Link Relations of Southwestern Asia 265 



two faunal regions are joined as to this 

 species by a narrow bridge, where the 

 roe deer is found, across Asia Minor and 

 northern Persia; and where the roe deer 

 runs there has always been the dawn or 

 the full presence of organized law, of sta- 

 ble institutions and statecraft, whose ear- 

 liest game laws are often devoted to the 

 preservation of this creature of the chase. 

 The pheasant, another genus which con- 

 notes distinctly marked limits of rain- 

 fall, of climate, and of a certain produc- 

 tion of seed and insect, in like manner 

 stretches across this continental mass, in 

 another rude linked shape, two larger 

 masses lying east and west, whose con- 

 nections extend through the region 

 which we are considering, and whose 

 species enjoy a sufficiently similar en- 

 vironment to render it possible to trans- 

 plant the Chinese pheasant to the pre- 

 serves of England. Among the greater 

 carnivora, the dividing line between the 

 tiger and the lion runs across this re- 

 gion. The tiger represents the extreme 

 Asiatic type of the Felidae ; the lion, 

 the extreme African. The one has his 

 most powerful development in Uganda, 

 and the other in India. The lion ex- 

 tends to extreme tropical regions and be- 

 yond to the South Temperate Zone, and 

 the tiger to Siberia and the arctic cold 

 of the mountain regions in Manchuria. 

 The two meet and mingle across the 



valley of the Euphrates and the uplands 

 of Iranistan. Both at the point of junc- 

 ture are reduced to their lesser sizes and 

 are less dangerous to man than in their 

 centers of largest growth, and, it is 

 possible, of original development ; but 

 their common home exists only along 

 the uplands we are considering, though 

 it is difficult to give any reason whj^ the 

 lion should not have spread over Asia or 

 the tiger should not have pushed his way 

 into Arabia and so on into the African 

 jungle. Instead, the}^ meet without 

 penetrating farther, like their predatory 

 human congeners on each side of the 

 same line, the Arabian to the south and 

 the Turk or Tatar to the north. While 

 the line is less clearly drawn, there is 

 reason to believe that the ass and the 

 horse meet in the same region, the ass 

 representing an Arabian or Persian ori- 

 gin and the horse, in all probability, 

 harking back to the Asian plain. There 

 is some reason to think that varieties of 

 camel, Bactrian and Arabian, meet at 

 this point. It is only on the caravan 

 roads of Persia and extreme eastern 

 Turkey that one may from time to time 

 see the single hump, the light coat, the 

 somewhat more nimble form of the Ara- 

 bian camel, with the ruder outlines, the 

 woolly coat, and the bulkier though simi- 

 lar shape of the Bactrian representative 

 of the species. 



( To be concluded in the A^igust 7i?iJ?iber) 



