21J: ZOOLOGY. 



The physical geography of Abyssinia has already been 

 briefly described in the commencement of the geological 

 portion of this work. It is only necessary to refer to it 

 here in order to point out that a large portion of the 

 country consists of plateaux 7,000 to 10,000 feet above 

 the sea, and that from amongst these a few peaks and 

 ranges rise to 12,000 and even 15,000 feet, whilst many 

 of the valleys, even where they intersect lofty plateaux, 

 are cut to so great a depth that at the bottom they do 

 not exceed 4,000 or 5,000 feet above the sea. As may 

 be readily supposed, there is a great difference in the 

 animals and plants inhabiting these different elevations, 

 and the distinction has attracted far less attention 

 amongst naturalists than it deserves. 



My own observations were naturally imperfect. It 

 not unfrequently happens that an animal, which from 

 peculiarities of soil and climate is constant to one eleva- 

 tion in one region, ranges higher or lower in others ; and 

 this I found to be the case in several instances. Had my 

 explorations extended over a larger portion of Abyssinia, 

 I might doubtless have corrected my first impressions in a 

 stOl larger number of instances. Von Heuglin in his later 

 papers generally gives the range in elevation of each 

 species, and in many cases his observations show that 

 range to be greater than appeared to me to be the case 

 in the much more limited area which fell under my 

 examination. 



Nevertheless, I think that the animals inhabiting 

 Abyssinia may very fairly be classed according to the 

 elevations at which they occur. I am disposed to 



