AMERICA. 



AMERICA. 



293 



To the south of these extends, along the western coast, the republic 

 of PERU, formerly Spanish. It contains about 524,000 square miles, 

 and 1,400,000 inhabitants. Its chief city is Lima. 



The republic of BOLIVIA, formerly Spanish, lies to the south of 

 Peru. It contains, perhaps, about 318,000 square miles, and 1,700,000 

 inhabitants. 



More to the southward is the republic of CHILI, formerly 

 Spanish, covering 144,000 square miles, and containing 1,200,000 

 inhabitants. 



The states of the ARGENTINE CONFEDERATION, formerly known as 

 the United Provinces of La Plata, lie between the two last-mentioned 

 states and the Atlantic Ocean. They comprise about 1,000,000 square 

 miles, and contain about 600,000 inhabitants, according to an 

 estimate made in 1848, though there is considerable diversity of 

 opinion as to the real amount. The chief town is Buenos Ayres. 



The Empire of BRAZIL, formerly a Portuguese possession, is the 

 principal South American state washed by the Atlantic. It contains 

 about 2,300,000 square miles, and 7,560,000 inhabitants. The metro- 

 polis is Rio-de-Janeiro. 



The republic of Banda Oriental, or Republics Oriental de I'URPOUAY, 

 lying immediately to the south of Brazil, has an area of about 120,000 

 square miles, and a population of 140,000. 



PARAGUAY, watered by the Paraguay, and lying south-west of 

 Brazil, comprises about 74,000 square miles, and 260,000 inhabi- 

 tants. 



It should be borne in mind by the reader that all these estim ato.-i 

 aa to the areas of such extensive countries are very uncertain. The 

 areas and populations here given are taken from the 'American 

 Almanac ' for 1853. 



Gv v ANA is a tract of country on the north-eastern coast, to the 

 north of the river Amazonas. It comprehends British ( ! > 

 French ' iuyana, or Cayenne, and Dutch Guyana, or Surinam. The 

 total ana is about 1,200,000 square miles, and the total population 

 2,000, 



PATAOOXIA is situated in the southern part of America, beyond the 

 46th degree of scrith latitude. The Strait of Magalhaens divides it 

 from the island of Terra del Fuego, which, like Patagonia, is inhabited 

 by native tribes, and is very little known. The area is estimated at 

 380,000 square miles, and the population at 120,000. 



The islands called the West Indies, situated between the two con- 

 tinents, in the Gulf of Mexico and the Columbian Archipelago, are 

 also included hi America. They consist of the Bahama Islands, the 

 Great Antilles, namely, Cuba, Jamaica, St. Domingo or Haiti, and 

 Porto-Rico ; the smaller Antilles, namely, Barbuda, Antigua, Guada- 

 loupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucie, Barbadoes, Granada, Tobago, 

 St. ( hristopher's, St. Vincent's, and Trinidad, besides a number of 

 smaller islands. The population of the islands is about as follows : 

 namely, of the British islands, 1,200,000 ; of the French, 260,000 ; of 

 the Spanish, 1,300,000 ; of the Danish, 46,700 ; of the Dutch, 26,000 ; 

 and of the Swedish, 18,000. They are described under their respective 

 names. The Empire of Haiti forms a part of the island of HISPANIOI.A, 

 which perhaps contains about 1,000,000 inhabitants. The Bermudas 

 form a separate group. 



Zoology of America. The southern portion of this vast continent 

 contains an animal population which is hi a great measure j 

 and among its mammals particularly offers a large variety of forms 

 and characters to which we find no corresponding types among the 

 productions of any other country. In North America the case is 

 different ; a great portion of it in placed under the same parallels, 

 and similar in soil and climate to the corresponding parts of Asia and 

 Knn.pe. It is not surprising, therefore, that it should likewise 

 resemble these continents in its zoological characters ; more espe- 

 cially when it is remembered that the opposite shores of Asia and 

 America approach within a short distance of one another at Behring's 

 Straits. All animals which are capable of enduring the rigour of 

 these high latitudes may probably pass from one continent to the 

 other, either by means of the ice, or by swimming to the different 

 islands interposed between the opposite shores. Thus, the common 

 bear, the wolf, the fox, the glutton, the badger, the sable, the ermine, 

 the beaver, the elk, and the rein-deer, are found equally in Sweden, 

 in Siberia, and in Northern America ; and if a few species, such as 

 the bison and musk-ox, appear to be more confined in their geographi- 

 cal range, it is most probably owing to particular circumstances ; at 

 all events, there is not perhaps a single natural genus to be found 

 north of 40 in one continent which does not equally exist in the 

 other two. 



Out of 1967 mammals which have been described and indicated by 

 zoologists, no fewer than 778 species are found in America ; whilst 

 Asia, the next richest portion of the earth in the variety of its mam- 

 mals, contains only 632; Africa, 446; Europe, 165; and Australia, 

 150. The following table exhibits the peculiar characters of American 

 mammalogy, the manner in which the different orders are distributed 

 with relation to this continent, and the relative proportion which the 

 number of American urs to the whole number in each 



order. Indigenous animals alone have been included ; the ox, horse, 

 and other domestic quadrupeds imported by the European colmiint*, 

 <!. not properly belong to American zoology. (Petennann and 

 Milner, 'Physical Atlas,' p. 127.) 



The peculiar and appropriate characters of American mammalogy 

 are distinctly shown by this table. Of the 778 species contained in 

 the second column, 69 only, or little more than one in 12, extend 

 into Northern Asia and Europe ; and if from these we deduct tho 

 30 cetacea and 16 species of seals comprised among the carnivora, 

 which all inhabit the Frozen Ocean, the common northern boundary 

 of these two continents and of America, it will be found that the land 

 animals common to all three are reduced to the small number 

 of 23, scarcely a single species of which extends to the south of the 

 Isthmus of Panama. The great majority of them, indeed, belong 

 to the carnivorous fur-bearing quadrupeds, to the chase of which we 

 are partly indebted for our geographical knowledge of the northern 

 parts of Asia and America. They include the common brown bear 

 and the polar bear ; the badger and glutton ; the dog, wolf, arctic 

 fox, and common fox, and two or three other species or varieties ; 

 two or three feline animals of the lynx kind ; the common weasel, 

 the ermine, the pine martin ; and the marine otter and river otter. 

 The Rodentia common to the Old and New Worlds include the beaver, 

 the common rat and mouse, the common squirrel, the varying or polar 

 hare, the zizel or souslic marmot, and the common water-rat ; and 

 among the two ruminating quadrupeds are the elk and reindeer. 



The mammalogy of the extensive continent of South America, at 

 least as far as we are at present acquainted with it, is altogether 

 peculiar. A very few species of Carnivora and Marsupialia indeed, 

 such as the couguar and opossum, extend into the southern parts of 

 the United States ; but the Quadrumana, Edentata, and Pachydennala, 

 without exception, and by far the greatest number of species belonging 

 to the other orders, have never passed the Isthmus of Panama, and are 

 consequently confined exclusively to South America. On the other 

 hand, few of the inhabitants of the Northern continent extend into 

 the Southern ; so that, in this respect, the two portions might almost 

 be viewed as distinct continents. In other respects it is to be observed, 

 and it is perhaps the most remarkable feature in American zoology that, 

 abstracting the Cetacea, which are aquatic animals, though five out of 

 the seven terrestrial orders have species common to this and other 

 continents, yet in three of these five the number of species are 

 respectively only one, two, and five; and in these three, with the 

 remaining two, the American species are exclusively confined to the 

 southern hemisphere. 



Among the Mexicans and Peruvians were found only the few 

 domestic animals which existed in America previous to the arrival of 

 Columbus ; they possessed only the llama and vicuna, or paco (Auchenia 

 llama and vicuna), and a small species of dog which they called alco, 

 and which is believed to have resembled the small naked variety at 

 present found in Barbary and the Levant. The llama and paco were 

 used as beasts of burden, and the long and thick fleece of the latter 

 furnished a rich fine wool, which was manufactured into cloth of a 

 beautiful texture ; the flesh of both species supplied an agreeable and 

 wholesome food. The horse, the ass, the ox, the sheep, the goat, and 

 the pig are all strangers to the New World. Its inhabitants, therefore, 

 in their progress to civilisation, deprived of the assistance of these 

 valuable domestics, had to contend with difficulties and to overcome 

 impediments which were utterly unknown to the more fortunate 

 Asiatic. Yet America is not destitute of herbivorous animals which 

 in a domestic state would have vastly contributed to increase the 

 power and resources of the native tribes. Of the thirty ruminating 

 animals indeed which are found in America, by far the greater 

 number belong to the deer kind, which are not well adapted for 

 domestic purposes. Still the Bison (Bos A mericanus), the Big-Honied 

 Sheep (fh'is montana), and the Rocky Mountain Goat (Copra Americana) 

 would have been most valuable domestic animals, and have materially 

 improved the condition of the natives. 



Since the establishment of the European colonies and the intro- 

 duction of the arts and agriculture of civilised life, the domestic 

 animals of the Old World have increased prodigiously in every part 

 of America. In many places they have even regained their pristine 

 state of savage freedom ; innumerable herds of wild oxen cover tho 

 rich llanos, pampas', or plains, of Brazil, Buenos Ayres, and Venezuela ; 

 and troops of horses, equally wild, are found in every part of the pampas 



