Provinces of the Animal World. 353 
The temperate zone is not characterized, like the arctic, by one 
and the same fauna; it does not form, as the arctic does, one con- 
tinuous zoological zone around the globe. Not only do the animals 
change from one hemisphere to another, but these differences exist 
even between various regions of the same hemisphere. The species 
belonging to the western countries of the old world are not identical 
with those of the eastern countries. It is true that they often re- 
semble each other so closely, that until very recently they have 
been confounded. It has been reserved, however, for modern zoology 
and botany to detect those nice distinctions. For instance, the co- 
niferze of the Old World, even within the subarctic zone, are not iden- 
tical with those of America. Instead of the Norway and black pine, 
we have here the balsam and the white spruce ; instead of the com- 
mon fir, the Pinus rigida ; instead of the European larch, the hac- 
matac, &c.; and further south the differences are still more striking. 
In the temperate zone proper, the oaks, the beeches, the birches, 
the hornbeams, the hop hornbeams, the chestnuts, the buttonwoods, 
the elms, the linden, the maples, and the walnuts, are represented 
in each continent by peculiar species differing more or less. Pecu- 
liar forms make here and there their appearance, such as the gum 
trees, the tulip trees, the magnolias. The evergreens are still more 
diversified. We need only mention the camellias of Japan, and the 
kalmias of America, as examples. Among the tropical forms ex- 
tending into the warm temperate zone, we notice particularly the 
palmetto in the southern United States, and the dwarf chameerops 
of Southern Europe. The animal kingdom presents the same fea- 
tures. In Europe we have, for instance, the brown bear, in North 
America the black bear, in Asia the bear of Thibet ; the European 
stag and the European deer are represented in North America by 
the Canadian stag or wapiti and the American deer ; and in Eastern 
Asia by the musk deer. Instead of the mouflon, North America 
has the rocky mountain sheep, and Asia the argali. The North 
American buffalo is represented in Europe by the wild auerochs of 
Lithuania, and in Mongolia by the yak; the wild cats, the martens, 
and weasels, the wolves and foxes, the squirrels and mice (excepting 
the imported house mouse), the birds, the reptiles, the fishes, the 
insects, the mollusks, &c., though more or less closely allied, are 
equally distinct specifically. The types peculiar to the Old or the New 
World are few. Among them may be mentioned the horse and ass, 
and the dromedary of Asia, and the opossum of North America. 
We would add, that in the present state of our knowledge we recog- 
nise the following combinations of animals within the limits of the 
temperate zone, which may be considered as so many distinct zoo- 
logical provinces or faune. 
In the Asiatie realm,—I1st, a north-eastern fauna, the Japanese 
fauna; 2d, a south-eastern fauna, the Chinese fauna, and a cen- 
tral fauna, the Mongolian fauna, followed westward by the Caspian 
VOL. LVII. NO. CXIV.— OCTOBER 1854. Z 
