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Show 102 BAHIA BLANCA. Aug. 1833. other side, two tapirs, the guanaco, three deer, the vicuna, peccari, capybara (after which we must choose from the monkeys to complete the number), and then place these t~o groups alongside each other, it is not easy to conceive ranks more disproportionate. After the above facts, we are compelled to conclude, against anterior probability,* that among the mammalia there exists no close relation between the bulk of the species, and the quantity of the vegetation, in the countries they inhabit. With regard to the number of large quadrupeds, there certainly exists no quarter or' the globe which will bear comparison with Southern Mrica. After the different statements which have been given, the extremely desert character of that region will not be disputed. In the European division of the world, we must look back to the tertiary epochs, to find a condition of things among the mammalia resembling that which is now found at the Cape of Good Hope. That tertiary epoch, which we are apt to consider as abounding to an astonishing degree with large animals, because we find the remains of many ages accumulated at certain spots, could boast of but few more of the large quadrupeds, than Southern Africa does at present. If we speculate on the condition of the vegetation during that epoch, we are at least bound so far to consider existing analogies, as not to urge as absolutely necessary a luxuriant vegetation, when we see a state of things so totally different in the region to which we refer. We knowt that the extreme regions of North America, • If we suppose the case of the discovery of a skeleton of a Greenland whale in a fossil state, not a single cetaceous animal being known to exist, what naturalist would even conjecture on the possibility of a carcass so gigantic, being supported on the minute crustacea and mollusca, living in the frozen seas of the extreme North? t See Zoological Remarks to Capt. Back's Expedition, by Dr. Richardson. He says, " The subsoil north of latitude 56° is perpetually frozen, the thaw on the coast not penetrating above three feet, and at Bear Lake, in latitude 64°, not more than twenty inches. The frozen substratum does not of itself destroy vegetation, for forests flourish on the surface, at a distance from the coast." Aug. 1833. POSSIIA QUADRU PEDS. 103 many degrees beyond the lim. depth of a few feet . It where the ground at the remams perpet II covered by forests of 1 ua Y congealed, are manner, in Siberia we h arge and tall trees. In a like I ' ave woods of b' h fi arch, growing in a latitude* 64 o Ire ' r, aspen, and perature of the air falls b I (h ), w~ere the mean tem-th . e ow t e freezmg · t e earth IS so complet I f pom , and where animal embedded in 't ~ y rozen, that the carcass of an r I IS perfectly p d · 1acts we must grant r . reserve · With these , as 1ar as qua t't l concerned that th u z !/ a one of vegetation is ' e great quadru d f epochs might, in most arts f pe s o the later tertiary have lived on the spots p h o h~ orthern Europe and Asia I d w ere t e1r re · ' o not here speak of th II . d roams are now found. their support . beca e czn of :vegetation necessary for ' use, as there 1s · d changes, and as the . I evi ence of physical amma s have be . we suppose that th . come extmct, so may changed. e species of pl an t s h ave h.k eWJ. se been !hese remarks directly bear on th ammals preserved . . e case of the Siberian m ICe. The fi · · necessity of a vegetat. . rm conviCtiOn of the 1 . wn, possessmg a h uxunance, to support s h 1 . c aracter of tropical SI' b'li uc aro-e ammal d 1 . I ty of reconciling th'IS W.i t hot he ·s , ·a n t le Impos-congelation, was one ch' f proximity of perpetual Ie cause of the 1 . sudden revolutions of cI I' mate and f sevehra th. eones of trophes, which were invent d ~ o overw elmmg catas-ment. I am far from e . o account for their entomb-changed since the period su~pos~g tha~ the ~limate has not lie buried in the I'ce Atw en t ose ammals lived, which now · present I I · h as far as quantity of food l . on y WIS to show, that noceroses might ha a one Is concerned, the ancient rhi- . . ve roamed over th t Sibena (the northern t b e s eppes of central . par s pro ably bei d even m their present d' . ng un er water) con Itlon, as well as the living rhi- * See Humboldt Fragmens Asiat' of Plants: and Malte B 1 Jques, P· 386: Barton's Geography of the growth of tree/~~· S'bn t.he latter work it is said, that the limit of 70o. J erJa may be drawn under the parallel |