12 



A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



tribution of the carp family would afford many other 

 striking examples, but they are too numerous and too little 

 known to be used as an illustration here. 



" This is among the most remarkable instances of what 

 1 would call the arbitrary character of geographical dis- 

 tribution. Such facts cannot be explained by any theory 

 of accidental dispersion, for the upper mountain rivulets, 

 in which these great rivers take their rise, have no con- 

 nection with each other ; nor can any local circumstance 

 explain the presence of some species in all the three basins, 

 while others appear only in one, or perhaps in two, and are 

 absent from the third, or the fact that certain species 

 inhabiting the head-waters of these streams are never found 

 in their lower course when the descent would seem so 

 natural and so easy. In the absence of any positive ex- 

 planation, we are left to assume that the distribution of ani- 

 mal life has primary laws as definite and precise as those 

 which govern anything else in the system of the universe. 



"It is for the sake of investigations of this kind that 

 I wish our party to divide, in order that we may cover as 

 wide a ground as possible, and compare a greater number 

 of the water-basins of Brazil. I wish the same to be done, 

 as far as may be, for all the classes of Vertebrates, as 

 well as for MoUusks, Articulates, and Radiates. As we 

 have no special botanist in the party, we must be content 

 to make a methodical collection of the most characteristic 

 families of trees, such as the palms and tree ferns. A col- 

 lection of the stems of these trees would be especially 

 important as a guide to the identification of fossil woods. 

 Much more is known of the geographical distribution of 

 plants than of animals, however, and there is, therefore^, 

 less to be done that is new in that direction. 



