68 On Maris influence in effecting 



have had a similar influence; and the extensive destruction of 

 PhoccB, which are now almost extinct in New South Shetland, 

 and many other localities, where they formerly existed in in- 

 numerable herds, is another instance of the same character. 

 The fur animals of North America, where companies keep 

 standing armies of hunters, to supply the trade, as well as of 

 Siberia, which has so long been decimated, both by convicts 

 and the natives, who pay their tribute in furs, have had their 

 ranks likewise very visibly thinned by commerce, as appears 

 from comparing the commercial tables of different periods. 



Though, in the present state of the surface of the globe, 

 and of the occupancy of man, it is, upon the whole, quite im- 

 possible to predict, with any precision, when certain species 

 of animals will have shared the fate of some already extinct, 

 as the Didus ineptus, or at what rate the numbers of others 

 shall diminish or increase, through human agency ; yet, in a 

 few instances, and particularly with reference to certain habi- 

 tats, we may be pretty confident in our anticipations. The 

 large Pachydermata, as well as the fiercer animals of prey, or 

 reptiles, will be exterminated in every country brought com- 

 pletely under the dominion of man ; and this will ultimately 

 be their fate over the whole of the globe. But it is difficult 

 to say whether the polar bear may not make a successful stand 

 against man, as long as the present climates are not entirely 

 changed ; a circumstance which probably never will happen, 

 whilst our species inhabits the globe. In such other locali- 

 ties also, as man cannot make any great impression upon, as 

 the immense deserts of Africa^ or the snow region of the high- 

 est mountains, several species, that would elsewhere be threat- 

 ened with extirpation, may protract their existence to an in- 

 definite time, though the Capricorn has been exterminated in 

 the Alps ; whereas others, whose existence depends on the 

 primitive state of more accessible and changeable localities, 

 as the elk, the Bos urus, the beaver, &c. must certainly be- 

 come the victims of the progressive influence of man, however 

 individuals or legislation may attempt to preserve them. The 

 same fate ultimately awaits the large birds of prey, as the 

 Gypaetos barbatus, which has already become very scarce, 

 even in the Alps, or the brown eagle, which no longer haunts 

 the lesser primitive mountains of Germany, where it formerly 

 used to breed. In short, every large wild animal, whose ex- 

 istence is not profitable to the commonwealth, will, sooner or 

 later, cease to exist, unless it can be made to continue in a 

 controllable state ; and we may anticipate that this principle 

 will extend its influence, more or less strictly, over many of 

 the smaller animals of all tribes. 



