Oct. 1833. 



ZOOLOGICAL PROVINCES. 



151 



remains brought home by Captain Beechey from the west 

 coast of the same continent^ in the frozen region of 66"^ 

 north, Dr. Buckland* has described the astragalus meta- 

 carpus, and metatarsus of the horse, which were associated 

 with the remains of the Elephas primigenius, and of the 

 fossil ox. Thus we have an elephant, an ox, and a horse 

 (the species of the latter is only presumed to be identical), 

 common to Europe and to North America. 



Very few species of hving quadrupeds,t v/hich are altogether 

 terrestrial in their habits, are common to the two continents, 

 and these few are chiefly confined to the extreme frozen regions 

 of the north. The separation, therefore, of the Asiatic and 

 American zoological provinces appears formerly to have been 

 less perfect than at present. The remains of the elephant and 

 of the ox have been found on the banks of the Anadir (long. 

 175° E.), on the extreme part of Siberia, nearest the 

 American coast : and the former remains, according to Cha- 

 misso, are common in the peninsula of Kamtschatka. On the 

 opposite shores, likewise, of the narrow strait which divides 

 these two great continents, we know, from the discoveries of 

 Kotzebue and Beechey, that the remains of both animals 

 occur abundantly: and as Dr, Buckland has shown they are 

 associated with the bones of the horse, the teeth of which 

 animal in Europe, according to Cuvier, accompany by thou- 

 sands the remains of the pachydermata of the later periods. 

 With these facts, we may safely look at this quarter, as 

 the line of communication (now interrupted by the steady 

 progress of geological change) by which the elephant, the 

 ox, and the horse, entered America, and peopled its wide 

 extent.f 



* See the admirable Appendix to Beech ey's Voyage, p. 592 (quarto 

 edition). 



f See Dr. Richardson's very interesting Report on North American 

 Zoology for the British Association of 1836, 



J I do not here mean to fix on the more northern parts of the old 

 world as the parent country of these two animals. I only want to 

 point out the channel of communication — not the course of the stream-— 



