TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 
67 
was no trace whatever of a colony on the east coast from its southern¬ 
most extremity to lat. 65° 30', has completely established the correct¬ 
ness of the opinion of Eggers that the CEsterbygd, or eastern settle¬ 
ment, was situated on the south-west coast, in what is now Juliane- 
shaab’s District; and that it received its name merely from the fact 
of its being to the east of the other settlement, the Vesterbygd. 
ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 
On the Principles of Classification in the Animal Kingdom in ge¬ 
neral, and among the Mammalia in particular. By Professor 
Agassiz. 
Although the principal groups of animals are impressed with 
such characters as to be easily recognised and to admit of little 
doubt, yet their order and succession have been determined by no 
general principle. This appears from the discrepancy in the posi¬ 
tion assigned to them by the most eminent systematists, each of 
whom has assumed arbitrarily some organ or system of organs for 
the basis of his arrangement. Professor Agassiz, after adverting to 
some German naturalists who alone have sought after a general 
principle which should be satisfactory to “ philosophic natural¬ 
ists,” passed in review the classes of the animal kingdom, each 
of which, he stated, exhibited in an eminent degree the develop¬ 
ment of some one of the animal functions. While Vertebrate ani¬ 
mals (with Man their type) arrive at the greatest perfection in 
the organs of the Senses, the Invertebrate offer in the class of 
'Worms the representative of the system of Nutrition, in Crustacea 
of Circulation, in Insects of Respiration, and in Mollusca of Genera¬ 
tion. The Professor next proceeded to demonstrate in what man¬ 
ner each subclass of vertebrate animals derives its peculiar charac¬ 
ter from some one element of the animal ceeonomy. 
This predominant element is the bony skeleton in Fishes, the mus¬ 
cular structure in Reptiles, the sensibility of the nervous system in 
Birds, and the perfection of the senses in Mammalia , which there¬ 
fore reproduced the distinguishing character and constitute the type 
of vertebrate animals. He next showed that each of the other sub¬ 
classes of the higher group is represented among the Mammalia 
along with its own peculiar type. He explained his reason for the 
fourfold division which he had adopted in the subclass, pointing out 
the close affinity which connects the Ruminantia , the Pachyder- 
matci , the Rodentia, the Edentata , and the herbivorous Marsupialia , 
(in none of which is the true canine tooth developed,) which he con¬ 
siders as forming a single group; in another he unites those cha¬ 
racterized by the presence of the canine tooth in its proper function 
(as an instrument of nutrition, not merely of defence), viz. the 
Carnivora and those Marsupialia which partake of their character, 
and the Qtiaclrumana. The Cetacea form a group in themselves; 
