EXCURSIONS AND EXAMINATIONS 245 



(6) Extinct means that they have gone away, but may become active 

 again. Some of the causes that they have become extinct are that they 

 have been caged up, etc. The animals that have become extinct since 

 the appearance of man are the jaguars. 



Many other answers showed a similar absence of knowledge 

 upon this most interesting branch of natural history, and one 

 which may be made easily intelligible even to children. 



The equally simple and interesting question as to what 

 geographical range of animals or plants means, is thus 

 answered : — 



(1) What is meant by geographical range is, that they are arranged 

 according to their shape and size. 



(2) The geographical range of a species of animal or plant is that 

 part of a country in which no species of animal or plant will live, only 

 the species which first originated there. 



In 1882 we had a question analogous to that so badly 

 answered in 1873 : " What is the cause of the long days and 

 nights of the Polar regions ? ' ' and the answers showed little 

 improvement in the teaching. Here are a few of them : — 



(1) The reason why they have long days and nights is because at 

 the poles they have only six hours sun, and the sun does not rise at 6 

 o'clock a.m. at the poles as it does here, but does not rise till nine and 

 ten o'clock a.m. 



(2) Because the sun only visits the polar regions a particular part of 

 the year. When the sun is gone the day only lasts a few hours. 



(3) The poles being so far from the equator. That is, it takes the 

 light a certain time to travel that distance. 



(4) At the N. Pole the Aurora Borealis ; at the South Pole the 

 South Australis sheds its light upon the polar regions, the long nights 

 are owing to the Aurora disappearing. Long days may be also owing 

 to the Colures ; long nights to the moon not affecting the Polar regions. 



(5) In summer Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, being the bulk of 

 the land of the world, require a great deal of heat from the sun. Again, 

 when it is winter in Europe, etc., it is summer in Australia. Now 

 Australia being a very small part of the earth it will not require as 

 much heat as the other continents did. Consequently more heat can be 

 given by the sun to the Polar regions than in our summer. 



(6) The cause of the long days is due to the slowness with which the 

 moon sets, or, more correctly, the long nights, and when the moon does 

 set it remains a long time forming the long days. 



