58 ON THE GEOGRAPHY OP ANIMALS. 



(80.) The zoological productions of the New World, 

 ■when viewed in their typical exani]>leSj are as distinct 

 from those of the Old, as the animals of Australia are 

 from those of Africa or of Asia. There is also a curious 

 analogical resemblance between these two insular con- 

 tinents, deserving notice. The northern latitudes of 

 America present us with European and Asiatic ani- 

 mals ; and we can trace in the zoology of Australia, at 

 its northern limits, a manifest approximation to the 

 productions of Southern Africa. But to what zoological 

 province those of America and of Australia are united 

 at their southern extremities, is a question on which 

 we would not even hazard conjectures ; since the pro- 

 ductions of Western and Southern Australia, of Tierra 

 del Fuego, and of the Pacific Islands, may almost be 

 considered unknown. 



(81.) We shall consider the zoology of the New 

 World under three heads, as more calculated to convey 

 distinct ideas of the productions of such an immense and 

 diversified region. The first may be denominated the 

 Arctic or northern ; the second, the temperate or inter- 

 mediate ; and the third, the Southern or tropical : a 

 fourth might be made to embrace the regions towards 

 Cape Horn ; but of the productions of these un- 

 frequented parts we are at present almost ignorant. 



(82.) The Arctic or northern division includes those 

 icy regions commencing at the shores of the Frozen 

 Ocean, and extending between the 50th and 60th de- 

 grees of north latitude. This demarcation, however, is 

 more conjectural than positive, for we are yet without 

 that precise information which will point out the southern 

 limits of the more northern quadrupeds. For it is natural 

 to conclude, that, whatever zoological peculiarities be- 

 longed to Arctic America, they would be developed within 

 that range, and beyond the northern countries annually 

 visited by the migratory or summer birds of the United 

 States. Many of these are well known to breed in Ca- 

 nada ; and by the more recent researches of Dr. Richard- 

 son, in higher latitudes, we find that several of these land 



