1538 THE STORY OF THE UNIVERSE 



of the warm latitudes, and not more so by the high 

 temperature which such latitudes alone enjoy than 

 by the limitation of its necessary food to the regions 

 which are its proper home. Nowhere else but with- 

 in or near the tropics is there found the luxuriant 

 abundance of forest vegetation which the elephant 

 requires to make sustenance upon. The reindeer, on 

 the other hand, is as characteristically an inhabitant 

 of polar latitudes, and perishes if brought within the 

 continued influence of a warmer temperature than 

 that of his native region. The ibex and the chamois, 

 with some other animals of the goat tribe, frequent 

 only the highest and least accessible portions of the 

 mountain region, while various members of the deer 

 kind range over the lower elevations and the plains 

 below. Of birds, the condor, or great vulture of the 

 Andes, confines his range within the region of the 

 highest peaks of the mountain region, as his European 

 congener the lammer-geyer, or vulture of the Alps 

 does in another part of the globe. In the moun- 

 tainous portions of Great Britain, the eagles which 

 (notwithstanding the keen pursuit of the sportsman) 

 frequent the scarcely accessible crags that surround 

 Loch Maree and other secluded localities of the 

 Highlands, furnish a similar instance. Again, the 

 shark is the well-known scourge of the warmer belt 

 of ocean, while the same zone of sea constitutes 

 from its high temperature a region through which 

 the whale never passes. 



It is, besides, equally true of the animal as of the 

 vegetable kingdom, that every region of the globe has 

 its own proper inhabitants, different in species, for 



