312 MAMMALS. 



seems to me to belong to one zoological region, in the same way as tlie other large regions 

 of which we have been speaking. No doubt the boreal extremity of North America ia tinged 

 with a Europeo- Asiatic admixture ; but this is an extraneous element grafted upon the genuine 

 stock, and easily eliminated from it. Regarded from the same extended point of view from which 

 we have regarded the others, I can see no ground for seirarating the South from the North. In 

 Mammals, the chief character warranting separation is the occurrence of extinct and existing 

 Edentata, and yet it is not so long ago (spealdng geologically) since they existed in North as well 

 as in South America. AYe have seen that it is a moot point whether the Megatheriiuu did not 

 survive the glacial epoch on North- American soil ; and one or two small members of the edentate 

 family do still survive in its southern parts to this day. 



Wherever there is a typical difference between the families of the Old and New World, it 

 extends equally to those of North as of South Amercia, as in the case of the Vesper Mice and Cotton 

 Rats. The largest carnivora are common to both ; and tlie Opossum wanders as far north as 

 the Dasypus. On the other hand, the great tribe of Platyrrhine ]Monkeys, althougli it extends 

 into Mexico, does not enter North America projDer, but no inference imfavourable to the unity of 

 the whole American Continent can be drawn from this fact, because in no country are the Mon- 

 keys found much bej^ond the line of the tropics. That is their limit, and they do penetrate into 

 North America as far as the tropic of Cancer. They go as far as the temj)erature they require 

 will allow them. The Phyllostomatous Bats also do not advance into North America beyond tliat 

 troj)ic. But there are other foi'ms of mammalian life which are limited to South America, as 

 the Taj)ir, the only living representative of the American Pachj'dermata, the Llamas, the 

 Cavies, Chinchillas, and other Rodents. Still, there is generally a New-world facies, which 

 distinguishes the life of both North and South America from that of tlie Old World ; in the 

 same way as there is an Old-world facies applicable alike to Europiean and Asiatic species. 

 The same principles which we have ap^Dlied to the partition of the Old World seem, therefore, 

 when applied to the New, to call for the recognition of North and South America as one 

 single distinct, great zoological region. 



It is, however, divisible, like the jDreceding regions, into two very distinct halves — North and 

 South America. As to the former, the chief jroiuts calling for notice here are its northern and 

 southern limits. Are we to consider Greenland a part of it, or not ? We have seen that, judged 

 by its earlier Kfe (plants and insects), it should go along with Europe ; estimated b_y its later life 

 (birds and mammals), it belongs to America. We must, therefore, regard it as American or 

 European, according to the date when it is spoken of. It is like a young lady who has been married. 

 If we are asked whether she is Miss Euroj^e or Mrs. America, we reply that she is both ; but as 

 by custom she bears the name due to her later condition, I think we must reckon Greenland as now 

 American, although formerly European; the exact date of the dissolution of her connexion with 

 Europe we cannot tell, but it was subsequent to the deposit of the peat-bogs in Shetland and 

 Orkney. The same remarks appl}^ to Iceland and Spitzbergen. The facts which lead to these 

 conclusions seem equally to show that North America must have received the Europeo- Asiatic 

 clement, which prevails over the whole of its noithern half, not from Europe but from Asia, by a 

 former union of the two Continents at Bluning's Straits, oi- some equivalent line of transit. 



The North-American coiitinent is divisible into several provinces. The most northerly, or 

 Arctic region, viz. the country lying north of the latitude of Slave Lake, has been divided into two, 

 that east of Mackenzie's River and that west of it ; and the former of these, if not also the latter. 



