MAMMALIAN REGIONS. 307 



the elevation of the highlands of Abj'ssinia. This, no doubt, is mere conjecture, founded on 

 the distribution of the animals. Subsequent geological observations may show that the fact 

 ■was not so, but in the meantime, as we have no better guide to go by, I have followed the dis- 

 tribution of the majority of species so far as we know it, leaving a little margin to the north 

 for wandering species, such as the ostriches, to spread over, and placed the limit of the African 

 portion of Arabia to the north of the southern desert instead of to the south of it, as in the case of 

 the Sahara. 



From the north of the Europeo- Asiatic region I exclude Greenland and Spitsbergen, on 

 the strength of the American character of the Reindeer, the Polar Hare, and the Iludson's Bay 

 Lemming, which are almost the only Greenland circumpolar mammals in which attempts have been 

 successfidly made to distinguish the American from the Old-world tj'pe. I also provisionally 

 exclude Iceland, because I believe that the only aboriginal animal, the economic Mus sylvestris, 

 of Olafsen and Henderson, will prove to be the American Lemming. 



I am silent as regards the Aleutian Islands, for the only mammals which I Icnow of as having 

 been found there are the Rhytina, the "Walrus, various Seals, and other marine animals, which range 

 along both sides of the Northern Pacific. 



This enormous region, covering, as stated by Dr. Sclater, a space of not less than fourteen 

 millions of square miles, has a very homogeneous, although by no means numerous mammalian 

 fauna, but is, notwithstanding, separable into three minor provinces, nearly equivalent to Dr. 

 Hooker's European, Siberian, and Egyptian types. 



The first is the Scandinavian, which includes north and mid Europe, and Asia north of the 

 Caspian and west of the Lena. The mammals of Great Britain furnish a fair illustration of the 

 mammalia found this region. 



The next province is what is now called the Mediterranean region, and consists of the lands 

 which surround that sea ; viz. Sj)ain, Italy, Greece, and generally what is known as the South of 

 Europe ; Asia Minor ; Syria ; North Arabia ; Egj'pt ; North Africa ; and the Sahara. The most 

 difficidt points in relation to this district are Nubia and Abyssinia, and the south of Ai-abia. 

 To this province belong the Azores and Canary Islands. It has a more African facies than the 

 Scandinavian ; the Jackal, the Zorilla, the Genet, the Leopard, Lion, and other felines, making 

 their appearance in it. 



The last remaining pro'i'ince consists of the high steppes of Central Asia, extending from 

 Cashmir through Mongolia to Japan, and apparently including the non-arctic northern regions 

 lying to the east of the Lena. Irkutsk seems to be about the point where the eastern and the 

 western species overlap each other. 



This province is characterised not so much by different genera as different species of the animals 

 which inhabit the Scandinavian district. 



A list of the genera common to these different districts and of those absent from them is given 

 in'the Appendix. 



I have the more confidence in the view entertained by Dr. Sclater and myself of the unity of 

 Europe and Asia, north of the Himmalayahs, as a great province of life, in that it is consistent with 

 the course of events which I believe to have occurred in these continents during and subseqent to the 

 glacial epoch, and which I have explained at length in discussing the theory of a Miocene Atlantis. 

 The comparative paucity of species in this region is, I think, evidence of its having received its 

 population more recently than other regions where the inhabitants are more numerous. 



