. But to us, who do not see behind the scenes, it gives them an unfinished
sort of look, as if by some accident a portion of the rmnp had been cut off, and Nature had
healed it iqD as it was, without taking the trouble to replace the amputated portion. Some of them
have a certain resemblance to the Hares, both in outward appearance and some parts of their
structure. The Patagonian Cavy (Dolichotis Patagonica) is like a long-legged Hare. It has
comparatively long ears for a Gavj, or rather, I should say, it has ears ; most of the Cavies
seeming to have lost them at the same time as their tails. It has an apology for a tail, curled
up like that of a Rabbit. The colour is that of a Hare ; and in size it is merely a little larger ; its
palate is perforated like the Hare's, and its teeth short like its ; but, for all that, it is a Cavy
still. It inhabits the desolate parts of Patagonia, which is about equivalent to sajdng it inhabits
the whole of it, north of 48° 30' S. L. Mr. Darwin says, " The Patagonian Cavy is found only
where the country has a desert character. It is a common feature in the landscape of Patagonia
to see in the distance two or three of these Cavies hopping one after the other in a straight
line over the gravelly plains, thinly clothed by a few thorny bushes and a withered herbage.
Near the coast of the Atlantic the northern limit of the species is formed by the Sierra Tapal-
guen, in S. L. 37° 30', wliere the plains rather suddenly become greener and more humid. Tlie
limit certainly depends uijon this change, since near Mendoza (33° 30'), four degrees further
Ci^' % isi'.tJioiWilLA
MA P LXXV
SPINY RATS
ECHIMVINA
JJ "/^
l^ctr JjiUnsUy vF ccU'Ur tmiic^ttr^ prcpoftdrrances cf.ipi'^t^-s
V I II K K N
O ( K A
IIYSTRICID.'E — CIIINCniLLAS. 245
northward, where the country is very sterile, the animal again occurs. Its southern limit is be-
tween Ports Desire and St. Julian, about 48° 30'." *
The rest of the Cavies are chiefly found in Brazil, from whence probably comes the common
Guinea-Pig, whether it be descended from the C. aperea, or be a distant species. Eight species are
met with in Brazil ; three in. Bolivia, east of the Andes ; one in Guiana ; two in Paraguay ;
and two, including the Dolichotis, in Patagonia. None are fomid in Chili. One, C. Cutleri of
Von Tschudi, is said to occur in Peru, west of the Andes ; with one other questionable exception,
no species of the HystriciDjE is found there.
Dr. Giebel and other authors include the Paca and Dasj^jroctas among the Cavies. I am not
sure but that they may be right ; but on the whole, where I have no decided opinion of my own, I
prefer to follow Mr. Waterhouse's arrangement, because he has made it a special and successful
subject of study.
Chinchillas. (Chinchillin.e.) (Maj) 74.) I have already expressed mj' dissent from the idea
of series of animals existing parallel in rank, except in so far as that implies degrees of affinity. Two
brothers maj^ produce families which are parallel in rank, being alike in degree of affinity, and to
such an extent I admit the parallelism ; but something more seems to be intended by Owen and
Waterhouse, and some others, who have adopted the idea, when they speak of parallel or equivalent
groups. They speak of them as if Nature had planned out parallel series, in which representative
analogies were to be found aj)plicable to the various essential characters of each. Mr. Waterhouse
dwells upon this in his preliminary remarks on the Marsupial order. And in this family, in
pointing out the affinities of the Chinchillas to their different allies, he repeats the same idea.
He says, " As, however, the Chinchillas and Hares are essentially of two very distinct types of the
Rodent structure, and the characters just alluded to (imperfect palate, &c.) are for the most part
characters indicative of a low grade of organization, it would seem that the amount of resemblance
which exists between these two groups, the Cavies and the Hares, rather arises from these lowest
members of the Hystricida; being nearly parallel in rank, in the animal scale, with the LeporidaD,
and does not indicate an affinity of a very near degree."t It rather apjjcars to me that, as in
the resemblances between cousins, such parallelisms are an indication of no distant affinity, at all
events certainly involve no general or special law other than that which produces similarity of form
and structure by descent. The existence of such parallelism is only the evidence of a common origin.
With the excej^tion of the Yiscacha, which inhabits the plains of the Pampas, all the
Chinchillas (in whole amounting to only three or four species) inhabit the Ipftj' regions of the Andes
of Chili, Bolivia, and Peru. The Viscacha is so stout and heavy, and resembles the light and
active Chinchillas so little in outward appearance, that .it has been mistaken for a Marmot. But,
as Mr. Waterhouse has pointed out, it is in fact a burrowing Chinchilla, in the same way that the
Marmot is a burrowing Squirrel. In all essential points of structure it is formed on the same model.
Mr. Darwin says that it is found as far south as the Rio Negro, in hit. 41° S. L. but not beyond. It
cannot, like the Dolichotis Patagonica, subsist on the gravelly and desert plains of Patagonia,
but prefers a clayey or sandy soil, which produces a different and more abundant vegetation.
Near Meudoza, at the foot of the CordQlera, it occurs in close neighbourhood -with the allied
* Darwin, " Zoology of H.M.S. Beagle," and "Journal of a Naturalist," p. 70.
t Waterhouse, op. cit. ii. 209.
246 MAMMALS.
Alpine species. There is a cui'ious circumstance in its geographical distribution, mentioned by
Mr. Darwin, viz. " That it has never been seen, fortunately for the inhabitants in Banda Oriental,
to the eastward of the river Uruguay ; yet in that province there are plains which appear admirably
adapted to its habits. That river has formed an insuj)crable obstacle to its migration, although
tlie broader barrier of the Parana has been passed, and the Viscacha is common in Entre Rios,
(the province between the two rivers), dii-ectly on the opposite shore of the Uruguay. Near
Buenos Aj'res these animals are exceedingly common."*
OcTODONTiNA. These animals are not distantly allied to the Chinchillas, and their habitat is on
the whole similar ; their range being chiefly on the Andes, or along theii- base. Unlike most of the
Rodents which we have hitherto encountered, however, a goodly j)roportion of them are inhabitants of
Chili, on the west side of the Andes. That great chain has proved a barrier to the passage of a
large portion of the South- American Mammals ; and where sj^ecies of the same family occur on both
sides of it, Alpine species also usually occur upon it too. This is the case with the Octodontina ;
but it is not so with the Chinchilla, the only species in that group which is found beyond the
limits of the moimtains being the Viscacha, and it is found only to the east of the Andes.
The distribution in this respect must throw some light upon the original habitat of such species,
but it still leaves it a very complicated question ; for, in the first place, the species may have first
taken its place on the movmtains, as in the case of species pushed towards the Equator by the
glacial epoch, and afterwards have sent species to the right or to the left, or to both ; or the original
ancestors may have first ajjpeared on the low ground on one side of the mountains, and sent ofi"
species up them, which may either have gone no further, or may have been developed into fresh
species on the other side, and afterwards either the original or the mountain off-shoot, or both,
may have been extinguished. In such uncertain ground it may help us in our conjectures if we can
lay down any general principles to guide us in the application of the facts. When different species
of the same family occur, both in lofty cold regions and in neighbouring warm lowlands, which
habitat is most likely to have been the original ? whether woidd the sj)ecies most probably spread,
from the cold to the hot or from the hot to the cold.? In the first place, I do not believe that
animals ever spread far or change their abodes unless on compulsion ; and, least of all, from a
warm to a colder one ; all inhabitants of cold climates have, I suspect, had the change forced
upon them either by a general change of climate, or by a gradual uj)heaval of the ground on which
they rested. The fiict that imtil a comparatively recent stage in the geological history of South
America the lowlands were under water, and that their appearance is due to the upheaval of the
Andes, which therefore must have been dry first, is an item of proof tending in the same
direction.
But supposing my idea in this respect to be erroneous, is there any probabilitj' more in one
direction than the other ? or is it a matter of equal chance to either ? Other things being equal,
I should think it more likely that the change woidd proceed from the animal in the cold country
than from that in the warm. More provision of apparatus in the way of fat, fur, &c., is needed
to fit for life in a cold country than a warm one, and more energy and vis appears to be required
to make the change. Less decided action has to be taken, as it were, to enable life to be suited
to the warm country. It may seem that this must depend upon the constitution of the animal ;
* Darwin, " Joxu-nal of a Naturalist," p. 124.
HYSTRICIDyE — ECHIMYINA. 247
that a Polar Bear would require as much resolution to go into a warmer climate, as a Sun
Bear into a cold one. I doubt if it be so. Of course, each must prefer its own climate ; but
the preparation for encountering cold is different from that for encountering heat. The former
requiring- action, resolution to face it ; the latter, a mere passive " kn'ssez /aire." I should expect,
therefore, that unless there were disturbing influences in operation, the progress of development
must have been rather from the Alpine species down to the lowland than the reverse.
One or two fossil teeth and bones of Octodontina have been met with in South America. Of
these, one extinct species, described by Professor Owen, was found by Mr. Darwin at Mount Hermoso,
near Bahia Blanca. Mr. Darwin considered it contemporaneous with the Megatherium, Mylodon,
and other extinct Mammals, found near the same spot, where it was discovered. D'Orbigny has
also figured and described another fossU fragment belonging to the family.
The members of this family are united by Giebel with those of the next, the Echijiyina, or
Sfiiny Eats, in the section of Muriformes, but Waterhouse appears to me to have more correctly
appreciated their affinities.
Spiny Rats. (Echtmyina.) (Majj 75.) These are loathsome-looking Rats with spines mixed with
their hair, to a greater or less degree. It is not a very natural family, and, as always happens
in such cases, considerable difference of opinion exists as to the members or genera of which
it should be composed. The most remarkable feature in its distribution is, that while its type is
South American, one genus (Petromys typicus) is found near the Cape of Good Hope, and
another (Aulacodus Swinderianus) both in West Africa and South Africa, — each represented
by a single species only, as if they were stragglers or distant outposts. Although there may
be some doubt as to this being the proper section in which to j)lace these animals, there can be
no doubt that at least the latter Aulacodus truly belongs to this South American family. The
place of the Petromys is more difficidt of determination, but it is to be observed that, when
species of South American tj^Des are found in the Old World, it is almost invariably from West
Africa (and the shores of the Bight of Benin or Biafra seem peculiarly favoured) that they
are obtained. The Andes have acted as a barrier against the passage of these Rats from
the east to the west of South America, no species appearing on their west side until far to
the south ; and then only one species (the Coj'pu) doing so. That species extends almost to
the Straits of Magellan, so it has probably got to the west of the higher mountains by turning their
flank. One or two species are found in the West Indian Islands, Cuba and St. Domingo. The great
metropolis of the family, however, is Brazil. One genus (Carterodon) is of some interest, as having
first been determined hj means of fossil remains obtained in the bone-caves of Brazil. Dr. Luiid
found numerous remains of it there, especially of its teeth and under-jaw ; and although he had not
met with it living, he considered, from the appearance of the bones, that it was or might be still in
existence, and arranged it among the living species. Waterhouse followed, and on the characters
of the bones established this genus, still leaving it imdeterminod whether or not the animal was
fossil. At last Reinwardt obtained two living specimens of the animal, from which the C. sulcidens
was at length fully described. One or two other species have been made out from the bones in
the caves of Brazil, which there is no reason to believe to be still existing.
Agoutis. (Dasy'procitna.) Almost entirely confined to Brazil, and the regions bordering upon
it ; the only exception being one or two species found in the West Indian Islands, Grenada
248 MAMMALS.
and St. Lucia. None are found to the west of the Andes. A very complete account of the
anatomy of one of this family (Dasyprocta cristata), will be found in a valuable paper by Dr.
Mui'ie, lately read before the Zoological Society.*
Porcupines (Hystricina). (Map 76.) — The Porcupines are rather a versatile race; some are
terrestrial and some arboreal, — some burrowing and others climbing, — some lucifugous and some
luciphilous, — some of them are Old-world and some of them New- world species. The Old-world
kinds are terrestrial, burrowing animals ; the New-world arboreal, climbing, prehensile-tailed
creatures ; and they are characterized, moreover, by two different tj'pes of structure, one haidng
five toes, the other only four, on their fore-feet ; one having special adaptations of the foot for
burrowing, and another of the foot and tail for climbing ; the molar teeth being rooted in the one,
semi-rooted in the other ; and there being differences in their dentition and other points.
Tree Porcupines (Cercolabes). The chief district inhabited by the Tree Porcupines is the north
of Brazil. They also live in Guiana and Surinam, and some of the West Indian Islands ; but I can
find no notice of their being found in the south of Brazil. They reach the Andes, for a specimen
of one was taken by Tschudi in Peru, on the eastern side of the Cordilleras ; but it must be rare
there, for his Indians did not know it. Specimens have also been procured from Bolivia, east of
the Andes. A sfiecies is like'W'ise found on the east coast of Mexico. The family is represented in
North America by the genus Erethizon, which is clearly a branch of the South- American form,
although its tail is thicker and stouter, and not prehensile. It extends from Mexico to the
Arctic Circle, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Two species belong to it, one of which inhabits
the east side of the continent, and the other (nearly allied, but still distinct) the west, the Missouri
region being the dividing line. The white-haired Porcupine (E. dorsatus) is found on the east,
and the yeUow-haired Porcupine, E. epixanthx's, on the west.
Fossil species of the Tree Porcupine have been found by Dr. Lund in the bone-caves of Brazil,
and in caves at Minas Geraes.
Ground Porcupines. (Hystrix.) The Ground or Burrowing Porcupine is confined to the Old
World. The commonest species (H. cristata) is foimd in the south of Europe and north of Africa,
extending southwards to the Gambia, along the west coast of Africa, where it meets, and is replaced
by another species (Hystrix Africana). Another African species has been found by Dr. Peters
in South Africa. Three or four species are foimd in India and the Malayan Peninsida ; in Java,
Sumatra, and Borneo, and probably other islands of the Indian Archipelago. Tlie commonest
species, next to the European, is the Asiatic, H. hirsutirostris, which meets the former in Asia
Minor and Syria, and ranges eastward through Persia and Affghanistan to Continental India.
Falconer and Cautley found remains of species of the Porcupine in the Miocene Sevalik
formations ; and Cuvier refers a tooth which was found in the Val d'Arno to this genus.
* MURIE in " Proc. Zool. Soc." March 1866.
MAP LXXVl
PORCUPINES
Jlystria^ (ristattv
Sp&cies j ,. AtHrnfAxzstro^
\ .. ether Spet^ee . .
A t T iCrfc4>Utbes . specUis cF _
.'a. ,■■ -■:! Lsnlrd'Llth
DayC 3aD(XjimlEd; LiU'
249
CHAPTER XXXVI.
RODENTS continued — HTRACID^'E, or LAMXtrXGIA.
JTyrax, or Damak. (Map 45.*) The species composing this genus or family are a few small
animals, no larger than Rabbits, and not nnlike them, although more compact and clumsy. They are
said to be good to eat. The Syrian species is pretty generally believed to be the Saphan, or Coney
of the Old Testament.
The genus is one of the most difficult to place of any of the mammals. It is either a Rodent or a
Pachyderm, but seems to have as many claims to be considered the one as the other. Besides the
form of the Rodents, it has theii' habits, their dung, their skin, hair, nostrils, eyes, ears, tail,
incisors, most of the muscles, and some parts of the internal organs. On the other hand, it has the
molars of the Rhinoceros — at least they simulate them very closely ; but it is well to remember that
the folds and repKcations of enamel in some of the Rodents might, if a little exaggerated, produce
a very good resemblance to a pachydermatous molar ; moreover, De Blainville does not interpret
them as Cuvier did. The skull, especially behind, resembles that of the Rhinoceros ; the humerus,
the dorsal vertebra;, and, generally speaking, the whole skeleton comes nearer to that of the
Rhinoceros than to that of any known Rodent. It was classed by Linnaeus and the old
authors with the Rodents, but Cuvier removed it from them and placed it among the Pachyderms,
where it has ever since remained : not through inadvertence or simple deference to the great man's
opinion, for its position has again and again been keenly scrutinized by our first anatomists ;
but from a conviction that a jjreponderance of the pachydermatous element does really exist in it.
The discover)' of the fossil remains of extinct palseotheroid animals holding an intermediate
position between it and the Pachj-derms, and participating in the characters of both, no doubt nuist
have had much weight in turning the scale in the minds of modern naturalists, and in maintaining
its place among the species of that order.
De BlainvlUe seems only to have been half a convert, and if Professor Owen adopts without
reservation the view that it is a pachyderm, it may be partly due to his liking for recondite discoveries.
He says, that " ia the course of his experience he has often found that the prominent appearances
which first catch the eye and indicate a conformable conclusion are dece]itivc>, and that the less obtru-
sive phenomena which require searching out, more frequently, when tlieir full significance is reasoned
up to, guide to the right comprehension of the whole. If is as if truth were whispered rather than
outspoken by Nature." f
* The reader must go back to the maps of the Pachy- the genus from its prescriptive place,
demis for this map. It was lithographed among them f Owen, " Palajoutology," p. 'A-l'i. 1860.
before I had mustered courage to propose the removal of
250 MAMMALS. ■
Is this really so ? It is a question, perhaps, rather of apprehension or idiosyncracy than of fact ;
and mine leads me, so far from believing, to dissent from the jjroposition that truth is told by Nature
in whisj^ers. I think she speaks clearest when she speaks loudest : the truest solution is usually the
most obvious, the most common-place, and the least far-fetched. It is a trite saying, that all great
discoveries are characterised by their simplicity : as with Columbus and his egg, we stand amazed
that we never thought of them before ; they were so obvious ; they lay at our feet, whilst we were
peering through telescopes ; and it is to bo remembered that, as if purposely to prevent us from being
misled, the trivial external characters of animals, such as distribution of colour, are often more
persistent than more important internal structures.
The tide seems turning, however. Professors Brandt and Huxley have both shown indications of
reverting to the original view, and reinstating the Hyrax in its position as a Rodent. I shall so treat
it. If we went entirely by internal structure, we should find that we had to dispose of other relations
of affinity besides that of the Pachyderms. It and the Myrmecophaga alone of Mammals have a pair
of coecal af)f)endages to the intestines similar to those of birds, both in form, position, and direction.
Seeing, therefore, that it is in so many respects abnormal, I think it may be admitted to the com-
panionship which it itself, by its outward appearance, would seem to have selected.
Five or six sj^ecies of Hyrax have been described ; some of which are, probably, only varieties.
Giebel admits only two;* one, the Syrian Saphan, or Coney of the Bible, Hyrax Sytiiacus, which
ranges from the coast of the Red Sea northwards through Syria, by Lebanon, and southwards into
Arabia and Ethioiiia ; the other, the Cape species, Hyrax Capensis, peculiar to the Cape and east
coast of Africa, extends from Abyssinia down the east coast southwards.
It is to this species that Giebel refers the Hyrax arboreus, described by Smith as living in
woods. Peters found the same form in Mozambique, and it may be a mere variation in colour
of the Cape species. Dr. Kii-k found another species in Zambesia. Two other arboreal species,
H. DORSALis (Frmer) and H. sylvestris (Tcmm.), have been described from West Africa, but, they
are, in all probability, merely two names for the same thing.
No fossil species of this genus have been discovered ; and no remains of the allied palseotheroid
animals which I have above referred to have been found elsewhere than in Europe.
* Giebel " die Saugethiere," i. 210.
Txyl Srei^LsstrdlLu-i
251
CHAPTER XXXVII.
RODEXTS continued — leporid^ — pikas — hares.
Lagomys. (Pikas.) (Map 70.) I bring in the Pikas liere before the Hares on accoimt of their
having a somewhat greater resemblance to the Hyrax than the Hares have. Fossil remains of extinct
species have been found in bone breccia in Corsica and Sardinia of the same age as the breccias
at Gibraltar and Cette. Similar relics have been obtained from Kent's Hole ; and specimens, referred
without doubt by Cuvier and "Waterhouse to this genus, have been discovered in the pliocene
lacustrine formation at CEningen.
The living species are few in number, but their distribution is interesting. A glance at the Map
■will show that they are, with the exception of a single patch on the Rocky Mountains, between
latitudes 42° and G2° N., confined to Asia and the south of Russia, stretchmg from the Black Sea
on the west to Kamtschatka on the east, and from the Altai Mountains on the north to the
Himmalayahs, not crossing to the Indian side, on the south. In this space there are five or six species
known ; two belonging to the northern and eastern parts of its range, one to the south-western, one
to the Himmalayahs, Afighanistan, and Cashmere, and another to the high Steppes of Central Asia.
There appear to be two species in North America, one (the best known) that called the " Little
Chief Hare," is found on the Rocky Mountains, and another has been reported by Mr. Lord from
the svmimit of the Cascade Moimtains. The j)osition of both these species trending towards Kamt-
schatka, suggests that the Hne of connexion by which, at some former time the Old-world and
New-world species were united, must have been by the Pacific rather than by the more distant
route of Europe. At the same time we must remember that the fossil remains show that species
of the genus formerly existed in Europe, and others may yet be found in North America.
An allied animal, which has been erected into a genus under the name of Titanomys by Yon
Meyer, in the belief, no doubt, that it was a gigantic Mouse instead of a pigmy Hare, has left remains
in the middle Tertiary deposits at Weisenau in Germany.
Hares. — (Map 71.) There are about thirty species of Hare knowTi, perhaps one or two more
or one or two fewer, according to opinion of value of character. Of these, sixteen are peculiar
to the Old World and thirteen to the New. If South America, on the one hand, and Africa on
the other, be omitted, the numbers will be equal, — twelve in North America, and twelve in Eiu'ope
and Asia. Tlie number found in South America is one, in Africa four.
The common Hare (Lepus timidits) is found in England and the Lowlands of Scotland, and all
over Europe to the Ural Mountains, with the exception of the Pcninsvda of Scandinavia. It is now
introduced into Ireland, but formerly was only represented there hy the Yar^-iug Hare (Lepus
variabilis), which turns white in winter.
252 MAMMALS.
The latter extends over the -svhole north of Europe and Asia to the Arctic Sea. It is sometimes
found in the south of Scotland, and even in Cumberland, and is common in the Highlands. It
is this species which inhabits Norway, Sweden, and the north of Russia. Nilsson has proposed
to divide it into other species, L. canescens and L. bokealis, both found in the south of Sweden ; but
the more general opinion is that these are only varieties. It stretches away thence north of 55°
on to Kamtschatka. Schrenck says that it is very common in Amourland and Saghalien.*
It is also found in the AIjds in Switzerland, and in the Pyrenees, the higher parts of
Bavaria, and the Caucasus ; but is not found in any of the low groimds or plains between these
mountainous regions. This is one of the very few instances amongst Mammals of a phenomenon of
distribution exceedingly common among plants, — viz., of Arctic species being found on the tops of
high isolated moimtains or ranges of mountains, far distant from their normal boreal habitat, — a cir-
cumstance undoubtedly due in the case of plants to the glacial epoch. As at its recess the heat gra-
dually returned, and gained upon the cold, it di'ove the general army of temperate and boreal species
of plants and animals which had been developed under the influence of the cold, slowlj^ northwards,
and they, as they passed on their way, left detachments like garrisons to hold the difierent lofty
fastnesses through which the host retreated. These have done their duty faithfullj', — they have set
an example to all garrisons. Well provisioned with a constantly self-renewing store, they have held
each their castle through countless ages, ajsparently hopelessly cut off from the main armj', girdled
in on every side by an impenetrable blockade across which no straggler or emissary can hope to
pass, which none could enter and live.
I believe that their enemy (heat) is slowly and gradually drawing his circum.vallation closer
and closer round their holds, imperceptibly straitening their communications, and if no change
come, wiU end in scaling the heights and exterminating the garrison, destroying aU, both old and
young, ruthlessly and without distinction. Ere then the war between cold and heat may undergo
a change. The allies of heat may desert its cause, and allow the Arctic species to recover their lost
ground, and liberate their long-besieged brigades.
If tliis should ever happen, would the species, if endowed with consciousness, recognise one another
again when they met ? Or if they have changed, which will have changed most — whether will the
Polar form, which has gone on with the main body, or those left behind on moimtain-tops, be nearest
the tj-pical form which the common ancestor of both bore at the time thej' parted ? Probably those
left behind, cooped into narrower limits, and more exposed to changes, must have been most trans-
formed. As yet the Varying or Variable Hare, in this respect ill-named, has nothing varied. The
species from the North Cape, and that from Switzerland, may be laid side by side, and no differ-
ence be perceptible.
The European form in winter becomes, practically, f wholly white except the tips of the ears. It
is the same with the Polar Hare of America ; but the black tip of the ears in winter is as absolute
a specific character as the black tail of the Ermine, or the black shaft of the feathers of the White
Willow Grouse. J
* Schrenck, von Leopold, " Reisen uuJ For- and feathers in auimals exposed to cold. Watcr-
schungen in Amurlaud." 1858. house ascribes the blanching of the fur to the extreme
+ There is a slight freckling of black and yellow on cold. " I am strongly inclined to believe," says he, " that
the bands of the ears, and the nose is yellowish. the extreme cold in such cases as the jiresent, by checking
X It is not known what is the cause of this singular the plasmatic circulation, not only bleaches but ultimately
exception to the effect of cold upon the colour of the fur destroys the vitality of the hairs, and that this is the
HARES. 253
The Arctic Hares of the New and Old World (L. glacialis and L. ■v-ariabilis) are so
much alike that there is the greatest difficidty in distinguishing them. But most naturalists
consider them distinct ; and I may be allowed to add my holloa to the general voice ; for it is a
species which, through the kindness of my Hudson's Bay correspondents, I have had good oppor-
tunities of studying. The chief differences lie in the relative proportions of the parts and tinge of the
fur. The American species appears never to lose its white livery, at least in the Arctic regions.
It is mentioned in the Af)pendix to Sir John Ross's Second Voyage, that a specimen they had
cast its winter coat early in May, and was not replaced by the darker hairs of the ordinary summer
fur, but retained the piu-e white colour. And Otho Fabricius says that in Greenland it is white
except the tips of the ears, both in summer and winter. Of these, of course. Sir John Ross's specimen
belonged to the American species, and the indi^-iduals found in Greenland are of the American t}-pe
too. Dr. Baird gives the dimensions of a Greenland specimen which he had examined, and which
correspond with the proportions of the American species. It may thus be assimied to be correctly
recorded as that species ; so that we have here another instance (besides the Reindeer) of the
American type of a Polar species being that which occurs in Greenland, in ©imposition to what
has been clearly established* to be the case in plants. Further inqmry, however, made " with inten-
tion," into the specific characters of Greenland specimens of those Polar animals which occur in
both hemisijhercs, such as the Reindeer, the Hare, and the Glutton, is very desii'able. The American
species ranges as far north as the Georgian Islands, in lat. 75°. It occurs on both sides of Baffin's
'Bay and on the east side of America extends into Labrador and Newfoundland. Dr. Bachman
thiuks it even reaches as far south as Nova Scotia. In the interior its southern limit is about
62° N. lat.,t and about the line of the M'Kenzie River and Slave Lake it does not come further
south than 64° N. lat.J in consequence of the wooded character of the countrj^, as it is never
found in woods.
The other North American species are allotted out to different portions of the territorj' fitted for
them. For example, the Prairie Haro (L. campestris) for the j)rairies ; the Sage Hare (L.
Artemisia), for the Rocky Mountains, where it feeds upon the Sage or Artemisia, which there covers
great tracts of otherwise barren land ; the Swamp Hare (L. aquaticus), for the swamps which border
the Mississippi ; and the Marsh Hare (L. pai.ustris), for the less swampy but still wet spots in
Carolina, Florida, and i\labama. These two last take readily to the water, swim with ease, and
even dive for a short distance ; they feed on the roots of aquatic plants, especially on a species
of Iris growing in the water. Their legs are more scantily clothed with hair, thus adapting them
better for their dripping mode of life.
South America has only one species (L. Brasiliensis), which is found scattered over Brazil,
and in jiarts of Peru and Boli\aa. In character it comes nearest to the Marsh and Swamp Hare of
North America.
reason why they are, after a time, ca.st oft', to be replaced fur bleached in winter as well as those that have, and con-
by new and coloured hairs." Watekhouse's Natural His- sequently an explanation applicable only to one, and that
tori/ of the Mammalia, vol. ii. p. 52. 1842. If so, why the smallest number of cases, is not sufficient,
is the hair on the tip of the Hare's ears, or Ermine's tail, * Hooker, Dr. .Tos., "Outlines of the Distribution of
not white too 1 They are more exposed to the cold than Arctic Plants," in the Linn. Soc. Trans, xsiii. 2.')1. 1861.
any other part of the body. As to its being a cause of t Waterhodse, op. cit. ii. 102.
the hair being cast, that is a phenomenon of a more % Richardson's " Fauna Bor. Amcr." 221. 1829.
general nature occurring in animals that have not their
254 MAMMALS.
More thau one species has been described as inhabiting the south of Europe, but their dis-
tinctness has been questioned. One species (L. Mediterraxeus) is admitted to be good. It extends
into Africa, and is found all through the Sahara to the sea-coast, but becomes of a paler and
more tawny hue when found inland ; that is, a colour more nearly corresponding to that of the desert.
Two or three are found in Siberia and Central Asia. Several have been described as inhabiting
different parts of the Himalayahs, but probably they are all referable to four species — one with a
coarse fur which extends into China, and another reaching into Affghanistan and Cashmere, and
two which inhabit the plains of India. In the same way, it is probable that half-a-dozen sjaecies
have been made of one which inhabits Syria, Ai-abia, Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia.
Three well-marked species, not unlike our common Hare, exist in South Africa ; but a great
blank lies between them and the nearest species in Abyssinia. It is a point of interest to ascertain
whether any occur iia the interval. As a rule Hares are inhabitants of cold and temperate climes
and are absent from the tropics ; the two species which occur in the plains of India are the only
Old-world tropical species with which we are acquainted. One of these (L. nigricollis) occurs
in Java and the Mauritius, but Mr. Blyth says that they were introduced into both,* which is
very probable, but he does not mention the groimds on which he makes the statement.
The range of the common Rabbit is very much the same as that of the common Hare (L.
TiMiDus), but extends beyond it into North Africa.
Fossil remains of various species of Hare have been found in different parts of the Continent ; in
post-glacial deposits, and in bone-caves or bone breccia at Auvergne, Gibraltar, Cette, Parma, Kent's
Hole (in England), Liege, Montpelier, Lunel-Viel, and in Aude. In Brazil remains have been met
with which cannot well be separated from the only species which now lives in that country, L. Bra-
SILIENSIS.
* Bltth's "Catalogue," p. 132.
.MAP XCll.
BRISTLY SQUIRRELS.
( X E R u S.)
ASr.'Llr='jr!.Uth
255
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
ROBENTS continued — dormice — squirrels — marmots.
Dormouse (MYOXI^'Us). — (Map 87.) This family is confined to the Old World, where it has been
in existence since the Miocene epoch. Remains of three extinct species have been found in France,
two of them in the gypsum of Montmartre, and one in the middle tertiary beds of Sansans, in the
south of France. The living sjoecies are few in number, and are confined to the Old World. The
commonest, oiu' small English species, (Muscaruixus aveluanarius), is found throughout temperate
and northern Europe, and a nearly allied species, still smaller and prettier, is found in Japan. The
Glis vulgaris (Seven-sleeper of the Germans) has a more southerly range, living in the south of
Europe, as far east as the Wolga, and extending into Georgia. It is it that the ancients so
highly prized as a dainty, and fed for the table in separate hutches, as we do turkcj's now. It
comes nearer to the squirrels than any other member of this family. Of the remaining genera,
Eliomys extends from the south of Europe into Africa and Arabia, and Graphiurus inhabits the
Cape of Good Hope. A singular form (Platac^anthomys lasiurus,) said by its describer, !Mr.
Blyth, to be alKed to the African Graphiuri, occurs on the Malabar coast of India. It has sharp
flat spines on its back, and it is possible ought more properlj^ to be referred to the Xeri, or spiny
Squirrels. Another remarkable aberrant form half-way between the Squirrel and Dormouse
(Anomalurus) from West Africa, may also be taken in here with the Dormice.
SciURlD^.
Anatomically and physiologically considered, the best classification of the Squirrels is into
true Squirrels and Marmots; a division which, with the exception of a single genus (Tamias)>
corresponds very nearly to terrestrial and arboreal Squirrels. The terrestrial Squirrels consist
of the Marmot (Arctomys), the Prairie Dog (Cyngmys), and the Spermophile (Spermophilus).
The genus Tajiias is also terrestrial, but in structure and affinity belongs to the arboreal
section, which, besides it, contains the true Squirrels (Sciurus), the Spiny Squirrels (Xerus), and
the Flying Squirrels (Pteromys). Like the Hamsters, and some other Rodents, a considerable pro-
portion of the Sqiurrels possess cheek-pouches. All the species of Spermophilus and Tamias have
largely developed internal cheek-pouches, and Arctomys has traces of them.
he only fossil remains of Squirrels are of recent date. An Arctomys has been found in
the alluvium of Auvergne, and remains of another animal allied to the Marmot (Plesiarctomys
Gervaisii) have been met with in the recent fresh-water calcareous deposits of Apt near the mouth
of the Rhone. Remains of the living species of Squirrels have also been found in bone-caves,
but nothing indicating its presence in Europe, or indeed anywhere else at a more ancient date.
In a family containing such an army of species as the Squirrels, one is glad to be able to break
256 MAMMALS.
it up into brigades. After separating from them the jMarraots, Ground Squirrels, and Flying
Squirrels, we have a very homogeneous section, the Squirrels proper, which peculiarly require
further subdivision, but for which it is scarcely possible to find good sectional characters. One
small section may, indeed, without inconvenience be subtracted from it, viz. : —
Bristly Squirrels. (Xeri.) (Map. 92.) These are Squirrels with bristles or spines in their fur;
they are confined to Africa, south of the Sahara. The Map shows their range, but only those
places where the genus has been actually taken, and these, it will be seen, extend along the coast
almost all round the continent, — Senegal, Fernando Po, Congo, South Africa, Somali-land,
Abyssinia, and Senaar. We may, therefore, expect that it will be found all over it, but until it has
been ascertained to be so, I have refrained from assuming it.
SciURUS. (Map 93.) The remaining Squirrels, even thus restricted, are still a numerous genus.
There are about one hundred and eighty species, standing described in systematic works, of which,
however, at least the half are synonymes ; and I have little doubt that if the remainder were
subjected to the same stringent scrutiny' that Audubon and Bachman's North American species*
have undergone at the hands of Dr. Baird, and with the same advantages of materials collected by
Government exjDlorations, they would be correspondingly reduced.
The great accumulation of synonymes and doubtfid species is due to the variability of most
of the species both in size and colour. Speaking of the Indian species, Sc. jlwimus, Mr. Blyth, who
perhaps has had more experience of Indian species than any other naturalist, says, " It exhibits
permanent varieties of colouring, each peculiar to a certain range of distribution ; and in some
instances the size is more or less reduced, e.g., Sc. hypoleucos and Sc. albipes. It is difiicult to
conceive of the whole series as other than permanent varieties of one species ; and the same
remark applies to the races of Pteromys, and to at least some of those of Sciuropterus, as also to
various named SciURi."t And not to speak of varieties and local races, from time to time indicated
by Mr. Blyth, he says of the whole of the group of medium-sized Squirrels with grizzled fur, proper
to south-east Asia and its Archipelago : " Extraordinarily developed in the Indo-Chinese countries,
and Malayan Peninsula, where the species or permanent races would seem to be almost endless,
differing more or less in size and colouring.''^ Dr. Baird makes similar remarks upon the North
American species : " The determination of the species of Squirrels of North America has always
been a matter of o-reat difiiculty. Owing to many different reasons, the species themselves exhibit an
unusual tendency to run into varieties of colours, among which red, grey and black, are the pre-
dominating ones with all possible intermediate shades ; these varieties are sometimes more or less
constant in particular localities, sometimes changing with every litter. I am not aware that there
is any material diiference of colour at different seasons or ages in the same animal."§ Mr. Blyth
found the Indian varieties also constant to their localities: "The next four races," says he, "with
probably others, are also very closely akin, but inhabit different localities, from which they are
respectively true to the details of their colouring."|| Another source of perplexity, noticed by Dr.
Baird, is the alteration in the average size with the latitude. " Many of our animals," he says,
" become smaller as we proceed southwards, until on the sea-coast of Georgia, Florida, and the Gulf,
* Sir Charles LycU tells us of the remonstrauce of — Lyell's " Second Visit to the United States," vol. i.
a subscriber to Audubon and Bachman's Quadrupeds p. 302. 1850.
of North America on this subject : " If you describe t Blyth, Cat., p. 98. J iBm. p. 101.
.so many squirrels I cannot go on taking in your book." § Baikd, op. cit. || iBm. p. 101.
SQUIRRELS. 257
they reach, their minimuin. This is very strikingly seen in the Common Deer, which on the Sea
Islands of Georgia is so small as to be readily lifted and thrown across a horse with perfect ease by
a man of ordinary strength. It is in the Sciurida;, next to the Deer, we find this law to prevail
m^ost decidedly. Nearly all the species of extensive North and South range will be found, on careful
examination, to substantiate this position."
It ajjjjears also that, as with the Foxes, the smaller species of Squirrel assmne the black fur
to the greatest extent in the more northern portions of the United States. Dr. Baird also made
this observation, that as a general rule where a Squirrel exhibits any annulation of the fur on the
throat or belly, it is a variety of some species, typiical examples of which have the imder parts
either imiformly white or reddish to the roots, and the annulation is usually accompanied by a
duskier coloui- of the fur. The tendency to amiulation below is strongest in the Squirrels of the
Mississippi Valley, and applies both to grey and fox-coloiu'ed species. But Dr. Baird had met
with no instances of annulation among the Squirrels west of the Rocky Mountains.
There is another cui'ious pecidiarity in some of the North x\jiicrican Squirrels, which may give
a hint for testing varieties or species in other instances. It illustrates the proverb " that what is
bred in the bone will come out in the flesh ; " here it should be " the fur." The bones of the Fox
Squii-rels, which have rusty-coloured bellies, are red ; those of the white-bellied varieties are white.
This is not an isolated case of colour penetrating to the bones. A variety or species of domestic
fowl has always black bones.
Flying Squirrels. These are divided into two sections, readily distinguishable, the one by
having the fur of its tail divided distichously, and smoothed off to each side (Sciuroi'terus) ; the otlier
(Pteromys) by the tail being bushj' all round. Both have their representatives in the Marsujjial
Petavrt and Acrobata, in Australia the former corresponding to Pteromj's, the latter to Sciuropterus.
SciUROPTERUS. (Map 94.) This section has much the same distribution as the true Squirrels, —
that is, the preponderance of species inhabits the Indian Archipelago, — then about a third of the
whole are North American, and a single species (Sc. volans) is found in north-cast Europe and
north-west Siberia, not extending eastwards beyond the Lena. There are fifteen species in all.
According to Audubon, the Sciuropterus volucella is far more numerous in North America than
it is supposed to be. He frequently caught it in traps set for the smaller Rodentia in localities
where he had never seen it.* It is met with in all the Atlantic States, and Audubon obtained
specimens in Upper Canada, within a mile of the Falls of Niagara. But there is reason to bcKeve
* I can readily imagine this. With permission of the hundred of them every evening for several weeks near
authorities I once turned loose a living specimen of this Philadelphia, on two tall oaks, in the autumn when acorns
American species into the large palm-house in the Eoyal and chestnuts were abundant, and when they had spare
Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh. The moment it was released time to play. They were amusing themselves by passing
from its little cage, it flew up the nearest tree like a shot. from one tree to another, throwing themselves oif from the
We saw it for a short time, high up, clasped to the truuk, top of one of the oaks and descending at a considerable
until it made another dart, when it vanished from our angle to near the base of the other ; then inclining the
sight; and the eager searching of many keen eyes was ever head upwards just before reaching the gi'ouud, so as to
after unavailing to obtain a glimpse of it. Sir Charles turn and alight on the trunk, which they immediately
Lyell bears similar testimony. He tells us that at Charles- climbed up to repeat the .same manoeuvre. In this way
ton he expressed his regret to Dr. Bachman that he had there was an almost continuous flight of thein crossing
not yet seen the Flying Squirrel in motion, " and was sur- each other in the air between the two trees." — Lvell's
prised to hear that Dr. Bachman had observed about a " Second A^'isit to the United States," vol. i. 303. 1850.
l l
258 MAMMALS.
that it does not exist mucli to the north of the great lakes. He also found specimens in Florida
and Texas. Lichtenstein found it in Mexico, and it is in M. Salvin's Kst of species found in
Guatemala. Besides it three other species are found in North America. A larger species (P.
SABRixus) replacing it in Lower Canada. Neither it nor any other species, however, is found in
South America. None are found in Africa or Southern Eurojje.
Pteromts. (Map 80.) This section is confined to India, chiefl}^ the Nejiaid, Sikkim, and other
Hiuunalayan districts, and to Java and the rest of the Indian ArchijDelago. It num.bers only six
or seven species.
The numerical proportion of the species of Squirrels and Flying Squirrels in the different quarters
of the world, may perhaps furnish some data for determining the site of their original birth-place, or
sj)ecific centre, and the course of their subsequent dispersion. These have a more imcertaiu basis
than they would otherwise have had, owing to the variable character of many of the species, and our
consequent ignorance of their true numbers ; still we can make out something from them even here.
Generally speaking, I do not attach great weight to numerical statistics of this nature : in the first
place, because I know that they must be wrong ; the estimate of what a species is being constantly
inconstant, and invariably varying according to the bias of the author who describes it. In
this instance. North America, on the one hand, has had her lists purged of half her species by
Baird, and India on the other has had hers doubled by Hodgson and Blyth. Had both been dealt
with by the same men the proportion would have been preserved, but here the balance is quite
upset. In the next place I regard them less, because we can never tell to what cause the pre-
ponderance of species is due. The presence of species is something ; it is a positive fact ; their
absence is nothing, or at best onlj^ half something. The species may have been present, where it is
now absent, and in greater numbers than any others elsewhere ; but a flood, or a sinking of the land
for four-and-twenty hours, or a famine, or a pestilence, — a rinderpest, may have swept them all
away. It is therefore only when they are very marked that numerical statistics can be at all
trusted to, and even then they must be used with great caution. Notwithstanding what I have
above said they are stUl well marked in the Squirrels, and the following facts stand out suffi-
ciently clear and positive to allow us to reason from them. We have the positive fact that they
are found in every region of the world, except Australia and Madagascar. It may be assumed
as proved, too, that a greater number of species is fovmd in India and the Malayan Archipelago
than anywhere else ; and the reader will remember that that is the region nearest to the laud of
their equivalents the Marsupial Petauri. Probably the half of them are foimd there ; a third
may inhabit North America ; Africa and South America may each have about a ninth or a tenth ;
and Europe and Northern Asia are limited to the single species found in Britain.
The Indian Archipelago seems, therefore, to have most right to be considered the starting-
point, or specific centre of the family ; and if so, it is plain that a swarm must have been thrown
ofi" from thence, which, somehow or other, has reached North America. How can they have got
there ? Can the transition have been made bj^ Sciuropterus volans, the European and Asiatic
species, di-awing its origin from India, extending to America, by the Bhering Straits route,
or some neighbouring jDassage, and tlien becoming changed into So. volucella? It is against
this idea that So. volans is not found east of the Lena nor west of the Gulf of Finland.
It rather looks as if it were an ofishoot from some of the Himmalayan species going north-
wards, and spreading a little to the right hand and to the left. In speculating on this we '
AI A 1^ XC\
MARMOT
(ARCTOM YS.)
II K K N
O 1- K A N
D.u.' * ;->iil l.uuittd ' Lm
L.y* J.».lI-IT.l.»-i I
SQUIRRELS. 259
must remember that oiu- date is confined to the period subsequent to the glacial epoch, for the
cold of that epoch cleared off almost everything both from Europe and North America, and conse-
quently no use can be made of any old bridge which may have subsisted between Europe and
America jn-ior to the glacial epoch.
The above inference as to the course of the distribution of species extends to the true Squirrels
as well as to the Flying Squirrels. What has taken place in Pteromys and Sciuropterus is obviously
repeated in Sciurus in every point, although the contrasts are less marked, there being a much
larger number of species. Africa seems to have little connexion with the Indian Squirrels, from
which I look for the distribution of the rest. Can the communication have been by South America ?
No doubt there are several indications of a very ancient connexion between New Zealand and Peru,
especially in jjlauts and insects. It may have included the submerged continent now buoyed off
by the Pacific Islands, and by that route the Squirrels may have reached North America. On
the other hand, we have seen that there are no Flying Squirrels in South America at all. And
as the true Squirrels were what is called " in the same boat " as the flying ones, the specialties of
their distribution being merely an exaggerated repetition of the facts relating to the hitter, we can
hardly avail ourselves of the presence of two or three true Squirrels in South America, to explain
their- passage to the north.
It must therefore have been by North America that the family established itself in the
New World. We may assume it as certain that there was such a connection between Asia and
North America by Bhering's Straits, or a little to the south of it. But the Indian Squirrel was a
tropical creature, and there is an absence of Squirrels in the north-east of Asia. These considera-
tions seem to point to another more southerly connection between Asia 'and North America, by Japan
and California, or stretching from China to California, in the line of the Sandwich Isles. From the
comparative rarity of the Squirrels in South America, and their abundance in Mexico and North
America, we may perhaps infer that the gap which at one time existed between North and South
America was present when the Squirrels established themselves in North America. That gap seems
to have been open and closed up more than once.
Striped Ground-Squirrel. (Tamias.) (Map 91.) The Striped Ground-Squirrels stand between
the true Squirrels and the Spermophiles. Like the latter they possess internal cheek-pouches, and
the form of the skull is similar in a certain portion of theili. They have all a black stripe do^^^l
the middle of the back, and usually two others on each side ; a disposition of colouring which also
api^ears in some of the Mice, as Mus pumilio. Two species occur in Europe and Asia ; the
remainder, consisting of four or five sf)ecies, are American, one ranging from Canada to Columbia ;
another from the Missouri to Oregon ; one is peculiar to California, and another to New Mexico.
For long, one species known by the name of Tamias striatus was thought to be common to
both Siberia and North America. More recently natirralists have come to the conclusion that
there are two different species, one peculiar to each continent, and Dr. Baird has named the Siberian
species T. Pallasii. The American animal is the larger of the two, and has the shortest tail,
which is more bushy and cylindrical. The coloiu- also differs somewhat, the light tints being pale
yellow ochre in the Siberian, and rusty brownish red, mingled with grey, in the American ; and
the black stripes on the back are arranged at different distances. This is Wagner's account ;*
* Wagner, " Supp. Scbreber Saugethiere," iii. 233.
260 MAMMALS.
but we can laardly trust to it, for Baii'd, on the other hand, says that the Old-Workl species is
the largest ; " in fact, fully twice the size." In truth, there seems to be little on which to
found a species beyond size, colour, and length of tail — in other words, in those Tery characters
in which ordinary variation chiefly occurs. But here the important point is, that the distinctive
peculiarities on these points seem to be constant on each side of the Pacific. Similar constant
differences, however, occur between the individuals in different districts elsewhere. Baird noticed
them in all the specimens of Tamias quadbivittatus from a particular district in North America.
He saj^s, " In all the sfiecimens from the Upper ISIissouri and Yellowstone Rivers there is a constant
difference from the preceding description, in the much greater lightness of colour. The dark stripes
have much less black in them, &c. These are smaUer, and the tail longer. The tail is also much
lighter-coloured," &c. &c.*
The difference in the proportions of these Yellowstone River specimens too is of the same character
as in those of the Siberian sjjccimens of Sperjiophilus Parryi, as well as of Tamias Pallasii.
Increase of size is accompanied with shortening of the tail, and diminution of size with an increase
in its length. It is as if the tail remained the same, and seemed only relatively longer or shorter
according to the increase or diminution of size in the other parts of the body. It would be
interesting, by a series of measurements both of Old-world and New-world individuals, to ascertain
■whether this is the case ; and if so, where the increase really takes place. Those given by Dr. Baird
in his work sufficiently supply this for the American species ; all that is wanted is similar and equally
careful data for the Eiu'opean and Asiatic species.
Spermophiltjs. (Map 88.). These Ground- Squirrels closely resemble ordinary Squirrels in appear-
ance, the easiest point of distinction being their possession of cheek-pouches. There are twenty
five species known, of which one is extinct and has left traces in the bone breccias of France and
Germany. Of the other two dozen, nine are Old-World (European and Siberian), and fifteen
North-American species. None are found to the south of the temperate latitiides of the northern
hemisphere. Those found in the Old World are chiefly Siberian : only two occur in Europe,
S. ciTiLLua in Austria, Huugarj-, Poland, Silesia, and Bohemia, and probably also in Russia and
Siberia; and S. guttatus in Volhynia, Bessarabia, and Russia between the Don and the Wolga.
The Ural, .^Utaic, Caucasian, and Kamtschatkan Mountains, the Irtisch and Kirghis Steppes, and
eastern Siberia, are the habitats of the .Asiatic species.
In America a considerable number of species belong to a sub-genus proposed by Brandt
(Otospermophilus), with long ears, in contrast to the other species, which have very short ears.
These are not found in the Old World. None of the Spermophilcs of either section are met
with, or perhaps I should say, are now met with, on the eastern board of North America. Three
are found in the central districts, three in the Rocky Mountains, three in California, and five ia
Texas, Sonora, and New Mexico, and on the borders of Mexico.
The most interesting of the Spermophilcs arc those known as S. Eversmanxi, and S. Parryi,
the former of which inhabits the eastern half of northern Siberia, from the Altaic Mountains to
Bhering's Straits, whore it meets the North American form, S. Parryi, which has as wide a range
eastward of the Straits, see Map 89. Brandt and the Russian zoologists generally consider these
species as identical. At the same time they can always be readily distinguished from each other,
S. Parryi being the larger of the two, and having a shorter and more bushy tail.
* Baird, op. cit. p. 298.
M A F I.XXXVIII.
SPERMOPH I LU S.
(GROUND SQUIRRE.L.)
JVof*r VrepomJUtvjrux' of Species injcbuoUseLbyintensUy ofcol lar
Da>'.t Sonir.uruifJi Iau.
Sfvrmophilus Pnrryi M^HI „ , is? -
Si/pfii'siii by^'icnie iv he (Iw ."iume .
D-y4C'si:uinn'^,Liy
SQUIRKELS. 261
Two questions of interest arise out of the close resemblance of this and other species similarly
circumstanced, such as Tamias striatus and T. Pallasii. The one is, whether the_y are identical or
not ; and the other, to what cause their extreme resemblance or identitj' is due. As to the first
question, that is a matter of opinion, which every one will answer according to his own views of
what constitutes a species ; they hover on the borders between a species and a variety. As to
the second question, the explanation of their sujiposed identity is generally assumed to be, that in-
dividuals have crossed over from the one continent to the other by Bhering's Straits, when the
sea there was frozen over in winter.
Dr. Baird says, and I suspect the majority of naturalists would concur in the remark, that
"there is nothing to prevent the mammalia of the north-western portions of the American
continent from passing over to Asia, as the strait intervening is frozen solid every winter."*
Now I think wo ma}' sometimes stretch this idea too far. It is perfectl}' true as regards
some animals, but I am not so sure that it is equally ajiplicable to all. The quotations wliich I have
already given from Captain M'Clintock's Diary show that apparently the whole of Polar animal
life is migratory, and swarms across the ice as freelj^ as over the land. But I have some difiiculty
in believing that non-Polar animals would equally avail themselves of the same means of transit.
Certainly the fact seems to have been that these Spermophiles do not avail themselves of this yearly
bridge, for neither of them extend their range beyond their respective continents, but come up
close to the Straits, S. Parryi being found in the island of Aricamtchitchi at the Straits, and
the other on the Kamtschatkan shore. If it were not so — if the time when they crossed from
one continent to the other was not distant, why are they not absolutely identical ? If S. Parryi
could take a run across to see its cousin S. Eversmaxni every winter, or S. Eversmanni in like
manner come over to America, why should all the American specimens be bigger ? and why
should they all, and always, have shorter and bushier tails ? Some distinctive difference occurs in
every species with which I am acquainted, which is represented both in North America and the
Old World. There is constantly a perceptible distinction, altliough it be slight. On this
ground it seems to me plain that the journey across Bhering's Straits is not a thing which
" there is nothing to prevent." In one sense (the physical one) there is nothing to prevent it.
So there was nothing to prevent any one before Columbus sailing from Europe to America ;
and if a Squirrel had the intelligence, ambition, and perseverance of Columbus, it no doubt
woiUd soon cross the Straits. But not having them, what is there to induce it to leave the land
where its food is, and to start on a journey of sixty miles across a frozen sea Pf nay, not across,
but, to all its perception, on an illimitable horizon of ice, without bourne, and without object or
inducement, but opposed to everything of the kind. /Vndlet the reader think for a moment what sixty
miles is. He is, perhaps, a good walker, and when in fair training will walk his thirty miles a
day. It would take him two days to cross the Straits, sleeping one night on the ice ; but if he only
made out ten miles, which woidd probably be enough for the energy of a Spermojihile, then he
must ■'sleep another night and walk another day ; and again, and again, and again, and yet again,
before he reached the oj)posite shore. It is not as if they were in a boat, which, once set adrift,
might be blown hundreds of miles without effort on the part of those in it. They must set out
* Baird, op. cit. p. 324. to find a reliable statement of their width, but the tnea-
t Sir Charles Lyell says that Bhering's Straits do not suroment by scale ou our maps gives sixty miles.
exceed in width the Straits of Dover. I have been unable
262 MAMilALS.
^vith an intention, and an intention to do a disagreeable thing, against their present interests and
inclinations for a future, distant, and problematical advantage ; a thing which, I imagine, no beast
ever yet did, and few men. Of course I except Polar and migratory animals which are moved by
their instinct to travel in a particidar direction. I therefore do not adopt the idea of Bhering's
Straits when frozen being a serviceable bridge for non-Polar animals to cross by.
I need scarcely repeat that I account for the occurrence of so many plants, insects, and other
animals in North America, which, although recognisable as American varieties of species also found
in Europe or Asia, cannot be separated from them as distinct species, by the hyjjothesis that, at some
not very distant geological period, the New and the Old World were united at theii- northern
extremity, and that a bridge existed not only across the Atlantic but across the Pacific.
Prairie Dog. (Cynomys.) As the SjDermophiles are the inhabitants of mountainous and rocky
places, so the Prairie Dogs are inhabitants of plains ; they are intermediate between the Marmots
and Spermophiles, and have, by different authors, been placed in each. Two species have been
described, but there are probably one or two more. They are North American, and their range
is extensive. The common Prairie Dog is fomid over the entire extent of the region between the
Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains. It has not hitherto been recorded as occurring north of
the United States lines. Southwards it extends to the Rio Grande, as far as the Presidio del
Norte, in 30° N. Lat. It is not probable, however, that it goes so far south as Matamoras, as it is
not noticed by Dr. Berlandier in his notes on the zoology of that region.
Marmot. (Arctomys.) (Map. 90.) These are the largest of the Squirrel family, some of them
being not very far behind the Beaver in size. The number of species does not exceed seven,
three of them inhabiting the Old World, the rest the New. The Arctojiys bobac of Europe
and Asia, and A. monax of North America, are the best known ; the range of the former
stretches from Switzerland to Kamtschatka, and that of the latter across North America, from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, or rather almost to the Pacific. Such a sjjace as lies between Switzerland
and the Atlantic in Europe also separates A. monax from the Pacific in America, its place there
being taken by A. fi.aviventer. Another species, A. pruinosus, which occurs on a small tract
of coimtry lying on the borders of the Rocky Mountains, between the Columbia and Eraser's River,
may perhaps also be found in Asia. Middeudorff* says that a large species in Kamtschatka
exactly corresponds with it, and Baird seems inclined to adopt his view.f
Fossil remains of an extinct species have been found in the volcanic alluvium of Auvergne.
The Spermophiles and Marmots would, according to my hypothesis, be still more recent
descendants from, the Squirrels. They are entirely northern species, and as they are more largely
represented in America than in the Old World, the chances are in favour of their having come
into existence in North America, and spread from thence into the Old World by Asia.
* MiDDENDORFF, " Siberiscbe Reise." *'
+ Baird, loc. cit. p. 347.
263
CnAPTER XXXIX.
RODENTS continued — murid^ — beavers — voles — rats — mice.
Mtjrid^e. The various groups of this family, which seem entitled to rank as sub-famUies, are — 1. The
Castorini, or Beavers ; 2. The Arvicolin,«, or Voles ; 3. The DiroDiNi,or Jerboas ; 4. The Spalactni,
or Mole Rats ; 5. The Saccomyini, or GoiDhers ; and 6. The Murini, or true Rats and Mice-
Castorini.
Aplodontia. Dr. Baird includes the Sewellel (Aplodontia xeporina of Richardson) among the
Beavers.* Giebel places it amongst the SpALACiNi.f It is probably intermediate between the Marmot
and the Beaver, or the Marmot and the Gopher. Beiag that I sway in doubt, I foUow the line
suggested by Baird.
Its habits are scarcely at all known. It is said to be about the size of, and very like, the
Musk-Rat in appearance. Its feet are not webbed ; so we may assume that it is not aquatic. It
varies in ct)lour from brown to black. It is confined to a narrow region in "Washington territory,
on the north-west coast of North America, extending from the coast to the Rocky Mountains. It is
doubtfid whether it wiU be found either on the coast range in the Williamette Valley or on the
Cascade Mountains.
Beavers. — (Map 77.) Naturalists have been much puzzled where to jjlace the Beaver in their
systematic arrangements, and it occupies very different places in different systems. Dr. Baird main-
tains that it is an aquatic Squirrel, as the Marmots are burrowing Squirrels. It certainly has a
good deal in common with the Squirrel, but it seems to me to have still more to do with, the
Arvicolin.e ; I consider it a gigantic Vole. The skull, perhaps, is more akin to that of the
Squirrel, but there are other characters which show greater affinity with the Mtjrid.e. It has the
aquatic habits of many of the Voles, and the scaly tail of the Rat has become a flattened oar in
the Beaver as well as the Musk-Rat; in the former with the blade jDlaced horizontally, and
working as in the whale, in the latter placed vertically and working as in fishes.
It was for long a question whether the Old-world and the New-world Beavers were distinct
species or not. This has now been settled in the affirmative, chiefly on the strength of anatomical
differences. J In outward appearance there is scarcely any apprcciable'difference ; but amongst others
the same test, — the difference in the relative proportion of the nasal bones, — which distinguishes
the skidl of a lion from that of a tiger, is found also to distinguish these species of Beaver. Pro-
* Baird, op. cit. p. 353. "British Fossil Mamm. and Birds:" lOG. Owen,
t Giebel, op. cit. p. 5-27. " Catal. Osteol. Ser. Royal College Surgeons," ii. 1853. No.
X CuviER, "Ossemeus fossiles," viii. 112. Owen, 21G2.
264 MAMMALS.
fessor Braudt, of St. Petersburg, has carefully worked out the subject, and the reader will find
full details in his work on Russian Mammals.*
Our Castor fiber, the Old-world Beaver, formerly inhabited the whole of Europe and Western
Asia. It is now almost extinguished from the former, a few only still remaining in some parts of
Germany, and perhaps on the Rhone, in France. The race, although so nearly extinct, has been
preserved in Austria by the Austrian Emperor, in at least one of his extensive joarks on the
banks of the Danube. It is now probably extinguished in Sweden and Norway. Blyth records a
specimen obtained from Norway in 1844, as being one of only two which had been killed in that
country during the preceding twenty j^ears. Some still sur\'ive in Poland and Russia. It is not
found in the south of Europe, or on the Mediterranean or Black Sea, but still exists in considerable
n umbers in the streams of the Ural Mountains, and in those of the Caspian Sea, extending
into Tartary. It is not found in Eastern Siberia, neither Herr Radde nor Schrenck ha-\-ing
foimd any trace of it, or learning anythiag to lead to the belief that it had ever lived in that
district, orAmourland; with the single exception that "it is said" that the Russo- American Fur
Company obtained a skin in 1853-4, at their temporary station at the south end of Saghalien.
Such an exception, unaccompanied as it is by any tangible fact, is verj'' tantalising. The
skin might have been an American one, or one brought by some far-travelled hunter from West
Siberia. In ignorance of these points, nay, in uncertainty whether it was a Beaver's skin at all, the
statement onlj' serves to throw a haze of doubt on any conclusions drawn from the absence of the
Beaver in that part of Asia.
Castor Canadensis. The American Beaver has a very wide distribution through North America.
It formerly extended over the whole contiaent, from sea to sea, but it is now very rare east of the
Missouri. A few are still found in the Adirondac region of New York ; in the Alleghanies of
Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and even Alabama. They extend from the Arctic Circle to
the Tropic of Cancer (68° to 26° N. lat.) They are found in the Gila and the Rio Grande, and
reach the mouth of that river (iu 26° N. lat.) In former times it was extremely abimdant, but
the great demand for, and high price of, its fur for hats, induced an extensive trade in it, which
caused it rapidly to diminish. The substitution of silk in the manufacture of hats, and the introduc-
tion of the fur of the Nutria (American Otter) and Coypu (Myopotamus Coypus) of South America,
has, however, reduced its price so much (they were offered to Dr. Newberry's party by the bale,
at 25 cents each), that, according to Dr. Baird, beaver-fur now scarcely pays the expenses of the
systematic and laborious pursuit on the part of the trapper which is required to obtain it ; and, in
consequence, the animal is again multiplying rapidlj^ and the western streams becoming well
stocked.
Numerous fossil remains of both the li\ing species have been found ; those of the Old World
in England and other parts of Europe ; those of the New World in especial abundance in the
bone-caves of Pennsylvania, showing that they must have lived there formerly in great numbers.
Two remarkable animals of tho Beaver tribe, but considerably larger, formerly inhabited Europe
and North America, respectively, — the Trogontherium and Castoroides. They are both now extinct,
but seem to have been contemporary with the Beaver. Their remains have been discovered in peat-
bogs and lacustrine deposits posterior to the drift. The American genus, Castoroides, was much
* Brandt, Prof. " Beitriige zur uahcru Kentuniss dcr in " Memoires Mathom. Pliys. et Natur. dc I'Acad. Sc. St.
Saugethiere Kussiauds St. Petersburg." 1855. 4to. And Petersburg." vol. vii.
Dm' * S^' Uoue^ ! ! -.li.
VOLES. 265
tlie larger of the two. It was more than twice the size of the Bearer (the length of its skull, for
example, was nine inches, while that of the Beaver is only four). The Trogontheriusi, again, was
only about a fifth larger than the Beaver.
Arvicolin-s. (Map 84.)
The lower-jaw bones of two or three species of fossil Aryicol^e have been found in the bone
breccia of Goslar.
Musk Rat. (Fiber Zibethicus.) (Map 86.) Although unquestionably one of the Arvicolix-B,
there is a good deal in the Musk Rat which reminds us of the Beaver. Its fur is similar, it passes
the most of its time in the water ; its tail also is naked and scaly, only narrow instead of broad, and
placed vertically instead of horizontally. It inhabits the whole of North America, from the Atlantic
to the Pacific and from the Rio Grande to the Barren Grounds of Arctic America. It is abundant in
Washington territory, and to the north of that district on to Bhering's Straits, and in the north
of the Rocky ^Mountains, but has not yet been met with in California. Dr. Newberrj- says : " In
the Sacramento vallej', in the Klamath Lake region, in the basin of the Des Chutes, — j)lace8
apparentl}- fitted by nature to be jjaradises of Musk-Rats ; shallow, rush-grown lakes, and rush-
bordered, canal-Uke streams, just where, in the Eastern states, Musk-rats woidd abound, — though
I looked carefully I never saw the animal, his track, his habitations, nor even his characteristic
heaps of emptied shells of Zhtio and Aimdoiita. I therefore concluded that in all this region the
Musk-Rat does not exist."* Mr. Lordf describes a second species. Fiber Osoyoosensis, as found in
the Rocky Moimtains and at Cascade Mountains, but the distinctions taken by him scarcely seem
specific.
It was at one time sujiposcd that tlie Musk-Rat was found on the Asiatic side of Bhering's
Straits, but it appears now to be ascertained that the skins obtained from the Tschucktchis of Kamts-
chatka are procured from the tribes on the American side of tho Straits.
Voles. — (Map 84.) The Field-mice, or Toles, are iiumerous in species, which are spread over
the northern hemisphere through America, Europe, and Asia, and in number of individuals they
jjrobably far exceed an}- other mammal. Inhabiting very nearly the . same territories as the true
Mice and Rats, they each have a tendency in an opposite direction. The true Mice rather affect
the warmer parts of the temperate zone, the Field-mice prefer the colder ; as in plants we see
species occupying successive bands of latitude — the spruce-fir, for example, stretching in a broad
band across the north of Europe, and the silver-fir doing the same in the middle of Europe,
so these two families repeat something of the same sort in the animal kingdom, but so mixed to-
gether that it is not easy to prove it otherwise than by pointing to tho fact that the extreme
northern and cold districts have Field-mice, and no true Mice ; and the southern and warmer
districts have true Mice and no Field-mice. Thus we have no true Mice in Greenland and the
eirciimpolar region, but we have the Lemmings, a genus of Field-mouse. So at the equator,
and in the tropics, we have true Mice, but no Field-mice. On the cold and lofty stepj^es of
Mongolia and Central Asia true Mice are absent, and their place is supplied by Field-mice.
Two species occur at some elevation on the southern slope of the Himmalayahs, stragglers from
Europe and Central Asia. In the deserts of Sahara Field-mice are unknown, but true Mice occur
* Newberry, "Report in U.S. Pac. Railroad ExpL," vol. vi. p. 22.
t Lord in "Proc. Zool. See." ISG3.
M M
266 MAMMALS.
all thrmiijh it. In the iuformorliato vogions hotwoon tlio tropu's nud the Arctic circle Loth occur
indiscrimiuatolv. Ficld-inicc do not occur in South America, South Africa, or Australia.
Tiio Fidd-iuice are distributed very unit'onidy wlu-rcver tliey occur, different species being
aUottcil to the ditlerent kinds of locality to which they are suited. Some species inhabiting the water,
others the dry lands, while others, again, frequent rocky elevated regions, or Alpine luoimtain
heights. The thick moss and swamps of sphagnum in the Arctic regions are said to swarm with
species botli of Field-mice and Lemming to an extraordinarj- degree, aud to be the stai-ting-poiut
of the annies of Lemmings which from time to time have overrun the northern regions in incon-
ceivable numbers.
The southern boundary of the Field-mice is not well defined ; but that they extend at least as
far south as Eome is too \\-cll authenticated by the mischief which the Ar^icoi.a terrestris {Bonap.)
does to the gardens aud vineyards there, by gnawing the young shoots, and b}' burro^^•ing in and
destropug the embankments in the neighboiu-hood of Leghorn. So great is the injuiy done by it,
and by the foxes, in scratching up the groimd in gardens to get at it, that the price paid for its
destruction at Eome is one half more than for the Mole. At least three species are found in Italy, —
A. TERKESTKIS, A. AMFHIBIIS, and A. AKVALIS.
It is interesting to tind the migratorj- instincts showing themselves in the southern species as
well as in the northern, when occasion calls it forth. Prince Bonaparte* mentions that it appears to
change its liabitat according to the rains, leaving the low comitry when it is inimdated, and gradualh'
advancing as the waters subside. In the year 1837, four-fifths of the entire harvest in the proviiu^e
of Piombiua, in Italy, were devastated by the Field-mice, which had been driven to the high grounds
by heavy floods in the meadows. In a single province in Germany, in 1822, 1,570,000 Mice were
captured in fourteen days, as shown by official reports." In like manner, the injury done by them
to yoimg trees and shrubs in America has sometimes proved excessive.f
The long-tailed Field-mouse is scattered over almost the whole of the temperate regions of
Europe, and does considerable mischief by its economical habits. It lays up an astonishing amount
("vast magazines," according to Pennant J) of acorns, nuts, corn, and various seeds, or even roots, as
a store for winter, as Yirgil says : —
" Saepe eiiguus mus
Sub terris posuitque domos atque horrea fecit."
The house and granarv alluded to by Yirgil is formed luider ground, either in holes excavated
by itself, or more frequently in small natural excavations imder the trunks or roots of trees enlarged
by themselves, or in the deserted rims of the mole. §
The Field-mice are divisible into two sections, Arvicola proper and Hypud-EVS, the former
distinguished by the molar teeth being without roots, the latter by their having two roots ; and by
the former having the ears more or less concealed, while in the latter thej' are distinct and well
developed.
Dr. Biiird, who has studied them carefiilly, saj-s, in regard to the Old and New-TYorld species :
" As a whole, the skulls of American Arvicol-E differ from the European, as in only one species,
(AR\ncoLA AGKESTis, fi-om Sweden) have I found an accordance in every general respect with the
* BoxAP ARTE, " Iconographin delta Fauna Ifaliea." J Pesxant, Thomas, "British Zoology," 1812, vol. 1.
t B.UKD, '• General Report U. S. Pacif. Railroad Explo- p. 148.
ration," vol. viii. 510. § Bell, Thomas " History of British Quadrupeds,"
1837, p. 306.
vKi 'st K-
PACIFIC *^;=^»i»T'^/^ ATLANTIC / ^ XZj-V -V""* * .— r-.,tT -3 «#^/
'"^^^k^^
^^:W^--r-
fcifa—r
-ArKic
A
a»i^
- . S O t T »;- ^ ,
-''K—' I pTr-2 • rt"7^-
-A HE Jl I C A <
^■-.-
■OCTH PACIgIC OCEA»
T ^ . T««Bir rf C.
f XD IAS O CZA>
,'a,-siR^%i. r^t
AT LAV T I r
ilAP LXXXV.
LEM M I NG5.
S O TT T a B
u c e
LEMMINGS. 267
American. An exception must, however, be made for the species of Hyfud.^us, in which there is a
close concordance."* Of the.se, there is only one species in America ; it constitutes the connecting
link between the Arvicoline IIesperomys and Sigmodon, and the Ar-s'icol.e proper.
Lemmixg (Myodes). (Map 85.) The Lemmings can easilj^ be distinguished from the Field-mice
by their feet ha\-ing hairy soles, and by having their claws sickle-shaped and adapted for digging.
They are confined to the Ai'ctic portion of the northern hemisphere. The most northerly species is
that best known by the name of Myodes Grcenlandicus, which might have been more appropriately
named, for although it is found in Greenland, that country is not its head-quarters. It was first
described, and the specific name afiixed, by Dr. Traill, from individuals procured hy Capt. Scoresby
on the east coast of Greenland, but it is not mentioned in Fabricius' " Faima Gro^nlandica," and its
more especial habitat is the extreme northern shores of Asia and America. In Capt. Parry's second
expedition a considerable number were caught in Repulse Bay. Mr. Goodwin (although he did
not himself see them, not having landed) speaks of what must have been this Lemming, occurring in
great numbers on the west side of Baffin's Bay, about lat. 70° near Agnes monument, f Mid-
dendorlfj has shown that this species has been described under several names, and that the name
entitled to adoption on the ground of priority is M. torquatus of Pallas. One variety found on
the shores of Hudson's Bay, distinguished by having the two middle fore-claws verj' large and
much compressed, with the exti'emities blunt and divided by a terminal notch into two points, one
above tlie other, seemed to have good claim to bo considered distinct, and was described and known
under the name M. Hudsonius ; but it now turns out that exactly the same peculiarities are
observed in Asiatic specimens, which were described bj' Baer as Lemmus ungulatus.
In speaking above of the long-tailed Field-mouse, I reminded the reader of the nature of its
habitation with some exactness, because it is the only guide we have to enable us to determine
whether that species does or does not exist in Iceland, or whether, as I suppose, it is the Lemming
which has been mistaken for it there — a fact which, as the reader knows, must have rather an
important bearing on the past geological history of that part of the northern hemisphere.
Let us see how far the habits recorded of the Iceland species agree with those of Mus
SYLVATicus. I only know of three authorities who sj)eak of its occurrence in Iceland -nitli any-
thing of a personal knowledge of the subject, and none of the three saw it theui.selves. The
testimony of two of them, however, is so strong as to leave little doubt that something of the mouse
kind does occur there. The three authorities are : 1, Olafsen and Povelsen, who, while they sjjeak
of it as only a variety of the domestic mouse, narrate an anecdote of its habits which is inconsistent
with this supposition. 2. Sir William Hooker, who laughs at the anecdote, and states that the
Mus SYLVATICUS is not, to his knowledge, found in Iceland ; and 3. Ebenezer Henderson, who
corroborates Olafsen and Povelsen's statement apparently on good grounds.
The account given by Olafsen and Povelsen is as follows :§ — " There is but a small number of
Mice in Iceland, and the white Mouse of the woods (Mus sylvaticus) appears to be only a variety
of the domestic Mouse. The instinct of this little animal induces it to collect a quantity of grain
for its winter provender ; and its magazines may be frequently discovered in the woods and out-
skirts. "We were assured that these Mice undertake long journeys, and even cross rivers, on which
occasion they have the sagacity to pass the water in a diagonal line ; they use pieces of dry cow-
* Baird, loc. cit. p. 511. 1853, pp. 87-108.
t GooDWDJ, R. A., "Arctic Voyage," 1850, p. 114. § Olaf.sen aud Povei£EN, "Travels in Iceland," 1805,
X MiDDENDORFF, " SibeHsche Reise," 11. Wirbelthiere, i. p. 117, English translation, ISOG, p. 58.
268 MAMMALS.
duug for rafts, which they load with grain on their return. The number attached to one of these
rafts is from four to ten, and each of them assists in launching it. It is also ciu-ious that they
swim on each side, and their faces are opposite, while their tails serve for rudders. These voyages
are not always successfid, for sometimes their boats sink, when they save themselves by s^'imming
with wonderful ingenuity. These curious circumstances were detailed to us by persons of credit,
who had had ocular demonstration of the fact."
Pennant takes up this statement, and in his "Arctic Zoology," probably on its authority,
says that " there is a species in Iceland, alHed, as Dr. Pallas imagines, to the economic Moimc ; for,
like that, it lays in a great magazine of berries, by way of winter stores. This species is particularly
plentiful in the wood of Husafels. In a country where berries are but thinly dispersed, these
little animals are obliged to cross rivers to make their distant forages. In their return with the
booty to the magazines they are obliged to repass the stream of which Mr. Olafsen gives the fol-
lowing account." — He then quotes Olafsen's statement, and adds, " When I consider the wonderful
sagacity of beavers, and think of the management of the sqvurrels, which, in cases of similar necessity,
make a piece of bark their boat, and their tail the sail, I no longer hesitate to credit the relation."*
Sir William Hooker (then Mr. Hooker), shortly after his return from Iceland, takes exception to
Pennant's view of the matter. " I am sorry," says he, " such a ridiculous story should have been
believed by a British zoologist, Iceland certainly possesses no species of Mus which our country
does not possess, and the Mice that are foimd there are not likely to be furnished with anj' instinct
or facidties sujjerior to those of our own Mice. The circimistance above is laughed at by the more
sensible Icelanders, and the species that performs these extraordinary feats which, according to
Povelson, is the Mus sylvaticus of Linnaeus, is not, to my knowledge, found in that country."!
Mr. Henderson, however, being cognisant of Hooker's scepticism on the point, took advantage
of the opportunities which a residence on the island for some time, gave him to get as much in-
formation about it as he could. He appears not to have seen it himself, but he says, " There is nothing
about Husafell deserving of notice excejjt its Mouse, the history of which has rendered it more
famous than other parts of the island where the same zoological phenomenon has not presented itself.
Having been apprised of the doubts that were enteitained on this subject, before
setting out on my second excursion, I made a point of inqiriring of diiferent individuals as to the
reality of the account, and I am happy in being able to say that it is now established as an impor-
tant fact in natural history, by the testimony of two eye-witnesses of unquestionable veracitj^, the
clergyman of Briam.slaek, and Madame Benedictson of Stickeshobn : both of whom assured me that
they had seen the expedition performed repeatedly. Madame Benedictson in particular recollected
having spent a whole afternoon, in her younger daj's, at the margin of a small lake on which these
skilful navigators had embarked, and amused herself and her companions 1)}' driving them away
from the sides of the lake as they approached them. I was also informed that they make use of
dried mushrooms as sacks in which they convey their provisions to the river and thence to their
homes. Nor is the structure of their nests less remarkable. From the surface of the ground a long
pamige runs into the earth, similar to that of the IceJandic houses, and terminates in a large and deep
hole, intended to receire an// wafer that nun/ find its irai/ through the passage, and serving, at the same
time, as a plaee for their dung. About two-thirds of the passage in, two diagonal roads lead to their
slnping apartment and the magazine, which the// aliea//s co//trire to keep free from nrf.X
* Pennant, TH0ii.\s, " Arctic Zoology," Introduction, J Henderson, Ebbnezer, " Journal of a Residence in
P- '■''s- Iceland, in the years 1814, 1815, 1818," ii. 180.
t Hooker, W. J. " Tour in Iceland," 1813, i. p. r)2.
LEMMINGS. 269
Now I by no means particiijate in the unbelief of Sir W. Hooker ; and I feel very sure that
had his " Tour in Iceland " been written in 1863 instead of 1813, the sceptical passage woidd not
have been found there.
That an economic rodent lives in Iceland is, I think, established ; but the account given of its
runs and granaries makes it not less clear that it is not Mus sylvaticus. There is no European Mouse
that makes a nest in the manner described by Henderson.
But there is an animal very like a Mouse (the Lemming) which does make extensive burrows.
It is provided with j)owerful sickle-shaped claws specially adapted for digging, and although I have
not met with any account of the j)lan on which tlieir burrows are constructed, there is abundant
evidence that they do make them. Captain M'Clintock says in his diary of the expedition of the
" Fox : " — " Hare-tracks are pretty common along the shore, and iipon the sides of steep hills ; they
make burrows under the snow, but we have never found them in the earth like those of the Fox and
Lemming." Von Baer says that in Nova Zembla gentle declivities are frequent!}' burrowed through
in every direction by them. In fact, the habit is notorious.
Another point in favour of the Iceland animal being a Lemming is, that Olafseu speaks
of it as often white. Now although the Mus syI;VATIcus sometimes may be found white, when
such a thing occurs it is only a case of albinism, and rare. But the Lemming in America
is said regularly to become white in winter, although not so completely so as the Weasels.
Both in Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla a little white animal has been observed. MM. Pachtissow
and Ziwolka, during their winter stay in Nova Zembla, saw a little white animal in their hut which
they, in their journal, call a Mouse. According to Mr. Ziwolka it was larger than a common domes-
tic Mouse, and therefore could not have been a white individual of that species. It was doubtless
a Lemming. According to Von Baer there are two sjjecies of Lemming found in Nova Zembla, one
of which he considered identical with the Myodes Hudsonius.
As the Lemming is an Arctic animal, it must pass a longer night of winter than ordinary
torpidity could survive. Some arrangement for a vrinter supply is therefore plainly necessary, and
it is scarcely possible to conceive anything better adapted to the purpose than that described by
Henderson.
I have, therefore, no doubt in my own mind that the economic Mouse of Iceland is a Lemming ;
and as Greenland is the nearest point where Lemmings have been found, I think it a fair conjecture,
until rebutted by direct evidence, that the species found there is the American Lemming Myodes
Hudsonius.
Five species of Lemming have been described as North American, and, with the exception of
the Greenland species, they have been thought peculiar to the New World. Middendorff
reduces them to two, both found in the Old World as well as in the New. If he is right in this,
the Lemmings supply two of the very few mammals which are found on both sides of the Atlantic.
In addition to these there are three species found in Europe and Asia. One, M. i.emmus,
inhabiting the western part, Norway and Sweden ; a second, M. lagurus, the middle part about
the Ural River ; and the third, M. schisticolor, which has been found both in Norway and on the
west coast of the Sea of Ochotsk.
Spalacini.
Mole Rats. (Map 83.) A small group of mole-like burrowing Rats, nearly, or
wholly, blind. We are either very imperfectly acquainted with their range, or the group is
270 MAMMALS.
not a natural one. They are clotted down (.see Map and List in Appendix) at the Cape of Good
Hope, in Abyssinia, the Malayan Peninsida, South of Russia, and the Altai Mountains. There
they seem to be found in at least two distinct geographical regions, and perhaps animals of two
types are confounded under one head.
Saccomyina,.
Pouched Rats. (Map 78.) There are two kinds of Rats i^ossessing cheek-pouches ;
the Hamsters, or Rats with internal cheek-pouches : and the Gophers, or those with exter-
nal cheek-pouches. There are no sufficient characters for separating the former from the rest
of the MuRiNi. The internal cheek-pouches are of so little importance that in one of the genera
(Hesperomts) a species occurs possessing cheek-pouches (small, to be sure, but still distinct), while
all the rest of the genus are without them. In all arrangements, therefore, the Rats possessing
internal cheek-pouches have been left along with the others ; but, as already mentioned, the Rats
with external cheek-pouches have been raised by some authors to the rank of an independent
family. The characters on which the family, thus constituted, is chiefly rested, are the external
cheek-pouches and four molar teeth in each lower jaw ; but as the number of molars in each
lower jaw of the normal Murini is not constant, but two in some and three in others, there
seems no reason why another group with four should not be admitted, if that were the only
ground for separation ; and as to the external cheek-pouches, I think I can, in a few words, show
that that is not a character of any very great structural value. A short account of what we know
of them will prove this.
The reader no doubt remembers the representation of a queer-looking animal, which he has seen
figured in illustrated natural-history books, like a Mole or Rat, bearing a couple of large, vascular,
oval, egg-shaped bodies, apfiarently pinned one to each jaw. Figs, la and 16 are copies of part
of it. This figure was meant for a portrait of the Geomys bursarius, or " Sand- Rat of Canada,"
and the imnatural-looking, egg-shaped bodies, are the cbeek-j)ouches, supf)osed to be filled with
grain. It was first described and figured by Dr. Shaw ;* and fuller accounts were afterwards supplied
by Richardson of the anatomy and habits of another supposed species, G. Douglasii ; f including the
mode in which it filled and emptied its cheek-pouches (by pressing them with its fore-paws).
Nay, if any one be sceptical, is there not the stufi'ed specimen from which Dr. Shaw described it,
and from which his figure, which until lately has been copied by all subsequent authors, was taken ?
It was in Mr. Bullock's Museum, which afterwards passed into the hands of Temminck, and no
doubt it is still to be seen in the Leyden Museum. There can surelj^ be no mistake here. But 5-et,
is it not rather curious that no one has ever seen another specimen like this, — that even Sir John
Richardson never saw it, — that, inhabiting such a well-peopled country as Canada, no one has
ever got a peep at it ? Still, there is the specimen itself, challenging contradiction. But when
modern science begins to put the subject to the question, we learn that no such /kshs )iafiirw ever
existed. It turns out to be an error, originating in the whim of an Indian. J It appears that, in
1798, one of this species was jiresented bj^ a Canadian Indian to the lady of Governor Prescott.
Its pouches had been inverted, filled, and greatly distended with earth: and from this trivial
circumstance an error originated, which has been perpetuated even to the present day.
Even after the true nature of the animal and its cheek-pouches was ascertained. Sir John
* " Linnean Transactions," vol. V. ]). 237. J AnDDBON and Bachman, "North American Qua-
t Richardson, "Faun. Bor. Amer." i. 203. 1829. dnipeJs," i. 3.32. 1849.
Day a. SonlEJias^d. l^
^ilas tbr
,r \VrS/.'crRnts
r ^ & VjI' ' I..nii<^. , L^u
POUCHED RATS.
271
Richardson was slow to discard his original conception. In the zoology of Captain Beechey's
Voyage he repeats his belief that " the figure in the Linnean Transactions is a correct representation
of the fonn of the animal, and gives the true appearance of its cheek-pouches when distended w^th
food."* He in some way had become convinced that the cheek-pouches of both Geomys bursarius
the original culprit, and of Geomys Douglasii, opened internally, and were pendidous ; and he
described the Californian Gopher as a new genus, under the name of Diplostoma bulfivorum,
because he could not get the pouches to assimie this form. He tried to evert them, without success.
They would not become pendulous. " Its bottom alone can be turned out, by which it is emptied
of its contents in the manner mentioned by Mr. Schoolcraft : but the lining of the exterior parietes
of the pouch is firmly united to the external skin, and i.s incapable of being everted."t He forgot
that the knife of the taxidermist passed between the two would separate the folded skin easily
enough.
Fig. 2 shows the true form of the month of the sj)ecies which gave rise to the mistake. From this
Fig. la.— Hj-pothetical Sand Bat
(Geomys bursarius. )
Fig. 2.— Real S.and Rat (Geomys burs-arius)
Fig. 14— Hypothetical Sand Rat
(Geomys biirsariiis.)
we see that the mouth of these Geomyn^e is very pecidiar. It is a sort of double mouth — an outer hall
or porch, and an inner room : the outer hall is clothed with hair, like the rest of the body, the
hair extending behind the incisors, both above and below ; and it is in the side-walls of what
are really its ^vide lips that the pouch occurs. "NYliat is called the mouth only commences at the
molars, and the entrance to it is very small, as the entrance to the other is very wide. The
incisors have a most • pecidiar look, thus standing isolated in the midst of the hairy face; but
there is nothing unnatural in it. There is no physiological reason why hairs should not grow
on the mucous membrane of the mouth, as well as on the skin of the face or body. The one
is a mere continuation of the other, and we see it grow in the mouth in some animals. The
whale grows its moustache inside its mouth instead of outside. The llhytina grew it in its palate ;
whalebone, horn, and hair being all diflercnt forms of the same thing. It therefore appears that
the term, external cheek-pouches, is a misnomer ; although apparently external, they are, in reality,
internal, and situated in quite the same homological position as those of the Hamster. The idea of
* Beechey's " Voyage, Zoolog." p. 9.
t Richardson, op. cit.
272 MAMMALS.
Lesson, who grouped all the Pouclied Rats together, was, therefore, not so unreasonable a ijroposition
as it looks like. Were it not for the other anatomical differences I should follow his example.
As to their geographical distribution, the whole of the externally-pouched species belong to
the New World ; the whole of the internally-pouched species to the Old World. The New-world
species are all North American, at least none reach further south than Central America. They
form two very distinct and strongly-marked groups ; so much so, that one of the objections taken
by Brandt in his revision of the order to Waterhouse's family of the Saccomyina, was the want of
affinity of these two groujDs. The one group, consisting of the genera GeO]MYS and Thomojiys, being
heavy, thickset, burrowing animals, in aj)pearance something between a Mole and a miniature
Beaver ; the other, Dipodomys and Perognathus, light, elegant, graceful, jumping creatures, with
the long hind-legs and short fore-legs of the Jerboa.
The latter form is confined to the west side of the continent, the limiting boundary being, not
the Rocky Mountains, but the Missom-i district, where formei-lj' rolled the tertiary sea, stretching
almost from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Sea (see Map 81).
The former, our friend the " Sand- Rat of Canada," known throughout all the west of North
America as tlie Gopher,* again naturally breaks into two sections ; one the Geojiys, with the
superior incisors broad and grooved ; the other, the Tiiomomys, with these incisors narrow and
smooth. These are the pest and dread of the horticulturist wherever they occur. In some parts of
California, where they abound, nothing under-ground escapes them — turuijjs, carrots, and every
tuberous or bulbous plant is eaten up. Here, again, we have, even more markedly, the same
phenomenon of distribution which occurs with Dipodomys. The species of Geomys are confined to
the east of the continent, and those of Thomomys to the west. And what is the line of demarcation ?
the same as before, the tertiarj^ beds dividing the continent from the north to the south. There
are, however, two other specialties to be noted ; one on the north and one to the south. On
the north, Thomomys crosses the border line, and sends a species on to the shores of Hudson's
Bay. How comes this western species to have passed the line which seems to have been an
effectual barrier further to the south ? Probably by migration subsequent to the elevation of the
tertiary basin ; we have seen that migration is more likely to occvir with northern than soutliern
species, and we know of no break in the tertiary beds to the north of Nebraska ; still the whole
of that portion has not been thoroughly surveyed, and breaks may exist wliicli we do not yet
know of, by which the animal may have passed.
The other point to be noted is, that to the south the eastern Geomys crosses the line of the
limiting boundary in Texas, and goes south into Mexico and Central America. The western
Dipodomys also goes south through Mexico into Central America, but that has no special significance
on this point. It is merely a continuation further south of its natural range. But it is different
with Geomys, which comes from the other side of the continent. If the reader will refer to Map
3 he will see, that there probably did exist a dry-land passage across the tertiary basin in the
north of Texas, exactly in the line by which this species has extended its range.
There is another point on which the extent of the southern range of these species has a bearing ;
and that is, the limiting line between the faunas of North and of South America. These northern
species are found as far south as Guatemala. There are other facts of the same nature, but there
* In the south-eastern states of North America that name is applied to the large Tortoise, and the Geomyna
are there called Salamanders.
*a.y.l Sim'IliuinedjI.u:
&comy&. .
Htcrnvrttys
^~r
'm
RATS AND MICE. 273
is scarcely an instance of a northern species lia\'ing gone further south than the Isthmus of Panama.
Southern species have passed to the north of it, but northern seem alwaj's to have stopped on
the nortli side of it.
One other observation occurs to mo, viz. that these coincidences in the limits of the geog'raplucal
distribution of the Dipodomys and Geomys furnish an extraneous argument against Professor
Brandt's objection to these being classed together, and in support of the view that they are allied
to each other, notwithstanding the dissimilarity in their personal appearance.
MURIXA.
Rats and Mice. (Maps 78, 79, 80, 82.) This family contains a vast number of species, all
bearing much resemblance to each other ; and the discovery of some characters hj which to break
it up and render it more manageable is very desirable. Unfortimately, much cannot be expected
in this respect : more may be done hereafter by a careful examination of species, and the consequent
reduction in their number which will residt. I shall commence with the group which comes most
naturally after the external-pouched Rats, viz. —
The Hamster. (Cricetus.) (Map 78.) The Eats with internal cheek-pouches are not
numerous. There are eight or nine sjjecies, the most widely spread of which is the Common
Hamster. It ranges westward from the Rhine to the river Obi, and southwards from the Obi
and Irtisch to Persia and Caucasus. Other Species extend the range somewhat further east. The
C. ruRXJNCULL's and C. Songakus both inhabit the high steppes of Mongolia, and the former is
found in the valley of the Onon, north of MongoHa. The genus does not appear, however, to
reach the shores of the Pacific. It does not occur in Schrenck's list of the Mammals of Amour-
land, nor in Temminck's Fauna of Japan.
A large grey pouched Rat in West Africa, Cricetomys Gambianus, probably extends over
the greater part of Africa, south of the Sahara, as it has been found in Mozambique as well as
Senegambia. Two species of another genus, named Sacuostomus by Dr. Peters, have been obtained
by him at Mozambique. Some remains referred to species of Hamster have been found in the
tertiaries of Sansans and in the marls of Limagne.
If we now take the remainder of the old genus Mrs, we find that it divides itself very natui-ally
Into two sections, — Old-world and New- world, — which are characterized by several characters ; one
of which, first pointed out by Watcrhouse, is especially valuable. The Old-world Mice have
large and broad molars, each with tubercules placed transversely ; and those in the iqiper jaw have
three tubercules in each transverse series. The New- world species have the molars narrower, and
only two tubercules in each transverse (or slightly oblique) series. This is a very useful test, as
it enables the naturalist to decide at once whether a given species caught on the one or the other
continent really belongs to it, or has been introduced from the other. For example, the Black Rat
(Mus Rattus) has established itself so completely in North America, that, according to Dr. Giebel,
some maintain that America is its native place, and that it has been introduced from thence into
Europe. A glance at the upper molars settles this question, and shows that Mi's Rattus is an
Old-world species, and that it must have been communicated from it to the New World, instead of
being received from thence. In the same way several of the specimens which were obtained by
Mr. Darwin from South America, &c., during his voj-age in the " Beagle," and whicli might other-
N N
274 MAMMALS.
wise have been described as new, turned out to be mere varieties of one or other of the Common
European Rats ; for instance, a Rat from Maldonada, near the mouth of the La Plata, which had
sufficiently distinctive characters to lead to its being described and named (Mus maueus), examined
with this light is only a dark variety of the Brown Rat. Mus Jacobin, from the GalajDagos, is
another variety; and an isolated species, Mus Islandicus, found nowhere but in Ascension Island,
is only the Common Black Rat slightly modified.
A higher rank or degree of organisation has been inferred to belong to the Old-world Rats
than to the New, from the former usually extirpating the latter, when they come in contact ; but the
facts will hardly bear out this inference, for not only is the suj)eriority due simj)ly to the greater size
and more powerful teeth of the conquering species (chiefly the Brown Rat), but it is exercised by
them as much upon their own countrymen, the Old-world species, as upon the New.
New-World Rats and Mice (Sigmodontes). The old name, Mus, has been reserved for the
Old-world species. There are several appellatives for the New-world groups. Some of these (the
genera Hesperomys and the North- American Reithrodons) are small and mouse-like ; others
(HoLOCHiLUs and Neotoma) are rat-like ; and Sigmodon is like the Arvicola, or Field-mouse.
Cotton Rats (Sigmodon). There are only two species of this genus. They are about the size
of the Norway Rats, and look Kke ArvicoLjE. They are confined to the southern portion of the
United States, from Carolina westwards to Western Texas.
Bush and Wood Rats (Neotoma). These are there presentatives of the larger Murid.^ in
North America. Some have scaly tails, like our Rats ; others have the tail bushy and furry, like the
Dormouse, and the fur soft and full. Some of the species are very large, greatly exceeding the
Brown Rat in size, and they are also much superior to it in beaut}^ and docility. The genus
is confined to North America, and occurs throughout the greater j)art of it. It is, however, not
found in the New-England states. It is met with from the Missouri to the Pacific, and from
Mexico northwards. The fossil remains of one extinct species have been found in the caves of
Pennsylvania.
Vesper Mice (Hesperomys). The range of this genus is very erroneously laid down in most
Physical Atlases— Johnston's and Berghaus' among the rest. It is found over the whole of the
continents, both of North and South America ; but the South American species all differ a little from
the North American ; and not only so, but none of the sub-sections into which they have been divided
are found in botli. Three out of several sub-genera, originally suggested by Waterhouse, have been
adopted for the South American species ; and Baird has made three more for the North American.
The differences on which they are founded are, however, all slight in degree, and do not correspond
with any geographical limits, the species being mingled with each other, except that the South
American sub-genera, taken as a body, are slightly different in type from the North American, and
are for the most part larger in size. Allowing for exceptions in both countries, they can be best
characterized by saying that the South American species are all Rats, and the North American all
Mice, there being only one North American species of any size, and it not exceeding the dimensions
of a half-grown Norway Rat. Dr. Baird says, "A striking feature of the North- American
Vesper Mice, to anglicize Wagner's name, is their diminutive size compared with the South
American. Many species of the latter are fuUy equal to the Rats, or even larger, some of them,
as Holochilus, with still larger teeth. Scarcely one of our " (North American) " species exceeds
four inches to the root of the tail in the flesh, while most are the size of the Common House
RATS AND MICE. 275
Mouse, or less." * The North American species are upwards of a dozen in number. They are
generally distributed over the whole country, from the Arctic Circle to Mexico, and it is difficult
to say that one region has a greater proportion than another.
Mr. Salvin's list of Mammals from Guatemala contains three species of HESPEROMTi-s of the
North American type, and one of them apparently a species actually found in North America. The
South American sub-genus, Calojiys, which comes nearest to the North American, is not appa-
rently found further or in greater proportion to the North than any of the other South American
8ub-genera. Its metropolis seems to be South Brazil, which, indeed, has furnished a greater
number of species of all the sub-genera than any other part of the country. Patagonia and Chili
are represented by more than their due jDroportion, in consequence of having been the ground
which was worked by Mr. Darwin. Previous to his visit, scarcely any were known to inhabit the
south of South America. And notwithstanding that his researches were necessarily very cursory,
and intermittent, he added between twenty and thirty species to our lists.
Reithrodon. The genus Reithrodox was founded by Mr. "Waterhouse, on some Patagonian
species of Hesperoivs, of large size, the chief characters being that the incisors are longitudinally
grooved while in Hesperomys they are not. They came from the extreme south of that
district, and were the sole representatives then known of the genus. Since then, however, some
small slender species of Hesperomys, having grooved incisors, have been found in North America,
and referred by Leconte and Dr. Baird on the strength of that character, to Reithrodon. Dr. Baird
informs us that he has seen neither skulls nor skins of Reithrodon from South America ; but he says
that judging from the figures giving by Waterhouse, there are considerable differences, not only
in size but in other characteristics. It is, however, imiwssible to indicate these discrepancies without
making a careful comjjarison of specimens from the two countries. The South American Reith-
RODONS have a body six inches in length, so stout and fidl, and the head so large and much arched,
that one species has been called R. cuniculoides (rabbit-like). The tail, also, does not exceed the
half of the body. The North American species, on the contrary, are the smallest of the Mice,
scarcely more than half the size of the House Mouse, which they otherwise closely resemble in
shape and proportion. The taQ is as long as the body alone, or else longer than the head and
body together. The shape and character of the skidl are quite different, f
Until the species of the South American Reithrodon be compared with the North American, it is
premature, therefore, to treat them as identical. To do so may lead to misapprehension of their affinities
and geographical distribution. I, therefore, in the meantime, speak of the two as the South American
Reithrodon and the North American Reithrodon. Three species of the South American genus
are kno-mi, one inhabiting the open grassy Savannahs of Maldonado, another the coast of Patagonia,
and the third the Straits of Magellan. The North American genus contains four or five species,
which are confined, on the Atlantic border, to the Southern States. They are found about St. Louis,
and westward to the Rocky Mountains. Species occur also in New Mexico, Sonora, and California.
"We have already seen that there are groimds for believing that the break between North and
South America, which at some former time must have existed, probably did not occur to the north
of Guatemala, but between it and New Granada. The distribution of Hesperomys and of the
Reithrodons confirms this view. Besides the three Hesperomys of the northern facies above
mentioned, Mr. Tomes' J list of the mammals collected by Mr. Salvin in Guatemala, contains two
* Baird, op. cit. p. 455. I Tomes in "Proc. Zool. Soc." p. 278, 1861.
t Baird, op. cit. p. 448.
276 MAMMALS.
Reithrodons of the North Americau type, one of them a North American species ; one Sigmodon,
also North American ; and a new species of the North American genus of Rats, Neotoma. Other
similarly allied species of Squirrels, &c. were also met with.
Old-world Rats and Mice (Mus). An immense number of these have been described, and
a careful revision of them is much needed. In the purged list which I have given in the Appendix,
it will be seen that there are still ninety-three species reckoned good, while sixty-six have been
disallowed as synonymes. Dr. Giebel, who is more trenchant, admits only thirty-three species as
distinct, but after absorbing upwards of thirty names of described species as synonymes, he records
forty-five other supposed species, the descriptions of which are so insufficient that he has been
unable to decipher them, or to express any opinion upon them.
Out of this large number there are four species which are almost cosmopolitan. Originally,
undoubtedly, from the Old World, they now inhabit every quarter of the globe ; the Conmion
Mouse, the Brown Rat, the Black Rat, and the Mus tectorum, or Egyptian Rat. Whence they
have respectively sprung is involved in obscurity.
The Common Mouse may perhaps not be so completely cosmopolitan as is generally supposed.
Mr. Blyth remarks that he has never seen an Indian specimen. It appears, like the Rats, to vary
under altered conditions of life, the specimens in Guatemala, for example, being smaller than usual.
The Brown Rat, judging by its English names, last came from Norway or Hanover, it being
generally Icnown as the Norway or the Hanoverian Rat. The latter, however, was a political name,
or name of prejudice, used by Old Jacobites, to signify that all ill things came in with the
Hanoverian Succession. But both names are equally erroneous ; and the commonly received
opinion tliat the sj^ecies originally came from the centre of Asia, — that ierra incognita to which
man, when puzzled, has had recourse for the original site of many species, must, according to
mj' view, be not far from the right one ; to the south of Northern Asia I look for almost the entire
re-peopling of Eurofie after the glacial ciDoch. It was Pallas who first gave currency to the notion that
the Brown Rat also came from that quarter. According to him it belonged originallj' to the wanner
regions of Central Asia, — more especially Persia, which rather refractorily happens to be one of the
very few places where the Rat in question is not to be found. Capt. Hutton, in 1846, states that
" house rats are unknown in Kandahar ; " and Mr. Blyth* mentions, that in India it is chiefly
observed about the ports, a significant enough indication whence it came there — Schrenckf also
informs us that it is not known in Siberia, though frequent in China, Japan, and Amourland, into
which it ajjpcars to have penetrated from the coast. A good proof of the recent introduction of the
Rat into Europe, were one needed, is furnished by the fact that neither the ancient Greeks nor
Romans had a name for it. As with potatoes and other novelties, not knowing the thing they
could not name it. The Mouse is the only species that they seem to have known, and even
it seems not to have been very common, for when the Emperor Heliogabalus got up a mouse-show in
Rome, all that he mustered was about ten thousand. J There would be little dif&culty in collecting ten
millions now-a-days. Pallas gives no very ancient date for the advent of the Browm Rat into Europe.
He says it crossed the Volga from Central Asia in large troops in 1737, peopled Russia, and subse-
quently spread over the whole of Europe. According to Erxleben it reached England in 1730, France in
17'j0, which, looking to PaUas's date, seems all in harmony', rightly reasoned and in his own division,
* Blyth, " Catalogue," p. 113. 1690, p. 110, as quoted in Marsh, G. P., "Man and Nature
t ScHRENCK, "Mammals of Amourland." or Physical Geography as modified by Human Action,"
J LAMrRiDins, " Hist. Aug. Scriptores," cd. Casaubon, 18G4, p. 80.
RATS, 277
viz. the anticipatory order, reaching England before France, and indeed before it had sot out at all.
In 1775 it was taken to North America, some time subsequent to the Black Eat, which had already
secured a footing there ; it, however, soon encroached on it, and has now nearly exterminated it.
Azara, who wrote in 1801-1802, mentions it as found in Brazil ; and it certainl}' was common
in Jamaica at the beginning of this century. Whenever it has once gained a footing, its progress
has been wonderfully raf)id. It is as common now in California as anywhere else, although it
was unknown there prior to the gold fever. Audubou and Bachman, in 1851, spoke of it as not
found on the Pacific Coast.
The Black Rat is a longer known animal, and, if that can be, its origin is involved in still
greater obsciu'ity. From time immemorial it has been the " house rat " of the civilized world.
It is, however, now fading away before the Brown Rat, and is so nearly exterminated in Britain,
that in most places it has become a matter of difficulty to procure a specimen. It still lingers in
some of the out-of-the-way places in the thatched roofs of cottages, or at least did so a few years
ago. It may not be so now, for it is difficult to predicate what change may have taken place
in a very short time, where we have to do with such a very pushing fellow as the Brown Rat.
According to Erxleben, the Black Rat was brought to the New World about 1544, that is,
just about fifty years after its discovery by Columbus, and it increased so rapidly, and to such an
extent, as to have given rise to the supposition already noticed, that it was introduced into the Old
World from the New. It is said to have been introduced at an early period into New Zealand
by European vessels, and it has now overrun the island, and nearly exterminated a former native
species, the only terrestrial mammal yet ascertained to have existed in New Zealand, The Norway
Rat had not made its appearance there in 1843, but it is no doubt by this time executing retributive
justice upon the Mrs rattus.
There are one or two facts connected with these Rats, which, although in the present state of
our knowledge, we may be unable to draw any conclusions from them, shoidd be kept in view.
The reader knows that domestic animals more readily midergo variation than the real fene nattine.
A moment's reminiscence of the numerous breeds of Cattle, Sheep, Dogs, Horses, &c., puts that
beyond doubt. Is it the same with the semi-domesticated animals ; that is, those which, without
his sanction, have constituted themselves in some shape or other parasites or hangers-on about
man ? Mr. Waterhouse, speaking of variations in the Rat, thinks that it docs apply to them. The
instances which lead him to make the remark, arise out of the species of Rats brought home
by Mr. Darwin, from the voyage of the " Beagle," and which were described by Mr. Waterhouse in
the "Zoology" of that expedition. In the Galapagos were foimd two Rats; one of the Vesper
tj^e, which does not bear upon the point I have now in view. It doubtless dated its origin from the
time when the Galapagos were united to the mainland. But there was another, and it was of the Old-
world type. It was very like the Black Rat, but did in some respects differ, — its head was rather
shorter in proportion, — its tail was longer, and the tarsi smaller. In other respects, and more
esjDccially in the character of the fur (which furnishes good means of distinguishing species) " it very
closely resembles that species." Nevertheless, being so far distinct, Waterhouse, to preserve
recognition o^it, be it species or be it variety, gave it the specific name of Mus jAcom.Ti, it being
found in the island called James Island. If a new species, it is one which has been made within a
few generations. We can almost specify the date since which it has been made. Being of the
Black Rat Idnd it must have been established on the island previous to the supremacy of the
Brown Rat, that is, before the latter had become the commoner kind in ships and houses. Darwin
278 MAMMALS.
mentions that the island was frequented about 150 j'cars since by vessels belonging to the
buccaneers : this therefore gives the date, and he adds, " If a peculiar climate, volcanic soil, and
strange food, can together produce a race or strongly marked variety, there is every probability of
such change having taken place in this case."*
The Egyptian Rat (Mus tectorum, or Mus Alexandiunus) is another species which may possibly
have been an offshoot from, or descendant of, the Brown Rat (Mus decumanus). The former is now
common in Italj', where it must have come apparently about the same time as the other ; for, as
already said, Rats were unknown to the ancient Romans. It comes nearer the Brown Rat than the
Black Rat, although, like it, it has the tail as long as the head and body together, which the Brown
Rat has not. Its habits differ somewhat from those of the latter, preferring dry places — a point on
which the Brown Rat is indifferent.
There is another fact which may be used as an argument both for and against its being
a scion of the Brown Rat, and that is, that the two are at all times in a state of determined hostility ;
but being stronger and more courageous than the Black Rat, the Egj'ptian species has been able to
wage a more equal warfiu-e with the former, and has hitherto escaped extermination. Their mutual
antipathy may be an argument against their common parentage — although family quarrels are
usually said to be the most bitter — and their strength and courage ma)^ be pointed to as qualities
which it might be likely to possess if descended from the Brown Rat. If we coidd argue from our
present knowledge of the Brown Rat's constitution, viz. that it bears all climates, and only varies
when protected by isolation from the restoring influence of fresh blood of the common stock, that
would dispose of the question without the necessity of goiag into these topics ; but the fact is, that we
know its history for such an infinitesimal portion of time — not a couple of hundred years — that we
cannot tell whether it is less or more liable to change than any other animal. If the Mus tectorum
is descended from the Brown Rat, it has passed the phase of variety, and become a full species.
Again, on the Island of Ascension, Mr. Darwin foimd two Rats, — varieties, as he and Mr.
Waterhouse consider, of the Black Rat. These two animals differ in the colour of the fur, one
being of a grizzled brownish colour, the other black, with more soft or glossy fur. That which has
a black and glossy fur frequents the short, coarse grass near the summit of the island, where the
common Mouse likewise occurs. It is often seen running about by day, and was found in numbers
when the island was first colonized by the English.
The other, and browner-coloured variety, lives in the outhoiises near the sea-beach, and feeds
chiefly on the offal of the turtles slaughtered for the daily food of the inhabitants. " If the settle-
ment were destroyed," says Mr. Darwin, " I feel no doubt that this latter variety would be com-
pelled to migrate from the coast. Did it originally descend from the summit ? and in the case first
supposed, would it retreat there ? and if so, would its black colour return ? It must, however, be
observed that the two localities are separated from each other by a sjiace some miles in width, of
bare lava and ashes. Does the summit of Ascension, an island so immensely remote from any
contraent, and the summit itseK surrounded by a broad fringe of desert volcanic soil, possess a small
quadruped peculiar to itself? or more probably, has this new species been brought by some ship
from some unknown quarter of the "World ? Or I am again tempted to ask, as I did in the case of
the Galapagos Rat, has the common English species been changed by its new habitation into a
strongly marked variety ?" t Mr. Waterhouse remarks upon this: " It appears as if the brown and
* Darwin in " Zoology of the Beagle," part ii. Mammalia, p. 35.
t Darwin, loc. cit.
RATS. 279
black Rats, and likewise the common Mouse, all of which follow man in his peregrinations, and
which to a certain degree are dependent upon man, and may, therefore, be termed semi-domestic
animals, are subject to a greater degree of variation than those species which hold themselves aloof
from him."*
The cases, however, do not seem parallel. If the change means anything in these instances, it is
not the variation of a new breed, but the formation of a new species. We know that in the case of
the very same species the individuals which have settled in Europe show no difference in any
part of it ; that those which have colonized North America and the greater part of South America
have as yet remained constant ; that the same is the case with the emigrants into Africa, India,
China, Australia, and New Zealand. But we are, perhaps, dealing with an animal which has consti-
tutionally great powers of enduring change of condition of life. Next, wherever man has been
present to watch the process of variation, no variation has taken place, but in desert places like
the Galapagos, or nearly uninhabited, like Ascension Island, there variation has shown itself ; there-
fore isolation would seem to have something to do with it. It is as if in ordinary circimistances the
inclination to change of form induced by change of condition of life was never allowed to operate, or
each step towards change obliterated as soon as made by the prepotent influence of fresh blood from
the normal type ; but access to this being prevented in isolated situations, the progress to change is
able to go on uninterrupted. The changes in other places may probably only be postponed, not
refused. As just remarked, we must remember that we are dealing with an animal which has
been exposed to change only for a very short period — the Brown Rat not for a hundi-ed j^ears, the
Black Rat only for a slightly longer period ; and sure enough it is in the species which has been
longest exposed to it, viz., the Black Rat, that the most decided of these alterations have been
observed.
One of the most interesting points connected with the distribution of Rats and Mice, is the
occurrence of many species in AustraKa. It was for a long time thought that that continent possessed
no placental mammals. But not only is this not the case, but the number of placental species is
very considerable. They are, however, all rodents and bats, and the rodents all belong to this
family. The Frontispiece sufficiently illustrates the similarity between one of the Australian pla-
cental Mice and the marsupial Antechini. It is to be noticed, that the Australian species all belong
to the Old-world tj^^e and not to that of the American species.
Almost the only jjart of the habitable globe where Rats and Mice are absent is the Arctic
regions, and the elevated steppes of Central Asia. There they are replaced by Voles (Field-
mice). Even in the burning Sahara the little Mouse makes its home, and the species there found
are, like many others of her creatures in the same or similar circumstances, pro\'ided by Nature with
a disguise which secures theii- safety by their modest garb, being dressed in a livery of the same
colour as the soil on which they pass their lives.
In warm climates the species attain the greatest size, the Bandicoot Rat of India (not the
Bandicoot of Australia, which is a totally different animal), M. gigaxteus, one of the largest being
upwards of two feet in length.
Fossil remains of several species have been found in tertiary deposits in France and Germany.
Shakespeare says "there be land-rats and water-rats;" it is only in Australia, however, that
this can be said with truth. Our "Water-Rats are not Rats, but Voles (Arvicol.^) ; but two or three
* Waterhodse, op. cit.
280 MAMMALS.
species of a Water-Rat between the two are found in Australia, and a sej)arate genus, Hydromys, has
been established for their reception.
New Zealand is one of the few lands which are without, or almost without, aboriginal Mammals.
One or two Eats, a small Eodent, and a questionable trace of an Otter, are all the non-marine
mammals which have been found on, or supposed to belong to, it. The Otter rests upon footprints
seen by Mr. Haast. The Bats are correct enough ; and there is no doubt that a Mouse or Rat
of some kind did, in former times, inhabit the coimtry ; but what it was is still very doubtful.
They are said to have been extremely numerous in old times, and seem to have been regarded much in
the same light as we regard game : for instance, the fact of their ancestors having caught Rats on any
portion of land gave the Maoris a certain right in it — I presume, a sort of servitude, or right of
shooting or hunting, which had to be bought up by the settler before he could obtain safe jDossession
of the land — although the claimant may never have caught Rats on it himself; which, indeed, could
now scarcely be done, because there are no Rats to catch, except " Pakeha Rats," that is, our
Black Rat; (for it seems that the Brown Rat has not yet secured its footing there), and these do
not coimt as game.*
Regarding this animal DiefFenbach .says: — "There exists in New Zealand a frugivorous
native Rat, called Kiore Maori (Indigenous Rat) by the natives, which they distinguish from the
English Rat (not the Norway Rat), which is introduced, and called Kiore Pakea (Strange Rat).
On the former they fed very largely in former times ; but it has now become so scarce, owing to
the extermination carried on against it by the European Rat, that I could never obtain one. A
few, however, are still found in the interior, at Rotu Rua, where they have been seen by the Rev.
Mr. Chapman, who described them as being much smaller than the Norway Rat. The natives
never eat the latter. It is a favourite theme with them to speculate on their own extermination
by the Europeans, in the same manner as the English Rat has exterminated their Indigenous
Rat."t
In the " Proceedings of the Royal Tasmanian Society" I find a copy of a letter from the
Rev. William Colenso, dated Hawkesbay, Sept. 1850, in which he says: — "I have procured two
specimens of the ancient, and all but quite extinct. New Zealand Rat, which, until just now (and
notwithstanding all my endeavours, backed too by large rewards), I never saw. It is, without
doubt, a true Mus, smaller than our English Black Rat {Mus Rattus), and not unlike it. This little
animal once inhabited the plains and Feigns forests of New Zealand in countless thousands, and was
both the common food and great delicacy of the natives ; and already it is all but quite classed
among the things which were."J
There is another more recent notice, which may relate to this animal, in a geological
report by Mr. Jidius Ilaast : — "Traces of a quadruped of smaller size, of nocturnal habits, the
stride of which was between seven and eight inches, indicating that its mode of progression
was by jumj)s or springs, were also discovered by me in the river-bed of the Hopkins, the
stream which forms Lake Ohou ; and as there is every reason to believe that this animal still
exists in great numbers, hundreds of tracks having been formed in one night in the fresh-
* " The Old Settler in New Zealand," quoted from t Dieffenbach, " Travels in New Zealand," 1843, p.
"Maori Sketches" in " Cornhill Magazine," Oct. 1865, p. 18b.
£01. J Rev. W. Colenso, in "Proceedings of the Royal
Society of Van Pieman's Land," 1851, p. 301.
BATS. 281
fallen snow, we may hope that some specimens of this entirely unknown quadi'uped will yet be
obtained."*
I cannot help thinking that Mr. Haast's report gives us the truest glimpse of the animal : and
that Mr. Colenso's bribes had defeated his own object, by inducing the natives to palm off upon
him two young or small specimens of the Common Black Rat ; or it may be specimens of the normal
dimensions, supposing the animal to have become naturalized, and been somewhat reduced in size
in course of the process of modification into a new species, like the Ascension Island and Galapago
Island Rats of Mr. Darwin. It is in favour of this view that the Black Rat is the one which has
been introduced there ; because we read in the quotation from Dieffenbach that the English Rat
which is introduced is not the Norway Rat, and there is no other which it can be but the Black Rat,
because there is no other English Rat which attaches itself to man, sailing about in his shijDs, and
accompanying his commerce. Further, if the Rat is a jumping i-at, as Mr. Haast's report implies,
this would bring it near the Australian Jumping Rats (Hapalotis) ; and as Australia is the
nearest land to New Zealand (although distant upwards of 1000 miles), it is perhaps the existing
coimtry from which it is most probable that New Zealand should have drawn its inhabitants ; and
we know that, in point of fact, it is from Australia that the chief portion of its non-endemic flora
has been drawn, as much as one-fourth of tlic whole (or 222 out of 935, when Hooker wrote his " Flora
of New Zealand") being Australian. There is, however, another source from which it might be
drawn, viz. America ; that coimtry is nearest to New Zealand on the other side, and has supplied
about an eighth of its flora. A true specimen of this R 
