NORTHERN ASIA. QUADRUPEDS. 45 



and the -eastern shores of the Caspian ; while to the 

 southj the stupendous Himalayan mountains seem to 

 form a natural boundary to this intermediate region. 

 The third division comprehends the remaining portion 

 of the continent^ together with Java^ Sumatra, SiC, and 

 such islands as lie to the westward of New Guinea. 

 We thus exclude the whole of Asia Minor, and the 

 regions immediately around Caucasus, because they ex- 

 hibit a zoology of no determinate character, further than 

 as they present a union of the European, Asiatic^ and 

 African ; thus concentrating much of the typical cha- 

 racters of the whole. The same observation, in a more 

 limited sense, may be extended to Persia ; but there the 

 African forms almost entirely disappear, and leave only 

 the European and the Asiatic — the latter evidently 

 preponderating. 



(62.) The first, or northern Asiatic range, exhibits 

 few peculiarities : the genera of quadrupeds, for the 

 most part, assimilate to those of Europe and the North 

 Pole, but few of the species occur on the western side 

 of the Ural mountains. The sandy and desert steppes 

 of Siberia afford but little nourishment to large animals, 

 but are sufficient to support many of the Glires family : 

 hence the chief quadrupeds enumerated by travellers as 

 natives, are nearly all referred to the field mice {Ar- 

 vicola), lemmings (^Georynchus^ , rats {Mus), and 

 hamsters {Cricetus). These generic groups, for the 

 most part, are restricted to the cold or temperate lati- 

 tudes of Europe, Asia, and America. The field mice 

 (^Arvicold) and the true mice {Mus) occur also in 

 Africa. These gnawing animals, however, have a very 

 wide distribution, and have obviously been intended by 

 nature to inhabit climates subject to the severities of 

 winter. The instinct by which they are impelled to 

 hoard up large quantities of provisions against the season 

 of scarcity ; the length, intricacy, and warmth of their 

 subterraneous abodes ; their food, of dried grass, seeds, 

 or nuts, in winter, and of green or fresh vegetables in 

 summer ; are ail proofs to this effect. We accordingly 



