Heuglitis " Reise Nach Abessinien " 155 



he says that the per-centage to be got out of the stone is so small 

 as to make it useless for working. 



The number of species, both of plants and animals, in the 

 Highlands of Abyssinia is very large^a fact characteristic of all 

 mountain regions. Some have attempted to explain the general 

 fact by supposing the mountain a sort of centre of creation, 

 in which species from all the surrounding districts have taken 

 refuge, as in an island when the neighbouring lands have been 

 submerged through geological changes of level. To us it appears 

 better accounted for by the modification of Mr Darwin's theory of 

 the origin of species which we have jDroposed (viz., that the change 

 in species is produced by change of condition, and that so long as 

 the conditions of life are the same no change takes place). No 

 change can be greater than one from a plain to a mountain region, 

 and nowhere can there be a greater change of condition. It should 

 follow, therefore, on our hypothesis, that there should be a greater 

 amount of alteration in species, both in number and degree, in 

 mountainous regions, than in those which contain less varied 

 elements of condition of life — and so we find it to be. 



To make out lists of these from Heuglin's work would be easy, 

 but, of course, out of the question here; we must refer the reader 

 to the work itself for them, and to the lists which he has published 

 in Petermann's " Mittheilunge," and in the Sitzungberichte of the 

 Imperial "Akademy der Wissenschaften " of Vienna. We can 

 only notice one or two of the incidental remarks which he makes 

 on some of the species. 



The Abyssinian lion is distinguished from the Sudan variety by 

 its dark mane, which in winter is developed very strongly. Heuglin 

 had many opportunities of seeing lions of enormous size, but those 

 of the Gala Land were the finest that he ever saw. 



The leopard or panther ranges from the lower Oola to a height 

 of from 11,000 to 12,000 feet high. Dr Fitzinger in his paper, 

 above referred to, considers it still doubtful to which of these two 

 species the kind found in north-east Africa belongs ; he might have 

 added whether there really are two species at all or not, which 

 we doubt. It is the commonest and boldest carnivorous mammal 

 in Abyssinia — so common is it that it sometimes appears even in the 

 town of Gondar itself. " The walls " says Heuglin (we presume he 

 means those of the sanctuary and different churches, for the town 

 itself is quite open, and these alone are surrounded with large 

 half fallen walls) ; " the Avails are often clothed v/ith thorns, in 



