178 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 



lation of different regions, either by exterminating certain 

 species, or by introducing others with which he desires to be 

 more intimately associated, the domestic animals. Thus, 

 the dog is found wherever we know of the presence of man. 

 The horse, originally from Asia, was introduced into Amer- 

 ica by the Spaniards ; where it has thrived so well, that 

 it is found wild, in innumerable herds, over the Pampas of 

 South America, and the prairies of the West. In like 

 manner the domestic ox became wild in South America. 

 Many less welcome animals have followed man in his peri- 

 grinations ; as, for example, the rat and the mouse, as well 

 as a multitude of insects, such as the house-fly, the cock- 

 roach, and others which are attached to certain species of 

 plants, as the white-butterfly, the Hessian-fly, &c. The 

 honey-bee also has been imported from Europe. 



447. Among the species which have disappeared, under 

 the influence of man, we may mention the Dodo, a pecu- 

 liar species of bird which once inhabited the Mauritius, 

 some remains of which are preserved in the British and 

 Ashmolean Museums ; a large cetacean of the north (Rytina 

 Stelleri), which formerly inhabited the coasts of Behring's 

 Straits, and which has not been seen since 1768. According 

 to all appearances, we must also reckon among these the 

 great stag, the skeleton and horns of which have been found 

 buried in the peat-bogs of Ireland. There are also many 

 species of animals whose numbers are daily diminishing, and 

 whose extinction may be foreseen ; as the Canada deer 

 (Wapiti] , the Ibex of the Alps, the Lammergeyer, the 

 bison, the beaver, the wild-turkey, &c. 



448. Other causes may also contribute towards dispersing 

 animals beyond their natural limits. Thus the sea-weeds 

 are carried about by marine currents, and are frequently 

 met with far from shore, thronged with little crustaceans, 

 which are in this manner transported to great distances from 



