296 Mr Petermann's Notes on the Distribution of 



opinions : some maintaining the existing of animals in the 

 Arctic regions in great numbers, affording abundance of food 

 to man ; others as stoutly insisting upon the extreme scar- 

 city, if not total absence, of them. 



On entering, however, into an analysis of all that has been 

 said and written on this point, it appears that a too confined 

 view has been generally taken of the subject. Individual 

 observations in certain localities have been separately con- 

 sidered and reasoned upon for the entire region, and these 

 localities only related to a comparatively small space on the 

 American side, the whole Asiatic side of the Polar basin not 

 being taken into account at all. Again, it has been com- 

 monly assumed that with ascending latitudes temperature 

 descended, and animal and vegetable life decreased, attain- 

 ing their minima at the Pole. Nothing could be more falla- 

 cious than such an hypothesis in a region where the tempera- 

 ture corresponds less with latitude than in any other part 

 of the globe. When, therefore, the shores and waters of 

 Wellington Channel were found to be " teeming with animal 

 life,'' it was regarded as a wonderful fact that more animals 

 should be found in that region than in those to the south of 

 it ; whereas this fact would seem to find an explanation 

 when connected with other physical features. Indeed, the 

 consideration of isolated facts alone can lead to no correct 

 result ; and it is only when the various natural features are 

 compared and considered in their relative bearing, that the 

 laws which govern nature can be traced and discovered. It 

 is in this manner only that Physical Geography becomes a 

 really useful and practical science. 



In the following outline it is attempted to take a compre- 

 hensive, though rapid, glance of the distribution of animals 

 within the Arctic regions generally, and to inquire into the 

 causes of certain apparent abnormities. 



I will, in the first place, proceed to indicate the regions to 

 which these remarks refer; those, namely, which comprise 

 the Arctic fauna. On this point I have adopted narrower 

 limits than other authors, inasmuch as I have taken the 

 northern limit of woods as the southern boundary of the 

 region under consideration. It is true that some Arctic ani- 



