DISTRIBUTION OF THE FAUNAS. 165 



shoals of fishes, the salmon among others, which throng the 

 coasts of Greenland, Iceland, and Hudson's Bay. The 

 same uniformity appears in the form and color of the animals. 

 There is not a single bird of brilliant plumage, and not a 

 fish with varied hues. Their forms are regular, and their 

 tints as dusky as the northern heavens. The most conspicu- 

 ous animals are the white-bear, the moose, the reindeer, 

 the musk-ox, the white-fox, the polar-hare, the lemming, 

 and various Seals ; but the most important are the Whales, 

 which, it is to be remarked, rank lowest of all the Mam- 

 mals. Among the Birds, may be enumerated some sea- 

 eagles and a few Waders, with an immense number 

 of other aquatic species, such as gulls, cormorants, di- 

 vers, petrels, ducks, geese, &c., all belonging to the 

 lowest order of Birds. Reptiles are altogether wanting. 

 The Articulata are represented by numerous marine worms, 

 and by minute crustaceans of the orders Isopoda and Am- 

 phipoda. Insects are rare, and of inferior types. Of the 

 type of Mollusks, there are Acephala, particularly Tunicata, 

 fewer Gasteropods, and very few Cephalopods. Among the 

 Radiata are a great number of jelly-fishes, particularly the 

 Beroe ; and to conclude with the Echinoderms, there are 

 several star-fishes and Echini, but few Holothurise. The 

 class of Polypi is very scantily represented, and those pro- 

 ducing stony corals are entirely wanting. 



421. This assemblage of animals is evidently inferior to 

 that of other faunas, especially to those of the tropics. Not 

 that there is a deficiency of animal life ; for if the spe- 

 cies are less numerous, there is a compensation in the 

 multitude of individuals, and also in this other very sig- 

 nificant fact, that the largest of all animals, the whales, 

 belong to this fauna. 



422. It has already been said (400) that the arctic fauna 

 of the three continents is the same ; its southern limit, how- 



