356 Louis Agassiz on the Natural 
of Iran; 6. The Syrian fauna; 7. The Egyptian fauna ; and 
8. The fauna of the Atlas. The special works upon the zoology of 
Europe, the great works illustrative of the French expeditions in 
Egypt, Morocco, and Algiers, the travels of Riipell and Russeger in 
Egypt and Syria, of M. Wagner in Algiers, of Demidoff in South- 
ern Russia, We. &c., and the special treatises on the geographical 
distr pation of mammalia by A. Wagner, and of animals in general 
by Schmarda, may furnish more details upon the adology of these 
countries, 
Here, again, it cannot escape the attention of the careful observer, 
that the European zoological realm is circumscribed within exactly: 
the same limits as the so-called white race of man, including as it 
does, the inhabitants of South-western Asia, and of North Africa, 
with the lower parts of the valley of the Nile. We exclude, of 
course, modern migrations and historical changes of habitation from 
this assertion. Our statements are to be understood as referring 
only to the aboriginal or ante-historical distribution of man, or 
rather to the distribution as history finds it; and in this respect 
there is a singular fact, which historians seem not to have sufficiently 
appreciated, that the earliest migrations recorded in any form, show 
us man meeting man wherever he moves upon the habitable sur- 
face of the globe, small islands excepted. 
It is, farther, very striking, that the different subdivisions of this 
race, even to the limits of alistinte nationalities, cover precisely the 
same ground as the special faunze or zoological provinces of this most 
important part of the world, which in all ages has been the seat of 
the most advanced civilization. In the south-west of Asia we find 
(along the table-land of Iran) Persia and Asia Minor; in the plains 
southward, Mesopotamia and Syria ; along the sea-shores, Palestine 
and Pheenicia; in the valley of the Nile, Egypt; and along the 
northern shores of Africa, Barbary. Thus we have Semitic na- 
tions covering the north African and south-west Asiatic faune, 
while the south European peninsulas, including Asia Minor, are in- 
habited by Greeco-Roman nations, and the cold, temperate zone, by 
Celto-Germanic nations; the eastern range of Europe being peopled 
by Sclaves. This coincidence may justify the inference of an inde- 
pendent origin for these different tribes, as soon as it can be admit- 
ted that the races of men were primitively created in nations ; the 
more so, since all of them claim to have been autochthones of the 
countries they inhabit. This claim is so universal that it well de- 
serves more attention. It may be more deeply founded than his- 
torians generally seem inclined to grant. The columns of our table 
exhibit the animals characteristic of the temperate part of the 
European zoological realm, and show their close resemblance to 
those of the corresponding Asiatic fauna; the species being repre- 
sentative species of the same genera, with the exception of the musk 
deer, which has no analogues in Europe. Though temperate America 
