Tropical nature, and other essays

by Alfred Russel Wallace

RISE AND PROGRESS OF MODERN VIEWS AS TO THE ANTIQUITY AND ORIGIN OF MAN.

I now come to a branch of our subject which I would gladly have avoided touching on; but as the higher powers of the British Association have decreed that I should preside over the Anthropological Department, it seems proper that I should devote some portion of my address to matters more immediately connected with the special study to which that Department is devoted.

As my own knowledge of and interest in Anthropology is confined to the great outlines rather than to the special details of the science, I propose to give a very brief and general sketch of the modern doctrine as to the Antiquity and Origin of Man, and to suggest certain points of difficulty which have not, I think, yet received sufficient attention.

Many now living remember the time (for it is little more than twenty years ago) when the antiquity of man, as now understood, was universally discredited. Not only theologians, but even geologists then taught us, that man belonged altogether to the existing state of things; that the extinct animals of the Tertiary period had finally disappeared, and that the earth’s surface had assumed its present condition before the human race first came into existence. So prepossessed were even scientific men with this idea—which yet rested on purely negative evidence, and could not be supported by any arguments of scientific value—that numerous facts which had been presented at intervals for half a century, all tending to prove the existence of man at very remote epochs, were silently ignored; and, more than this, the detailed statements of three distinct and careful observers confirming each other, were rejected by a great scientific Society as too improbable for publication, only because they proved (if they were true) the coexistence of man with extinct animals.[54]

[54] In 1854 (?) a communication from the Torquay Natural-History Society confirming previous accounts by Mr. Godwin-Austen, Mr. Vivian, and the Rev. Mr. M‘Enery, that worked flints occurred in Kent’s Hole with remains of extinct species, was rejected as too improbable for publication.

But this state of belief in opposition to facts, could not long continue. In 1859 a few of our most eminent geologists examined for themselves into the alleged occurrence of flint implements in the gravels of the north of France, which had been made public fourteen years before, and found them strictly correct. The caverns of Devonshire were about the same time carefully examined by equally eminent observers, and were found fully to bear out the statements of those who had published their results eighteen years before. Flint implements began to be found in all suitable localities in the south of England, when carefully searched for, often in gravels of equal antiquity with those of France. Caverns giving evidence of human occupation at various remote periods were explored in Belgium and the south of France—lake-dwellings were examined in Switzerland—refuse-heaps in Denmark—and thus a whole series of remains have been discovered carrying back the history of mankind from the earliest historic periods to a long distant past.

The antiquity of the races thus discovered cannot be measured in years; but it may be approximately determined by the successively earlier and earlier stages of civilization through which we can trace them, and by the changes in physical geography and of animal and vegetable life that have since occurred. As we go back metals soon disappear, and we find only tools and weapons of stone and of bone. The stone weapons get ruder and ruder; pottery, and then the bone implements, cease to occur; and in the earliest stage we find only chipped flints of rude design, though still of unmistakably human workmanship. In like manner domestic animals disappear as we go backward; and though the dog seems to have been the earliest, it is doubtful whether the makers of the ruder flint implements of the gravels possessed even this. Still more important as a measure of time are the changes in the distribution of animals, indicating changes of climate, which have occurred during the human period. At a comparatively recent epoch in the record of prehistoric times we find that the Baltic was far salter than it is now and produced abundance of oysters, and that Denmark was covered with pine forests inhabited by Capercailzies, such as now only occur further north in Norway. A little earlier we find that reindeer were common even in the south of France; and still earlier this animal was accompanied by the mammoth and woolly rhinoceros, by the arctic glutton, and by huge bears and lions of extinct species. The presence of such animals implies a change of climate; and both in the caves and gravels we find proofs of a much colder climate than now prevails in Western Europe. Even more remarkable are the changes of the earth’s surface which have been effected during man’s occupation of it. Many extensive valleys in England and France are believed by the best observers to have been deepened at least a hundred feet; caverns now far out of the reach of any stream must for a long succession of years have had streams flowing through them, at least in times of floods; and this often implies that vast masses of solid rock have since been worn away. In Sardinia land has risen at least 300 feet since men lived there who made pottery and probably used fishing-nets;[55] while in Kent’s Cavern remains of man are found buried beneath two separate beds of stalagmite, each having a distinct texture, and each covering a deposit of cave-earth having well-marked differential characters, while each contains a distinct assemblage of extinct animals.

[55] Lyell’s Antiquity of Man, fourth edition, p. 115.

Such, briefly, are the results of the evidence that has been rapidly accumulating for about fifteen years, as to the antiquity of man; and it has been confirmed by so many discoveries of a like nature in all parts of the globe, and especially by the comparison of the tools and weapons of prehistoric man with those of modern savages (so that the use of even the rudest flint implements has become quite intelligible), that we can hardly wonder at the vast revolution effected in public opinion. Not only is the belief in man’s vast and still unknown antiquity universal among men of science, but it is hardly disputed by any well-informed theologian; and the present generation of science-students must, we should think, be somewhat puzzled to understand what there was in the earliest discoveries that should have aroused such general opposition, and been met with such universal incredulity.

But the question of the mere “Antiquity of Man” almost sank into insignificance at a very early period of the inquiry, in comparison with the far more momentous and more exciting problem of the development of man from some lower animal form, which the theories of Mr. Darwin and of Mr. Herbert Spencer soon showed to be inseparably bound up with it. This has been, and to some extent still is, the subject of fierce conflict; but the controversy as to the fact of such development is now almost at an end, since one of the most talented representatives of Catholic theology, and an anatomist of high standing—Professor Mivart—fully adopts it as regards physical structure, reserving his opposition for those parts of the theory which would deduce man’s whole intellectual and moral nature from the same source and by a similar mode of development.

Never, perhaps, in the whole history of science or philosophy has so great a revolution in thought and opinion been effected as in the twelve years from 1859 to 1871, the respective dates of publication of Mr. Darwin’s Origin of Species and Descent of Man. Up to the commencement of this period the belief in the independent creation or origin of the species of animals and plants, and the very recent appearance of man upon the earth, were, practically, universal. Long before the end of it these two beliefs had utterly disappeared, not only in the scientific world, but almost equally so among the literary and educated classes generally. The belief in the independent origin of man held its ground somewhat longer; but the publication of Mr. Darwin’s great work gave even that its death-blow, for hardly any one capable of judging of the evidence now doubts the derivative nature of man’s bodily structure as a whole, although many believe that his mind, and even some of his physical characteristics, may be due to the action of other forces than have acted in the case of the lower animals.

We need hardly be surprised, under these circumstances, if there has been a tendency among men of science to pass from one extreme to the other; from a profession (so few years ago) of total ignorance as to the mode of origin of all living things, to a claim to almost complete knowledge of the whole progress of the universe, from the first speck of living protoplasm up to the highest development of the human intellect. Yet this is really what we have seen in the last sixteen years. Formerly difficulties were exaggerated, and it was asserted that we had not sufficient knowledge to venture on any generalizations on the subject. Now difficulties are set aside, and it is held that our theories are so well established and so far-reaching, that they explain and comprehend all nature. It is not long ago (as I have already reminded you) since facts were contemptuously ignored, because they favoured our now popular views; at the present day it seems to me that facts which oppose them hardly receive due consideration. And as opposition is the best incentive to progress, and it is not well even for the best theories to have it all their own way, I propose to direct your attention to a few such facts, and to the conclusions that seem fairly deducible from them.

Indications of Man’s Extreme Antiquity.—It is a curious circumstance that, notwithstanding the attention that has been directed to the subject in every part of the world, and the numerous excavations connected with railways and mines which have offered such facilities for geological discovery, no advance whatever has been made for a considerable number of years in detecting the time or mode of man’s origin. The Palæolithic flint weapons first discovered in the North of France more than thirty years ago, are still the oldest undisputed proofs of man’s existence; and amid the countless relics of a former world that have been brought to light, no evidence of any one of the links that must have connected man with the lower animals has yet appeared.

It is, indeed, well known that negative evidence in geology is of very slender value; and this is, no doubt, generally the case. The circumstances here are, however, peculiar, for many converging lines of evidence show that, on the theory of development by the same laws which have determined the development of the lower animals, man must be immensely older than any traces of him yet discovered. As this is a point of great interest we must devote a few moments to its consideration.

1. The most important difference between man and such of the lower animals as most nearly approach him is undoubtedly in the bulk and development of his brain, as indicated by the form and capacity of the cranium. We should therefore anticipate that these earliest races, who were contemporary with the extinct animals and used rude stone weapons, would show a marked deficiency in this respect. Yet the oldest known crania (those of the Engis and Cro-Magnon caves) show no marks of degradation. The former does not present so low a type as that of most existing savages, but is (to use the words of Prof. Huxley) “a fair average human skull, which might have belonged to a philosopher, or might have contained the thoughtless brains of a savage.” The latter are still more remarkable, being unusually large and well formed. Dr. Pruner-Bey states that they surpass the average of modern European skulls in capacity, while their symmetrical form without any trace of prognathism, compares favourably not only with those of the foremost savage races, but with many civilised nations of modern times.

One or two other crania of much lower type, but of less antiquity than this, have been discovered; but they in no way invalidate the conclusion which so highly developed a form at so early a period implies, viz., that we have as yet made a hardly perceptible step towards the discovery of any earlier stage in the development of man.

2. This conclusion is supported and enforced by the nature of many of the works of art found even in the oldest cave-dwellings. The flints are of the old chipped type, but they are formed into a large variety of tools and weapons—such as scrapers, awls, hammers, saws, lances, &c., implying a variety of purposes for which these were used, and a corresponding degree of mental activity and civilization. Numerous articles of bone have also been found, including well-formed needles; implying that skins were sewn together, and perhaps even textile materials woven into cloth. Still more important are the numerous carvings and drawings representing a variety of animals, including horses, reindeer, and even a mammoth, executed with considerable skill on bone, reindeer-horns, and mammoth-tusks. These, taken together, indicate a state of civilization much higher than that of the lowest of our modern savages, while they are quite compatible with a considerable degree of mental advancement, and lead us to believe that the crania of Engis and Cro-Magnon are not exceptional, but fairly represent the characters of the race. If we further remember that these people lived in Europe under the unfavourable conditions of a sub-Arctic climate, we shall be inclined to agree with Dr. Daniel Wilson, that it is far easier to produce evidences of deterioration than of progress, in instituting a comparison between the contemporaries of the mammoth and later prehistoric races of Europe or savage nations of modern times.[56]

[56] Prehistoric Man, 3rd edit. vol. i. p. 117.

3. Yet another important line of evidence as to the extreme antiquity of the human type has been brought prominently forward by Prof. Mivart.[57] He shows, by a careful comparison of all parts of the structure of the body, that man is related not to any one, but almost equally to many of the existing apes—to the orang, the chimpanzee, the gorilla, and even to the gibbons—in a variety of ways; and these relations and differences are so numerous and so diverse that, on the theory of evolution, the ancestral form which ultimately developed into man must have diverged from the common stock whence all these various forms and their extinct allies originated. But so far back as the Miocene deposits of Europe we find the remains of apes allied to these various forms, and especially to the gibbons; so that in all probability the special line of variation which led up to man branched off at a still earlier period. And these early forms, being the initiation of a far higher type, and having to develop by natural selection into so specialized and altogether distinct a creature as man, must have risen at a very early period into the position of a dominant race, and spread in dense waves of population over all suitable portions of the great continent—for this, on Mr. Darwin’s hypothesis, is essential to developmental progress through the agency of natural selection.

[57] Man and Apes, pp. 171–193.

Under these circumstances we might certainly expect to find some relics of these earlier forms of man along with those of animals, which were presumably less abundant. Negative evidence of this kind is not very weighty, but still it has some value. It has been suggested that as apes are mostly tropical, and anthropoid apes are now confined almost exclusively to the vicinity of the equator, we should expect the ancestral forms of man to have inhabited these same localities—West Africa and the Malay Islands. But this objection is hardly valid, because existing anthropoid apes are wholly dependent on a perennial supply of easily accessible fruits, which is only found near the equator; while not only had the south of Europe an almost tropical climate in Miocene times, but we must suppose even the earliest ancestors of man to have been terrestrial and omnivorous, since it must have taken ages of slow modification to have produced the perfectly erect form, the short arms, and the wholly non-prehensile foot,[58] which so strongly differentiate man from the arboreal apes.

[58] The common statement of travellers as to savages having great prehensile power in the toes, has been adopted by some naturalists as indicating an approach to the apes. But this notion is founded on a complete misconception. Savages pick up objects with their feet, it is true, but always by a lateral motion of the toes, which we should equally possess if we never wore shoes or stockings. In no savage have I ever seen the slightest approach to opposability of the great toe, which is the essential distinguishing feature of apes; nor have I ever seen it stated that any variation in this direction has been detected in the anatomical structure of the foot of the lower races.

The conclusion which I think we must arrive at is, that if man has been developed from a common ancestor with all existing apes, and by no other agencies than such as have affected their development, then he must have existed, in something approaching his present form, during the tertiary period—and not merely existed, but predominated in numbers, wherever suitable conditions prevailed. If then, continued researches in all parts of Europe and Asia fail to bring to light any proofs of his presence, it will be at least a presumption that he came into existence at a much later date, and by a much more rapid process of development. In that case it will be a fair argument that, just as he is in his mental and moral nature, his capacities and aspirations, so infinitely raised above the brutes, so his origin is due, in part, to distinct and higher agencies than such as have affected their development.

Antiquity of Intellectual Man.—There is yet another line of inquiry bearing upon this subject to which I wish to call your attention. It is a somewhat curious fact that, while all modern writers admit the great antiquity of man, most of them maintain the very recent development of his intellect, and will hardly contemplate the possibility of men equal in mental capacity to ourselves having existed in prehistoric times. This question is generally assumed to be settled by such relics as have been preserved of the manufactures of the older races, showing a lower and lower state of the arts; by the successive disappearance in early times of iron, bronze, and pottery; and by the ruder forms of the older flint implements. The weakness of this argument has been well shown by Mr. Albert Mott in his very original but little-known presidential address to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool in 1873. He maintains that “our most distant glimpses of the past are still of a world peopled as now with men both civilised and savage,” and “that we have often entirely misread the past by supposing that the outward signs of civilisation must always be the same, and must be such as are found among ourselves.” In support of this view he adduces a variety of striking facts and ingenious arguments, a few of which I will briefly summarize.

Sculptures on Easter Island.—On one of the most remote islands of the Pacific—Easter Island, 2,000 miles from South America, 2,000 from the Marquesas, and more than 1,000 from the Gambier Islands, are found hundreds of gigantic stone images, now mostly in ruins. They are often forty feet high, while some seem to have been much larger, the crowns on their heads, cut out of a red stone, being sometimes ten feet in diameter, while even the head and neck of one is said to have been twenty feet high.[59] These images once all stood erect on extensive stone platforms.

[59] Journ. of Roy. Geog. Soc. 1870, pp. 177, 178.

The island containing these remarkable works of art has only an area of about thirty square miles, or considerably less than Jersey. Now as one of the smallest images (eight feet high) weighs four tons, the largest must weigh over a hundred tons, if not much more; and the existence of such vast works implies a large population, abundance of food, and an established government. Yet how could these coexist on a mere speck of land wholly cut off from the rest of the world? Mr. Mott maintains that these facts necessarily imply the power of regular communication with larger islands or a continent, the arts of navigation, and a civilisation much higher than now exists in any part of the Pacific. Very similar remains in other islands scattered widely over the Pacific add weight to this argument.

North American Earthworks.—The next example is that of the ancient mounds and earthworks of the North American continent, the bearing of which is even more significant. Over the greater part of the extensive Mississippi valley, four well-marked classes of these earthworks occur. Some are camps, or works of defence, situated on bluffs, promontories, or isolated hills; others are vast inclosures in the plains and lowlands, often of geometric forms, and having attached to them roadways or avenues often miles in length; a third are mounds corresponding to our tumuli, often seventy to ninety feet high, and some of them covering acres of ground; while a fourth group consists of representations of various animals modelled in relief on a gigantic scale, and occurring chiefly in an area somewhat to the north-west of the other classes, in the plains of Wisconsin.

The first class—the camps or fortified inclosures—resemble in general features the ancient camps of our own islands, but far surpass them in extent. Fort Hill, in Ohio, is surrounded by a wall and ditch a mile and a half in length, part of the way cut through solid rock. Artificial reservoirs for water were made within it, while at one extremity, on a more elevated point, a keep is constructed with its separate defences and water-reservoirs. Another, called Clark’s Work, in the Scioto valley, which seems to have been a fortified town, incloses an area of 127 acres, the embankments measuring three miles in length, and containing not less than three million cubic feet of earth. This area incloses numerous sacrificial mounds and symmetrical earthworks, in which many interesting relics and works of art have been found.

The second class—the sacred inclosures, may be compared for extent and arrangement with Avebury or Carnak, but are in some respects even more remarkable. One of these at Newark, Ohio, covers an area of several miles, with its connected groups of circles, octagons, squares, ellipses, and avenues on a grand scale, and formed by embankments from twenty to thirty feet in height. Other similar works occur in different parts of Ohio; and by accurate survey it is found, not only that the circles are true, though some of them are one-third of a mile in diameter, but that other figures are truly square, each side being over 1,000 feet long; and, what is still more important, the dimensions of some of these geometrical figures in different parts of the country and seventy miles apart, are identical. Now this proves the use, by the builders of these works, of some standard measures of length; while the accuracy of the squares, circles, and, in a less degree, of the octagonal figures, shows a considerable knowledge of rudimentary geometry and some means of measuring angles. The difficulty of drawing such figures on a large scale is much greater than any one would imagine who has not tried it; and the accuracy of these is far beyond what is necessary to satisfy the eye. We must therefore impute to the builders the wish to make these figures as accurate as possible; and this wish is a greater proof of habitual skill and intellectual advancement than even the ability to draw such figures. If, then, we take into account this ability and this love of geometric truth, and further consider the dense population and civil organisation implied by the construction of such extensive systematic works, we must allow that these ancient people had reached the earlier stages of a civilisation of which no traces existed among the savage tribes who alone occupied the country when first visited by Europeans.

The animal mounds are of comparatively less importance for our present purpose, as they imply a somewhat lower grade of advancement; but the sepulchral and sacrificial mounds exist in vast numbers, and their partial exploration has yielded a quantity of articles and works of art which throw some further light on the peculiarities of this mysterious people. Most of these mounds contain a large concave hearth or basin of burnt clay, of perfectly symmetrical form, on which are found deposited more or less abundant relics, all bearing traces of the action of fire. We are therefore only acquainted with such articles as are practically fire-proof, or have accidentally escaped combustion. These consist of bone and copper implements and ornaments, discs, and tubes; pearl, shell, and silver beads, more or less injured by the fire; ornaments cut in mica; ornamental pottery; and numbers of elaborate carvings in stone, mostly forming pipes for smoking.[60] The metallic articles are all formed by hammering, but the execution is very good; plates of mica are found cut into scrolls and circles; the pottery, of which very few remains have been found, is far superior to that of any of the Indian tribes, since Dr. Wilson is of opinion that it must have been formed on a wheel, as it is often of uniform thickness throughout (sometimes not more than one-sixth of an inch), polished, and ornamented with scrolls and figures of birds and flowers in delicate relief. But the most instructive objects are the sculptured stone pipes, representing not only various easily recognizable animals, but also human heads, so well executed that they appear to be portraits. Among the animals, not only are such native forms as the panther, bear, otter, wolf, beaver, raccoon, heron, crow, turtle, frog, rattlesnake, and many others well represented, but also the manatee, which perhaps then ascended the Mississippi as it now does the Amazon, and the toucan, which could hardly have been obtained nearer than Mexico. The sculptured heads are especially remarkable, because they present to us the features of an intellectual and civilised people. The nose in some is perfectly straight, and neither prominent nor dilated; the mouth is small, and the lips thin; the chin and upper lip are short, contrasting with the ponderous jaw of the modern Indian, while the cheek-bones present no marked prominence. Other examples have the nose somewhat projecting at the apex in a manner quite unlike the features of any American indigenes; and although there are some which show a much coarser face, it is very difficult to see in any of them that close resemblance to the Indian type which these sculptures have been said to exhibit. The few authentic crania from the mounds present corresponding features, being far more symmetrical and better developed in the frontal region than those of any American tribes, although somewhat resembling them in the occipital outline;[61] while one was described by its discoverer (Mr. W. Marshall Anderson) as a “beautiful skull, worthy of a Greek.”

[60] Woven cloth, apparently of flax or hemp, as well as gauges supposed to have been used to regulate the thickness of the thread, have also been found in several of the mounds of Ohio. (Foster’s Prehistoric Races of the United States, 1873, pp. 225–229.)

[61] Wilson’s Prehistoric Man, 3rd edit. vol. ii. pp. 123–130.

The antiquity of this remarkable race may perhaps not be very great as compared with the prehistoric man of Europe, although the opinion of some writers on the subject seems affected by that “parsimony of time” on which the late Sir Charles Lyell so often dilated. The mounds are all overgrown with dense forest, and one of the large trees was estimated to be 800 years old, while other observers consider the forest growth to indicate an age of at least 1,000 years. But it is well known that it requires several generations of trees to pass away before the growth on a deserted clearing comes to correspond with that of the surrounding virgin forest, while this forest, once established, may go on growing for an unknown number of thousands of years. The 800 or 1,000 years estimate from the growth of existing vegetation is a minimum which has no bearing whatever on the actual age of these mounds; and we might almost as well attempt to determine the time of the glacial epoch from the age of the pines or oaks which now grow on the moraines.

The important thing for us, however, is that when North America was first settled by Europeans, the Indian tribes inhabiting it had no knowledge or tradition of any preceding race of higher civilisation than themselves. Yet we find that such a race existed; that they must have been populous and have lived under some established government; while there are signs that they practised agriculture largely, as, indeed, they must have done to have supported a population capable of executing such gigantic works in such vast profusion; for it is stated that the mounds and earthworks of various kinds in the state of Ohio alone, amount to between eleven and twelve thousand. In their habits, customs, religion, and arts, they differed strikingly from all the Indian tribes; while their love of art and of geometric forms, and their capacity for executing the latter upon so gigantic a scale, render it probable that they were a really civilised people, although the form their civilisation took may have been very different from that of later peoples, subject to very different influences and the inheritors of a longer series of ancestral civilisations. We have here, at all events, a striking example of the transition, over an extensive country, from comparative civilisation to comparative barbarism, the former leaving no tradition and hardly any trace of its influence on the latter.

As Mr. Mott well remarks:—Nothing can be more striking than the fact that Easter Island and North America both give the same testimony as to the origin of the savage life found in them, although in all circumstances and surroundings the two cases are so different. If no stone monuments had been constructed in Easter Island, or mounds containing a few relics saved from fire, in the United States, we might never have suspected the existence of these ancient peoples. He argues, therefore, that it is very easy for the records of an ancient nation’s life entirely to perish or to be hidden from observation. Even the arts of Nineveh and Babylon were unknown only a generation ago, and we have only just discovered the facts about the mound-builders of North America.

But other parts of the American continent exhibit parallel phenomena. Recent investigations show that in Mexico, Central America, and Peru the existing race of Indians has been preceded by a distinct and more civilised race. This is proved by the sculptures of the ruined cities of Central America, by the more ancient terra-cottas and paintings of Mexico, and by the oldest portrait-pottery of Peru. All alike show markedly non-Indian features, while they often closely resemble modern European types. Ancient crania, too, have been found in all these countries, presenting very different characters from those of any of the existing indigenous races of America.[62]

[62] Wilson’s Prehistoric Man, 3rd edit. vol. ii. pp. 125, 144.

The Great Pyramid.—There is one other striking example of a higher being succeeded by a lower degree of knowledge, which is in danger of being forgotten because it has been made the foundation of theories which seem wild and fantastic, and are probably in great part erroneous. I allude to the Great Pyramid of Egypt, whose form, dimensions, structure, and uses have recently been the subject of elaborate works by Prof. Piazzi Smyth. Now the admitted facts about the pyramid are so interesting and so apposite to the subject we are considering, that I beg to recall them to your attention. Most of you are aware that this pyramid has been carefully explored and measured by successive Egyptologists, and that the dimensions have lately become capable of more accurate determination, owing to the discovery of some of the original casing-stones, and the clearing away of the earth from the corners of the foundation showing the sockets in which the corner-stones fitted. Prof. Smyth devoted many months of work with the best instruments, in order to fix the dimensions and angles of all accessible parts of the structure; and he has carefully determined these by a comparison of his own and all previous measures, the best of which agree pretty closely with each other. The results arrived at are:—

1. That the pyramid is truly square, the sides being equal and the angles right angles.

2. That the four sockets on which the four first stones of the corners rested, are truly on the same level.

3. That the directions of the sides are accurately to the four cardinal points.

4. That the vertical height of the pyramid bears the same proportion to its circumference at the base, as the radius of a circle does to its circumference.

Now all these measures, angles, and levels are accurate, not as an ordinary surveyor or builder could make them, but to such a degree as requires the very best modern instruments and all the refinements of geodetical science to discover any error at all. In addition to this we have the wonderful perfection of the workmanship in the interior of the pyramid, the passages and chambers being lined with huge blocks of stones fitted with the utmost accuracy, while every part of the building exhibits the highest structural science.

In all these respects this largest pyramid surpasses every other in Egypt. Yet it is universally admitted to be the oldest, and also the oldest historical building in the world.

Now these admitted facts about the Great Pyramid are surely remarkable, and worthy of the deepest consideration. They are facts which, in the pregnant words of the late Sir John Herschel, “according to received theories ought not to happen,” and which, he tells us, should therefore be kept ever present to our minds, since “they belong to the class of facts which serve as the clue to new discoveries.” According to modern theories, the higher civilisation is ever a growth and an outcome from a preceding lower state; and it is inferred that this progress is visible to us throughout all history and in all material records of human intellect. But here we have a building which marks the very dawn of history, which is the oldest authentic monument of man’s genius and skill, and which, instead of being far inferior, is very much superior to all which followed it. Great men are the products of their age and country, and the designer and constructors of this wonderful monument could never have arisen among an unintellectual and half-barbarous people. So perfect a work implies many preceding less perfect works which have disappeared. It marks the culminating point of an ancient civilisation, of the early stages of which we have no trace or record whatever.

The three cases to which I have now adverted (and there are many others) seem to require for their satisfactory interpretation a somewhat different view of human progress from that which is now generally accepted. Taken in connection with the great intellectual power of the ancient Greeks—which Mr. Galton believes to have been far above that of the average of any modern nation—and the elevation, at once intellectual and moral, displayed in the writings of Confucius, Zoroaster, and the Vedas, they point to the conclusion that, while in material progress there has been a tolerably steady advance, man’s intellectual and moral development reached almost its highest level in a very remote past. The lower, the more animal, but often the more energetic types have, however, always been far the more numerous; hence such established societies as have here and there arisen under the guidance of higher minds have always been liable to be swept away by the incursions of barbarians. Thus in almost every part of the globe there may have been a long succession of partial civilisations, each in turn succeeded by a period of barbarism; and this view seems supported by the occurrence of degraded types of skull along with such “as might have belonged to a philosopher,” at a time when the mammoth and the reindeer inhabited southern France.

Nor need we fear that there is not time enough for the rise and decay of so many successive civilisations as this view would imply; for the opinion is now gaining ground among geologists that palæolithic man was really preglacial, and that the great gap (marked alike by a change of physical conditions and of animal life) which in Europe always separates him from his neolithic successor, was caused by the coming on and passing away of the great ice age.

If the views now advanced are correct, many, perhaps most, of our existing savages are the successors of higher races; and their arts, often showing a wonderful similarity in distant continents, may have been derived from a common source among more civilised peoples.

Conclusion.—I must now conclude this very imperfect sketch of a few of the offshoots from the great tree of Biological study. It will, perhaps, be thought by some that my remarks have tended to the depreciation of our science, by hinting at imperfections in our knowledge and errors in our theories where more enthusiastic students see nothing but established truths. But I trust that I may have conveyed to many of my hearers a different impression. I have endeavoured to show that, even in what are usually considered the more trivial and superficial characters presented by natural objects, a whole field of new inquiry is opened up to us by the study of distribution and local conditions. And as regards man, I have endeavoured to fix your attention on a class of facts which indicate that the course of his development has been far less direct and simple than has hitherto been supposed; and that, instead of resembling a single tide with its advancing and receding ripples, it must rather be compared to the progress from neap to spring tides, both the rise and the depression being comparatively greater as the waters of true civilisation slowly advance towards the highest level they can reach.

And if we are thus led to believe that our present knowledge of nature is somewhat less complete than we have been accustomed to consider it, this is only what we might expect; for however great may have been the intellectual triumphs of the nineteenth century, we can hardly think so highly of its achievements as to imagine that, in somewhat less than twenty years, we have passed from complete ignorance to almost perfect knowledge on two such vast and complex subjects as the Origin of Species and the Antiquity of Man.

VIII.
THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AS INDICATING GEOGRAPHICAL CHANGES.[63]

Old Opinions on Continental Changes—Theory of Oceanic Islands—Present and Past Distribution of Land and Sea—Zoological Regions—The Palæarctic Region—The Ethiopian Region—The Oriental Region—Past Changes of the Great Eastern Continent—Regions of the New World—Past History of the American Continents—The Australian Region—Summary and Conclusion.

[63] This is one of the Lectures on Scientific Geography delivered before the Royal Geographical Society, but the introductory portion has been rewritten. The original Lecture appeared in the Proceedings of the Society for September, 1877, under the title: “On the Comparative Antiquity of Continents, as indicated by the Distribution of Living and Extinct Animals.”

There is a curious old book entitled Restitution of Decayed Intelligence in Antiquities Concerning the Most Noble and Renowned English Nation, written in 1605, by R. Verstegen. The fourth chapter treats “Of the Isles of Albion, and how it is showed to have been continent or firm land with Gallia, now named France, since the Flood of Noe;” and after referring to several ancient writers who had held this opinion but without giving any reasons for it, the author proceeds to argue the point, referring to the narrowness of the straits, their extreme shallowness, the similarity of the opposite coasts both in height and character, the meaning of the word “cliff” as being that which is cleft asunder, and other matters; after which comes this quaint and interesting passage:—

“Another reason there is that this separation hath been made since the flood, which is also very considerable, and that is the patriarch Noe, having had with him in the Ark all sorts of beasts, these then, after the flood, being put forth of the ark to increase and multiply, did afterward in time disperse themselves over all parts of the continent or main land; but long after it could not be before the ravenous wolf had made his kind nature known to man, and therefore no man unless he were mad, would ever transport of that race out of the continent into the isles, no more than men will ever carry foxes (though they be less damageable) out of our continent into the Isle of Wight. But our Isle, as is aforesaid, continuing since the flood fastened by nature unto the Great Continent, those wicked beasts did of themselves pass over. And if any should object that England hath no wolves on it they may be answered that Scotland, being therewith conjoined, hath very many, and so England itself sometime also had, until such time as King Edgar took order for the destroying of these throughout the whole realm.”

The preservation of foxes for sporting purposes was evidently quite out of the range of thought at this not very distant epoch, and our author, in consequence, made a little mistake as to what men “ever” would do in the case of these noxious animals; but his general argument is sound, and it becomes much strengthened when we take into consideration the smaller vermin, such as stoats, weasels, moles, hedgehogs, fieldmice, vipers, toads, and newts, which would certainly not all have been brought over by uncivilised man, even if any one of them might have been. But there is another reason why they were not so brought over. For on that supposition we should discover remains of fewer and fewer species as we go back into past times till at last when we reached the time of the first occupation of the country by man we should find none at all. But the actual facts are the very reverse of this. For the further we go back the more species of noxious and dangerous animals we discover, till in the time of the palæolithic (or oldest) prehistoric men, we find remains not only of almost every animal now living, but of many others still less likely to have been introduced by man’s agency. Such are the mammoths, rhinoceroses, lions, horses, bears, gluttons, and many others; and it is equally impossible that these could all have swum across an arm of the sea, which although only about twenty miles wide in its narrowest past, is yet so influenced by strong tides and currents that it becomes as effective a barrier as many straits of double the width.

Owing, however, to the want of all definite ideas as to the mode by which the earth became stocked with animals and plants, the existence of identical species in countries separated by arms of the sea attracted very little attention till quite recent times. It is probable that Mr. Darwin was really the first person to see the full importance of the principle, for in his Naturalist’s Voyage Round the World, he remarks, that “the South American character of the West Indian mammals seems to indicate that this archipelago was formerly united to the southern continent.” Some years later, in 1845, Mr. George Windsor Earl called special attention to the subject by pointing out that the great Malay Archipelago may be divided in two portions, all the islands in the western half being united to each other and to the continent of Asia by a very shallow sea, and all having very similar productions, while many large animals, such as the elephant, rhinoceros, wild cattle, and tigers, range over most of them. We then come to a profoundly deep sea, and the islands of the eastern half of the archipelago are either surrounded by a deep sea or are connected by a shallow sea to Australia; and in this half the productions resemble those of Australia, marsupials being found in all the islands while the large quadrupeds of Asia are almost wholly unknown.

Theory of Oceanic Islands.—In 1859 the Origin of Species was published, and in the thirteenth chapter of this celebrated work Mr. Darwin put forth his views on oceanic islands or such as are situated far away from any continent and are surrounded by deep oceans. It had been up to this time believed that in most cases these islands were fragments of ancient continents; as an example of which we may refer to the Azores, Madeira, and the other Atlantic islands, which were thought to support the notion of an Atlantic or western extension of the European continent. In order to ascertain what was the condition of these islands when first discovered, Mr. Darwin searched through all the oldest voyages, and found that in none of them was a single native mammal known to exist, while in almost all of them frogs and toads were also absent. All the Atlantic isles from the Azores to St. Helena; Mauritius, Bourbon, and the other isles of the Indian Ocean; and the Pacific islands, east of the Fijis, as far as the Galapagos and Juan Fernandez are thus deficient. They all of them, however, possess birds, and most of them bats; and whenever small mammalia, such as goats, pigs, rabbits, and mice have been introduced they have run wild and often increased enormously, proving that the only reason why such animals were not originally found there was the impossibility of them crossing the sea; while such as could fly over—birds, bats, and insects—existed in greater or less abundance. If, on the other hand, they had once formed part of the continent, it is impossible to believe that some of the smaller mammalia, as well as frogs, would not have continued to exist in the islands to the present day.

If we compare the productions of different islands, we meet with peculiarities which throw much light on the subject of distribution. In the Galapagos islands, between 500 and 600 miles from the west coast of South America, there are thirty-two species of land-birds, all but two or three being peculiar to the group. In Madeira, about 400 miles from the coast of Morocco, there are nearly twice as many land-birds as in the Galapagos, but only two of these are peculiar to the island, the rest being South European or N. African species. The Azores are 1,000 miles west of Portugal, and they contain twenty-two species of land-birds, every one of which is European except one bullfinch which is slightly different and forms a peculiar species. This remarkable difference in the proportion of peculiar species between the Galapagos and the Atlantic islands, is well explained by the theory that land-birds rarely fly directly out to sea, except when carried against their will by storms and gales of wind. Now the Azores are situated in an especially stormy zone, and it is an observed fact that after every severe gale of wind some new bird or insect is seen on the islands. The Galapagos, on the contrary, are in a very calm sea where violent storms are almost unknown, and thus new birds from the mainland very rarely visit these islands. Madeira is less stormy than the Azores, but its comparative nearness makes up for this difference in the case of birds. In insects, however, the species of Madeira are much more peculiar (and more numerous) than those of the more distant Azores; while those of the Galapagos are few, but all peculiar, and belonging to groups many of which are widely spread over the globe. All these facts are entirely in accordance with the view that oceanic islands have been peopled from the nearest continents by various accidental causes; while they are entirely opposed to the theory that such islands are remnants of old continents and have preserved some portion of their inhabitants.

It is a curious fact, that land reptiles, such as snakes and lizards, are found in many islands where there are no mammalia or frogs; and we therefore conclude that there must be some means by which their ova can be safely carried across great widths of sea. A single peculiar frog inhabits New Zealand, and some species are found in the Pacific islands as far eastward as the Fijis, but they are absent from all other oceanic islands. Snakes also extend to the Fijis, and there are two species in the Galapagos, but none in the other oceanic islands. Lizards, however, are found in Mauritius and Bourbon; in New Zealand; in all the Pacific islands, and in the Galapagos. It is clear then that next to Mammals, frogs and toads are most completely shut out by an ocean barrier; then follow snakes, but as these are only found in the Galapagos and are very like South American species, they may possibly have been conveyed in boats or by floating trees. Lizards, however, are so wide-spread over almost all the warmer islands of the great oceans, that they must have some natural way of passing over, but the exact mode in which this is effected has not yet been discovered. Birds, as we have seen, are liable to be carried by winds and storms over great widths of sea, but this only applies to certain groups; and large numbers which feed on the ground or which inhabit the depths of the forests, are almost as strictly confined to their respective countries by even a narrow arm of the sea as are the majority of the mammalia.

This sketch of the mode in which the various kinds of islands have been stocked with their animal inhabitants forms the best introduction to the study of those changes in our continents which have led to the existing distribution of animals. It demonstrates the importance of the sea as a barrier to the spread of all the higher animals; and we are thus naturally led on to inquire, how far and to what extent such barriers have in past time existed between lands which are now united, and on the other hand what existing oceanic barriers are of comparatively recent origin. In pursuing this inquiry we shall have to take account of those grand views of the course of nature associated with the names of Lyell and Darwin—of the slow but never-ceasing changes in the physical conditions, the outlines and the mutual relations of the land-surfaces of the globe; and of the equally slow and equally unceasing changes in the forms and structures of all organisms, to a great extent correlated with, and perhaps dependent on, the former set of changes. Combining these two great principles with other ascertained causes of distribution, we shall be enabled to deal adequately with the problem before us, and give a rational, though often only an approximative and conjectural, solution of the many strange anomalies we meet with in studying the distribution of living things.

Past and Present Distribution of Land and Sea.—Before proceeding to give details as to the distribution of animals, it is necessary to point out certain geographical features which have had great influence in bringing about the existing state of things.

The extreme inequality with which land and water is distributed has often been remarked, but what is less frequently noted is the singular way in which all the great masses of land are linked together. Notwithstanding the small proportion of land to water, the vast difference in the quantity of land in the northern and southern hemispheres, and the apparently hap-hazard manner in which it is spread over the globe, we yet find that no important area is completely isolated from the rest. We may even travel from the extreme north of Asia to the three great southern promontories—Cape Horn, the Cape of Good Hope, and Tasmania—without ever going out of sight of land; and, if we examine a terrestrial globe, we find that the continents in their totality may be likened to a huge creeping plant, whose roots are at or around the North Pole, whose matted stems and branches cover a large part of the northern hemisphere, while it sends out in three directions great offshoots towards the South Pole. This singular arrangement of the land surface into what is practically one huge mass with diverging arms, offers great facilities for the transmission of the varied forms of animal life over the whole earth, and is no doubt one of the chief causes of the essential unity of type which everywhere characterises the existing animal and vegetable productions of the globe.

There is, moreover, good reason to believe that the general features of this arrangement are of vast antiquity; and that throughout much of the Tertiary period, at all events, the relative positions of our continents and oceans have remained the same, although they have certainly undergone some changes in their extent, and in the degree of their connection with each other. This is proved by two kinds of evidence. In the first place, it is now ascertained by actual measurement that the depths of the great oceans are so vast over wide areas, while the highest elevations of the land are limited to comparatively narrow ridges, that the mass of land (above the sea-level) is not more than ¹⁄₃₆th part of the mass of the ocean. Now we have reason to believe that subsidence and elevation bear some kind of proportion to each other, whence it follows that although several mountain ranges have risen to great heights during the Tertiary period, this amount of elevation bears no proportion to the amount of subsidence required to have changed any considerable area of what was once land into such profound depths as those of the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans. In the second place, we find over a considerable area of all the great continents fresh-water deposits containing the remains of land animals and plants; which deposits must have been formed in lakes or estuaries, and which therefore, speaking generally, imply the existence in their immediate vicinity of land areas comparable to those which still exist. The Miocene deposits of Central and Western Europe, of Greece, of India, and of China, as well as those of various parts of North America, strikingly prove this; while the Eocene deposits of London and Paris, of Belgium, and of various parts of North and South America, though often marine, yet by their abundant remains of land-animals and plants, equally indicate the vicinity of extensive continents. For our purpose it is not necessary to go further back than this, but there is much evidence to show that throughout the Secondary, and even some portion of the Palæozoic periods, the land-areas coincided to a considerable extent with our existing continents. Professor Ramsay has shown[64] that not only the Wealden formation, and considerable portions of the Upper and Lower Oolite, but also much of the Trias, and the larger part of the Permian, Carboniferous, and Old Red Sandstone formations, were almost certainly deposited either in lakes, inland seas, or extensive estuaries. This would prove that, throughout the whole of the vast epochs extending back to the time of the Devonian formation, our present continents have been substantially in existence, subject, no doubt, to vast fluctuations by extension or contraction, and by various degrees of union or separation, but never so completely submerged as to be replaced by oceans comparable in depth with our Atlantic or Pacific.

[64] Nature, 1873, p. 333; Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, 1871, pp. 189 and 241.

This general conclusion is of great importance in the study of the geographical distribution of animals, because it bids us avoid the too hasty assumption that the countless anomalies we meet with are to be explained by great changes in the distribution of land and sea, and leads us to rely more on the inherent powers of dispersal which all organisms possess, and on the union or disruption, extension or diminution, of existing lands—but always in such directions and to such a limited extent as not to involve the elevation of what are now the profoundest depths of the great oceans.

Zoological Regions.—We will now proceed to sketch out the zoological features of the six great biological regions; and will afterwards discuss their probable changes during the more recent geographical periods, in accordance with the principles here laid down.

The Palæarctic Region.

The Palæarctic, or North Temperate region of the Old World, is not only by far the most extensive of the zoological regions, but is the one which agrees least with our ordinary geographical divisions. It includes the whole of Europe, by far the largest part of Asia, and a considerable tract of North Africa; yet over the whole of this vast area there prevails a unity of the forms of animal life which renders any primary subdivision of it impossible, and even secondary divisions difficult. But besides being the largest of the great zoological regions, there are good reasons for believing this to represent the most ancient, and therefore the most important centre of the development of the higher forms of animal life,—and it is therefore well to consider it first in order.

In enumerating the most important animal groups characteristic of this and other regions, it must be clearly understood that such groups are not always absolutely confined to one region. Here and there they will often overlap the boundaries, while in other cases single species may have a wide distribution in one or more of the adjacent regions; but this does not at all affect the main fact, that the group as a whole is very abundant and very widely spread over the region in question, while it is very rare, or confined to a very limited area in adjacent regions, and is therefore specially characteristic of the one as compared with other parts of the world. Bearing this in mind, we shall find that the Palæarctic region is well characterized by a considerable number of typical groups, although, as we shall presently see, it has in recent geological times lost much of its ancient richness and variety of animal life.

Among Mammalia the groups most characteristic of this region are the moles (Talpidæ), a family consisting of eight distinct genera which range over the whole region, but beyond it barely enter the Oriental region in North India, and the Nearctic region in North-West America; camels, confined to the deserts of North Africa and Asia; sheep and goats (Capra), only found beyond the region in the Nilgherries and Rocky Mountains; several groups of antelopes, and many peculiar forms of deer; hamsters (Cricetus), sand rats (Psammomys), mole rats (Spalax), and pikas (Lagomys), with several other forms of rodents. Wolves, foxes, and bears, are also very characteristic, though by no means confined to the region.

Among birds the most important group is certainly the small-sized, but highly-organized warblers (Sylviidæ), which, although almost universally distributed, are more numerous, and have more peculiar and characteristic genera here than in any other region. Most of our song-birds, and many of the commonest tenants of our fields, woods, and gardens, belong to this family; and identical or representative species are often found ranging from Spain to China, and from Ireland to Japan. The reedlings (Panuridæ), the tits (Paridæ), and the magpies (Pica), are also very characteristic; while among the finches (Fringillidæ), a considerable number of genera are peculiar. A large number of peculiar groups of grouse (Tetraonidæ), and pheasants (Phasianidæ) are also characteristic of this region. Although the reptiles and fresh-water fishes are comparatively few, yet many of them are peculiar. Thus, no less than 2 genera of snakes, 7 of lizards, and 16 of batrachia, are confined to the Palæarctic region, as well as 20 genera of fresh-water fishes.

The insects and land-shells offer their full proportion of peculiar types; but it would lead us beyond our special object to enter into details with regard to these less known groups of animals.[65]

[65] Details will be found in the Author’s work on The Geographical Distribution of Animals.

The Ethiopian Region.

The Ethiopian region, consisting of Africa south of the Tropic of Cancer with Madagascar, is of very small area compared with the Palæarctic region; yet owing to the absence of extreme climates, and the tropical luxuriance of a considerable portion of its surface, it supports a greater number and variety of large animals than any other part of the globe of equal extent. Much of the speciality of the region is, however, due to the rich and isolated fauna of Madagascar, the peculiarities of which may be set aside till we come to discuss the past history of the Ethiopian region.

Considering then, first, the zoological features of tropical and southern Africa alone, we find a number of very peculiar forms of mammalia. Such are the golden moles, the Potamogale, and the elephant-shrews among Insectivora; the hippopotami and the giraffes, among Ungulata; the hyæna-like Proteles (Aard-wolf), and Lycaon (hyæna-dog), among Carnivora; and the Aard-varks (Orycteropus) among Edentata. These are all peculiar; but among highly characteristic forms are the baboons, and several genera of monkeys and apes; several peculiar Lemurs; a great variety of the civet-family (Viverridæ), and of rodents; peculiar genera of swine (Potamochærus and Phacochærus), and a greater abundance and variety of antelopes than are to be found in all the other regions combined. But the Ethiopian region is strikingly distinguished from all others, not only by possessing many peculiar forms, but by the absence of a number of common and widely distributed groups of mammalia. Such are—the bears, which range over the whole northern hemisphere, and as far south as Sumatra in the eastern and Chili in the western hemisphere, yet they are totally wanting in Tropical and South Africa;—the deer, which are still more widely distributed, ranging all over North and South America, and over all Asia to Celebes and the Moluccas, yet they are totally absent from the Ethiopian region; goats and sheep, true oxen (Bos), and true pigs (Sus), are also absent; though as to the last there is some doubt, certain wild pigs having been observed, though rarely, in various parts of Tropical Africa, but it is not yet determined whether they are indigenous, or escaped from domestication. The absence of such wide-spread families as the bears and deer is, however, most important, and must be taken into account when we come to consider the geographical changes needed to explain the actual state of the Ethiopian fauna.

The birds are not proportionately so peculiar, yet there are many remarkable forms. Most important are the plantain-eaters, the ground-hornbills, the colies, and the anomalous secretary-bird;—while among characteristic families there are numbers of peculiar genera of flycatchers, shrikes, crows, sun-birds, weaver-birds, starlings, larks, francolins, and the remarkable subfamily of the Guinea-fowls. There are not such striking deficiencies among birds as among mammals, yet there are some of importance. Thus, there are no wrens, creepers, or nut-hatches, and none of the wide-spread group comprising the true pheasants and jungle fowl—a deficiency almost comparable with that of the bears or the deer. Among the lower vertebrates there are 3 peculiar families of snakes and 1 of lizards, as well as 1 of toads and 3 of fresh-water fishes.

The Oriental Region.

The Oriental region comprises all tropical Asia east of the Indus, with the Malay Islands as far as Java, Borneo, and the Philippines. In its actual land-area it is the smallest region except the Australian; but if we take into account the wide extent of shallow sea connecting Indo-China with the Malay Islands, and which has, doubtless, at no distant epoch, formed an extension of the Asiatic Continent, it will not be much smaller than the Ethiopian region. Here we find all the conditions favourable to the development of a rich and varied fauna. The land is broken up into great peninsulas and extensive islands; lofty mountains and large rivers everywhere intersect it; while along its northern boundary stretches the highest mountain-range upon the globe. Much of this region lies within the equatorial belt, where the equability of temperature and abundance of moisture produce a tropical vegetation of unsurpassed luxuriance. We find here, as might be expected, that the variety and beauty of the birds and insects is somewhat greater than in the Ethiopian region; although, as regards mammalia, the latter is the most prolific, both in genera, species, and individuals.

The families of Mammalia actually peculiar to this region are few in number, and of limited extent. They are,—the Galeopithecidæ, or flying lemurs; the Tarsiidæ, consisting of the curious little tarsier, allied to the lemurs; and the Tupaiidæ, a remarkable group of squirrel-like Insectivora. There are, however, a considerable number of peculiar genera, forming highly characteristic groups of animals—such as the various apes, monkeys, and lemurs, almost all the genera of which are peculiar; a large number of civets and weasels; the beautiful deer-like Chevrotains, often called mouse-deer; and a few peculiar antelopes and rodents. It must be remarked that we find here none of those deficiencies of wide-spread families which were so conspicuous a feature of the Ethiopian region—the only one worth notice being the dormice (Myoxidæ), a small family spread over the Palæarctic and Ethiopian regions, but not found in the Oriental.

The birds of the Oriental region are exceedingly numerous and varied, there being representatives of about 350 genera of land-birds, of which nearly half are peculiar. Three families are confined to the region—the hill-tits (Liotrichidæ), the green bulbuls (Phyllornithidæ), and the gapers (Eurylæmidæ); while four other families are more abundant here than elsewhere, and are so widely distributed throughout the region as to be especially characteristic of it. These are—the elegant pittas, or ground-thrushes (Pittidæ), the trogons (Trogonidæ), the hornbills (Bucerotidæ), and the pheasants (Phasianidæ); represented by such magnificent birds as the fire-backed pheasants, the ocellated pheasants, the Argus-pheasant, the pea-fowl, and the jungle-fowl.

Reptiles are very abundant, but only 3 small families of snakes are peculiar. There are also 3 peculiar families of fresh-water fishes.