170 GEOGRAPHY OF ANIMALS. 



traordinary a phenomenon. For example, let us take 

 New South Wales ; its climate differs in nothing 

 materially from a corresponding northern latitude; 

 yet its Fauna is of the most peculiar character ; and 

 although the peculiar vegetation of that country might 

 seem to offer an explanation of the circumstance by 

 shewing its exclusive adaptation to a certain race of 

 animals, the difficulty is not at all lessened by impo- 

 sing it on another science. It will be found next to 

 impossible to prove that the soil of Australia is alone 

 adapted to the plants which grow there, and we shall 

 be constrained to believe that a separate creation has 

 occurred on this and other portions of the earth both 

 of plants and animals. 



But although corresponding latitudes of the world 

 do not present the same species of animals ; yet, as 

 temperature exerts the most decided influence over 

 vegetable existence, ceteris paribus ; and as the ve- 

 getable world maintains the smaller and less pow- 

 erful creatures, and these again the higher animals ; 

 the Fauna of these latitudes corresponds with respect 

 to general character and endowment. 



The mountainous regions of the earth are inhabited 

 by creatures possessing widely different habits and 

 constitutions. None of them seem capable of Hving 

 equally well in different degrees of temperature ; and 

 accordingly, in the progress of the traveller to the 

 summit of a lofty mountain, he may first meet with 

 beasts of prey, in the scorching atmosphere, at the 

 commencement of his journey ; then with the goat, 

 ibex, (fee, capable of enduring a rather cold climate ; 

 then some other gradation, and lastly, perhaps, birds, 

 whose habits and structure agree with, if they are not 

 identically the same species as those found at the Po- 

 lar regions ; thus the golden eagle and some others of 

 that genus affect the rocky precipices of the moun- 

 tains of this country, and of the continent, feeding 

 on hares, marmots, (fee. ; the Tetrao urogallus, found 

 abundantly in Norway, and formerly plentiful in the 

 Scottish mountains, is likewise known to live in the 



