268 Scientific Reviews. 
natural productions of these little frequented regions. The obser- 
vations on the pendulum, on magnetism, on solar radiation, on op- 
tics, and on meteorology, were fraught with the greatest interest, 
and productive of some most satisfactory results. The territory of 
the British American fur countries, is artificially divided into the 
rocky mountains, the barren grounds, the eastern district, the 
limestone tract, and the prairie land, and the lists now furnished 
of the quadrupeds found in each, present a most valuable table of 
their geographical distribution, and form a clue to the observations 
on that most difficult of all questions in zoological science, the dis- 
crimination between species, and mere varieties produced by diffe- 
rence in climate and in food. The specific differences of all ani- 
mals, however closely they may resemble, which, as inhabitants of 
the great continents of the world, are separated by intervening 
oceans, is established beyond any doubt, and the newly acquired 
information on the former habits and manners of the animals of 
North America, has thrown much light on the history of the same 
animals in other countries,—of the bears, the shrews, the wolve- 
rene, the beaver, which Mr. Murray calls an amphibia, of the fur- 
bearing animals, of the wolves, squirrels, and deer. The study of 
the vegetation of the northern regions, has led to the most interest- 
ing results, and established some striking facts in the physical dis- 
tribution of plants, and not among the least curious, stands the 
comparison of the vegetation of the Pic de Midi (Pyrenees) and that 
of Melville Island. In summing up his account of these voyages, 
Mr. Murray states the result of the first expedition to have been 
quite decisive as to the hope of any regular passage being found 
by any of the channels in the northern parts of Hudson’s Bay. 
We have no right to condemn an opinion without proving the con- 
trary, which our space will not allow us to do at the present mo- 
ment ; but we would ask, whether there are any facts developed 
by the attempts of that gallant band of adventurers that would lead 
to such a conclusion ; or whether, after the failure of the last expe- 
dition, it became a general opinion that success was impossible ? 
Notwithstanding that we have gone so far, the most important 
part of the work lies before us,—we allude to the account of the 
United States; and while it is pretty well known, that in consi- 
dering the social and political condition of the inhabitants, a line | 
may be drawn between the apologies of a “ Travelling Bachelor,” 
or the too rapid generalizations of Captain Basil Hall, yet in re- 
gard to physical geography, we can only draw from those sources 
of information, whether derived from observation, or from the 
study of other men’s works, that may lead to the best delineation 
of the characters of a country. From the eastern crest of the 
Alleghany there is a succession of geological zones, including a 
primitive, transition, secondary, and alluvial, this latter divided 
in two bands of different elevation and character. But the a 
is better characterized by its vegetation,from which Michaux divide 
it into four regions,—the region of the evergreens of Canada; of the 
