"196 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 



various animals which dwell only in forests. Here the tem- 

 perate fauna commences. Still the number of species is not 

 yet very considerable ; but as he advances southward, along 

 the coasts of Nova Scotia and New England, he finds new 

 species gradually introduced, while those of the colder regions 

 diminish, and at length entirely disappear, some few acci- 

 dental or periodical visiters excepted, who wander, during 

 winter, as far south as the Carolinas. 



417. But it is after having passed the boundaries of the 

 United States, among the Antilles, and more especially on 

 the southern continent, along the shores of the Orinoco and 

 the Amazon, that our traveller will be forcibly struck with 

 the astonishing variety of the animals which people the for- 

 ests, the prairies; the rivers, and the sea-shores, most of which 

 he will also find to be different from those of the northern 

 continent. By this extraordinary richness of new forms, he 

 will become sensible that he is now in the domain of the 

 tropical fauna. 



418. Let him still travel on beyond the equator towards 

 the tropic of Capricorn, and he will again find the scene 

 change as he enters the regions where the sun casts his rays 

 more obliquely, and where the contrast of the seasons is 

 more marked. The vegetation will be less luxuriant ; the 

 palms will have disappeared to make place for other trees ; 

 the animals will be less varied, and the whole picture will 

 recall to him, in some measure, what he witnessed in the 

 United States. He will again find himself in the temperate 

 region, and this he will trace on, till he arrives at the ex- 

 tremity of the continent, the fauna and the flora becoming 

 more and more impoverished as he approaches Cape Horn. 



419. Finally, we know that there is a continent around 

 the South Pole. Although we have as yet but very imper- 

 fect notions respecting the animals of this inhospitable clime, 

 still, the few which have already been observed there present 



