COLUMBIAN REGION, 403 



The presence of several species of the old-woi-ld genera ClausUia ami 

 Strq)tad-is — both wanting in North America, becomes a significant fact when 

 taken in connection with the affinities of the higher animals of South 

 America and Africa. These imply a land -way across the Atlantic (at somtj 

 veri/ remote period,) more direct than would be afforded by the continent 

 which is believed to have united the boreal regions at the close of the 

 Miocene Age.* 



Corbicula cnneata and 3 sp. of Cyrena are found in the Orinoco and 

 smaller rivers ; and the remarkable genus Miilleria, representing the African 

 Mther'ia, inhabits the Eio ]\Iagdalena. A sp. of Anci/lus is recorded from 

 Venezuela. 



Galapagos Islands. No. 35. 



The fauna and flora of these islands is peculiar, but related to tropical 

 South America. The only known land-shells are 11 small and obscure species 

 of BuUmus, of which the most remarkable is B. achatinellinus. Some of 

 them are peculiar to particular islands, like the birds and reptiles, viz : — 

 Chatham I. 2, Charles I. 3, Jacob I. 2, James I, 1. "The Archipelago is a 

 little world within itself, or rather a satellite attached to America, whence i( 

 has derived a few stray colonists, and has received the general character of its 

 indigenous productions." — (Darwin's Journal, p. 377.) 



28. Brazilian Region, 



The " region of Palms and Melastomas," extending from the Amazon to 

 the southern tropic, is one of the richest zoological provinces. It includes 

 Bolivia, and the largest portion of Peru, all that lies to the east of the Audes. 

 The greater part of the region is mountainous and rainy and densely wooded, 

 but intersected by extensive plains {Llanos), some grassy and fertile, others 

 dry, rocky and rainless, especially in the south; it is watered by uunierous 

 streams — the affluents of the Amazon and Plata. The hydrographical 

 areas of these two great rivers have been represented on the map, but the 

 southern boundary of the Brazilian Province extends beyond the line of water- 

 shed to the tropic, including the head-waters of the Plata, in which the same 

 remarkable fresh-water bivalves are found as in the Bolivian streams. 

 (B'Orbif/mj). The mountains around the Lake Titicaca are the highest in 

 the New World, and there M. D'Orbigny found several species of Helix up 

 to the elevation of 14,000 feet ; Bulimiis Ticpaicl ranges to 9,000 feet. The 

 large and typical species of BuUmus belong to this province ; B. ovatiis and 

 oblongiis are found near the coast, (p. 164),) and B. maximiis farther inland. 

 The auriculoid Balimi, {Otostomus, and Pachyotis, Beck,) those with an 



* In Lieut. Maury's physical map of the Atlantic, the contour of this former 

 land is partly shewn by the 2000 fathom line, extending beyond the Canaries and 

 Madeira, and sending out a promontory to the Azores. Clausilice are found in Eocene 

 strata; perhaps even in the Coal-measures, (p. 160.) 



T 



