275 



remnants of the more primitive species are for a time preserved 

 from the stress of competition with superior Hfe. 



Dr. Malcolm Burr has placed on record, under the expressive 

 title of A Faiinistic Island, the existence of such a sanctuarv 

 at Oberweiden in Moravia, which he describes as a dry and 

 desolate spot of limited extent, whose only growth was a little 

 coarse grass and a few stunted shrubs ; yet over eighty species 

 of Orthoptera have been obtained there, which are believed to 

 represent the fauna of Central Europe at some previous era, 

 as all the species were quite different from those inhabiting the 

 surrounding country, and bore most resemblance to the fauna 

 now existing in the Valley of the Volga, and therefore may be 

 regarded as confirmatory evidence of the true direction of the 

 migratory flow of life from Europe. 



The great faunal richness in ancient t3'pes of this isolated 

 and barren spot is quite analogous to the immense variety of 

 life to be found congregated together in the weaker regions of 

 the earth, and argues these countries to be also refuges or 

 sanctuaries of the regressive and decadent species and groups, 

 as the strong and evolutionary active regions are always char- 

 acterised by the presence of the most highly organised groups 

 and species and by a greater degree of uniformit}', as the primitive 

 species are much more rapidly and completely eliminated. Even 

 man himself furnishes corroboration of this crowding together 

 of regressive and dying races in the more inhospitable or in- 

 accessible districts of the weaker regions, not only by the 

 aggregation of decadent tribes, but also by the numerous 

 linguistic families congregated in such districts ; for although 

 there are fifty-nine linguistic families in North America, quite 

 forty of these are found in the barren and limited area 

 betw^een the Pacific and Rocky Mountains, while all the rest 

 of the sub-continent has nineteen only. The region of this 

 notable aggregation of tongues is precisely the spot where the 

 lowliest Helicoids are still dominant and flourishing. 



In South America the same result may be seen, as although 

 an enormous number of apparently unrelated linguistic families 

 are congregated within the Andean and Pacific regions, yet the 

 languages of all the rest of the country ma\' be reduced to about 

 a dozen groups. 



