14 ZOOLOGY OF INDIA. 



the vicinity of the Pole itself to the Arctic circle. But ^s 

 we proceed sovithwards, these and many more inhabitants 

 of the colder climates disappear, and their places are occu- 

 pied by others which, however extended may be in some 

 instances their latitudinal distribution, are yet much more 

 restricted in the amount of meridians through which they 

 pass than are those to which we have just alluded. Thus, 

 of the numerous feline animals which inhabit Asia, the lion 

 alone extends the " reign of terror" to the corresponding 

 parallels of the African continent, while the wolverene 

 of the north prowls alike over the snows of Europe, Asia, 

 and America. 



It is probable, however, that most of those species which 

 have their centre of dominion in temperate countries are 

 capable of enduring the most widely extended geographical 

 distribution. This may be illustrated even by the different 

 varieties of the human race. A native of Britain braves 

 alike the most fiery breath of the torrid zone and the frozen 

 climates of Greenland ; but an Esquimax would perish on 

 the shores of the Congo ; and a negro, although better 

 supplied than were the Russian sailors under similar 

 circumstances, would barely survive a winter amid the 

 desolate snows of Spitzbergen. Most of those animals 

 which we have domesticated, and carried along with us in 

 our almost universal migrations, such as the horse, sheep, 

 and goat, have their origin in the temperate countries of 

 higher Asia, among the mountains and elevated plains 

 of which their originals arc still to be traced. It is no 

 doubt ovvincr to the physical conditions of clime and country 

 that these and certain other species have been enabled to 

 follow their masters, and to breed and prosper under almost 

 every variety of climate. On the other hand, had they been 

 native to an equatorial region, they would have been com- 

 paratively of little service in the northern parts of Europe 

 or America ; or had they been naturally confined to the 

 vicinity of the Arctic circle, their value would have suffered 

 a corresponding diminution in relation to the inhabitants 

 of intra -tropical climes. It is thus, by an admirable law 

 of Divine benevolence, that all those animals, from the 

 domestication and culture of which the most widely spread 

 and essential advantage was capable of resulting to the 

 human race, have been created and retained the natural 



