540 ZOOLOGY. 



628. Should he afterwards visit New Holland, still 

 everything will be new to him, and the aspect of this fauna 

 will appear to him still more strange than that of the various 

 zoological populations he had already passed in review. He 

 will then no longer find animals analogous to our oxen, 

 horses, hears, and to a great number of our large carnivora : 

 the quadrupeds of great stature will be found totally wanting, 

 and he will discover the kangaroo, the flying phalanger, and 

 the ornithorhynchus. 



629. Finally, if our traveller, in order to return to his 

 native country, should traverse the vast continent of America ; 

 he will discover there a fauna analogous to that of the Old 

 World, but composed almost entirely of different species : he 

 will there find apes with prehensile tails ; large carnivora, 

 sufficiently resembling our lions and tigers, bisons, lamas, 

 tatous ; finally, birds, reptiles, and insects, equally remark- 

 able, and equally new to him. 



630. Differences no less striking in the species of ani- 

 mals peculiar to different regions of the globe, are observable, 

 when, instead of confining our observation to the inhabitants 

 of the land, we examine the myriads of living beings which 

 live in the midst of the waters. In passing from the coast of 

 Europe into the Indian Ocean, and from this last into the 

 seas of America, we meet with fishes, molluscs, Crustacea, and 

 zoophytes peculiar to each of these parts of the sea. This 

 localization of species, whether aquatic or terrestrial, is so well 

 marked that a naturalist a little experienced cannot mistake 

 at the very first sight the origin of zoological collections made 

 in one or other of the great geographical divisions of the 

 globe which may be submitted to his examination. The fauna 

 of each of these divisions presents a peculiar aspect, and may 

 be easily characterized by the presence of certain species, more 

 or less remarkable. 



631. Naturalists have imagined several hypotheses to 

 explain this mode of distribution of animals on the surface of 

 the globe ; but in the actual state of science it is impossible 

 to give a satisfactory explanation, unless we admit that from 

 the beginning of the actual geological period the various 

 species have been distributed in the different regions, and that 

 by degrees they have afterwards spread to a distance, so as to 

 occupy a more or less considerable portion of the surface of 

 the globe. In the actual condition of the globe, it is impos- 

 sible for us to discover all the zoological focuses ; for one may 



