194 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 



SECTION II. 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE FAUNAS. 



413. We have stated that all the faunas of the globe may 

 be divided into three groups, corresponding to as many great 

 climatal divisions, namely, the glacial or arctic, the temperate 

 and the tropical faunas. These three divisions appertain to 

 both hemispheres, as we recede from the equator towards the 

 north or south poles. It will hereafter be shown that the 

 tropical and temperate faunas may be again divided into 

 several zoological provinces, depending on longitude or on 

 the peculiar configuration of the continents. 



414. No continent is better calculated to give a correct 

 idea of distribution into faunas, as determined by climate, 

 than the continent of America ; extending as it does across 

 both hemispheres, and embracing all latitudes, so that all 

 climates are represented upon it, as shown by the chart on the 

 following page. 



415. Let a traveller embark at Iceland, which is situated 

 on the borders of the polar circle, with a view to observe, 

 in a zoological aspect, the principal points along the eastern 

 shore of America. The result of his observation will be 

 very much as follows. Along the coast of Greenland and 

 Iceland, and also along Baffin's Bay, he will meet with an 

 unvaried fauna, composed throughout of the same animals, 

 which are also for the most part identical with those of the 

 arctic shores of Europe. It will be nearly the same along 

 the coast of Labrador. 



416. As he approaches Newfoundland, he will see the 

 landscape, and with it the fauna, assuming a somewhat more 

 varied aspect. To the wide and naked or turfy plains of 

 the boreal regions succeed forests, in which he will find 



