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cephalus blomhofii from Japan ; and, secondly, the presence of our 
common toad in Sikkim and Tibet. The latter species is spread over 
all the parts of Europe and Asia belonging to the Palearctic region ; 
it is found also in Japan and on the Chinese island of Chusan (Bufo 
gargarizans, Cant.), and offers here, in the Himalaya, the example 
of the greatest elevation of a Batrachian known (10,200 feet), illus- 
trating a law which is generally found to be true,—namely, that ani- 
mals with a wide horizontal range have also a great vertical distri- 
bution. 
The number of species rapidly decreases with the rising eleva- 
tion ; and when we arrive at the upper limit of this zone, we find it 
reduced to three Saurians, two Snakes, and a single Batrachian ; 
four of these disappear simultaneously (Tiliqua rufescens, Ablabes 
owenii, Clothonia johnii, and Bufo vulgaris), and at this elevation 
mark the highest point to which an otherwise tropical form is known 
to rise. 
3. Alpine Zone; zone of Barycephalus sykesii.—10,000—15,000 
feet. 
The lower part of this zone is covered by a vegetation by no 
means scanty, and continuing to be similar to that of England, or 
towards the middle to that of the Scandinavian peninsula, whilst agri- 
cultural plants may be cultivated, and the different species of Pinus 
form extensive forests, but trees and shrubs cease at several locali- 
ties of the upper part. The line where perpetual snow, or a barren, 
frozen ground oppresses the vegetative life, appears to vary much in 
different localities, independently of the fact that it is higher on the 
northern side of the chains than on the southern. Dr. Hooker, for 
instance, found perpetual snow at 15,000 feet in East Nepal, and on 
one side of a mountain in Tibet at 16,500, whilst on the other 
there was none at 19,000 feet. Meyen* states the presence of low 
shrubs at 15,000, and of mosses and grasses at 15,500 feet. The 
occurrence of Reptiles proves at least a local vegetation above 15,000 
feet. The thermometer rises in June and August to 70° in the noon 
at 11,500-11,900 feet, to 43° at 15,700, whilst it falls in November 
and December to 292° in the noon in 13,080, and to 12—15° in the 
night. Thus the Reptiles inhabiting this zone are subject to the 
conditions of a very severe change in the different seasons, and they 
fall into a lethargic state during the winter, like our European spe- 
cies +. The species found within this zone are the following :— 
Phrynocephalus tickeli. Biancia nigra. 
Hinulia indica. Calotes minor. 
Barycephalus sykesit. Spilotes hodgsonii. 
* Wiegm. Arch. 1836, pp. 317, 318. It is not said which measurement (En- 
glish or French) has been used. 
+ The Reptiles which inhabit the upper parts of the temperate zone hybernate 
of necessity: and we have the remarkable fact of species being adapted to pass 
part of a year in lethargy, whilst other individuals of the same species living in 
a tropical climate never become subject to an influence similarly depressive of the 
vital functions. Is this not proof enough that one and the same species may 
extend over two or more horizontal regions ? 
