GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 193 
of mountains, running in various directions, arise from it, and 
contain the sources of the great rivers which traverse this division 
of the globe on all sides ; the Selinga, the Ob, the Lenci, the 
Irtisch, and the Jenisey, in the north ; the Jaik, the Jihon, the 
Jemba, on the west; the Amur and the Hoang-ho (or yellow 
river), towards the east; the Indus, Ganges, and Burrampootea, 
on the south. If the globe was ever covered with water, this 
great table-land must ha*ve first become dry, and have appeared 
like an island in the watery expanse. 
The cold and barren desert of Gobi would not, indeed, have 
been a suitable abode for the first people ; but on its southern 
declivity we find Thibet, separated by high mountains from the 
rest of the world, and containing within its boundaries all 
varieties of air and climate. If the severest cold prevails on its 
snowy mountains, a perpetual summer reigns in its valleys and 
well-watered plains. This is the native abode of rice, the vine, 
pulse, fruit, and all other vegetable productions from which man 
draws his nourishment. Here, too, all the animals are found 
wild which man has tamed for his use, and carried with him over 
the whole globe—the cow, the horse, ass, sheep, goat, camel, pig, 
dog, cat, &c., &c. 
Close to Thibet, and just on the declivity of the great central 
elevation, we find the charming region of Cashmere, where great 
elevation converts the southern heat into perpetual spring, and 
where nature has exerted all her powers to produce plants, animals, 
and man, in the highest perfection. No spot on the whole earth 
unites so many advantages; in none could the human plant have 
succeeded so well without care. 
It has always been a favourite conjecture, that the birth-place 
of man was situated in some such situation as I have described, 
where perpetual summer reigns, and where fruits, herbs, and 
roots are plentifully supplied throughout the year. 
‘‘A happy rural seat of various views; 
Groves whose rich trees wept odorous ffuins and halm ; 
Others whose fruit, burnish’d with golden rind. 
Hung amiable, Hesperian fables true. 
If true, here only, and of delicious taste; 
Between them lawns, or level downs, and flocks 
Grazing the tender herb, were interpos’d ; 
Or palmy hillock ; or the flow’ry lap 
Of some irriguous valley spread her store. 
Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose.” 
The climate of those regions, it has been said, is suited to a 
being born without any covering, and who had not yet acquired 
the arts of building habitations or providing clothes. However, in 
progress of time, as the land became over-peopled, men naturally 
VOL. XI. D d 
