Distribution of Mammalia throughout the Earth.
CARBONIC acid, water, and ammonia, contain the elements necessary for
the support of animals, as well as of vegetables. They are supplied to
the graminivora in the vegetable food, which is converted into animal
substance by their vital functions.
Vitality in animals, as in vegetables, is the power they have of
assimilating their food, a process independent of volition, since it is
carried on during sleep, and is the cause of force. Animals inhale
oxygen with the air they breathe; part of the oxygen combines with the
carbon contained in the food, and is exhaled in the form of carbonic
acid gas. With every effort, with every breath, and with every motion,
voluntary or involuntary, at every instant of life, a part of the
muscular substance becomes dead, separates from the living part,
combines with the remaining portion of inhaled oxygen, and is removed.
Food, therefore, is necessary to compensate for the waste, to supply
nourishment, and to restore strength to the nerves, on which all vital
motion depends; for by the nerves volition acts on living matter. Food
would not be sufficient to make up for this waste, and consequent loss
of strength, without sleep; during which voluntary motion ceases, and
the undisturbed assimilation of the food suffices to restore strength,
and to make up for the involuntary motion of breathing, which is also a
source of waste.
The perpetual combination of the oxygen of the atmosphere with the
carbon of the food, and with the effete substance of the body, is a real
combustion, and is supposed to be the cause of animal heat, because heat
is constantly given out by the combination of carbon and oxygen; and,
without a constant supply of food, the oxygen would soon consume the
whole animal, except the bones.
Graminivorous animals inhale oxygen in breathing, and, as vegetable food
does not contain so much carbon as animal food, they require a greater
supply to compensate for the wasting influence of the oxygen; therefore,
cattle are constantly eating. But the nutritious parts of vegetables are
identical in composition with the chief constituents of the blood; and
from blood every part of the animal body, and even a portion of the
bones, is formed.
Carnivorous animals have not pores in the skin, therefore their supply
of oxygen is from their breath only; and, as animal food contains a
greater quantity of carbon, they do not require to eat so often as
animals that feed on vegetables. The restlessness of carnivorous animals
when confined in a cage is owing to the superabundance of carbon in
their food. They move about continually to quicken respiration, and by
that means procure a supply of oxygen to carry off the redundant carbon.
The quantity of animal heat is in proportion to the amount of the oxygen
inspired in equal times. The heat of birds is greater than that of
quadrupeds, and in both it is higher than the temperature of amphibious
animals and fishes, which have the coldest blood. On these subjects we
are indebted to Professor Liebig, who has thrown so much light on the
important sciences of animal and vegetable chemistry.
The mammalia consist of nine orders of animals, which differ in
appearance and in their nature; but they agree in the one attribute of
suckling their young. These orders are—the Quadrumana, animals which can
use their fore feet as hands, as monkeys and Apes; Cheiroptera, animals
with winged arms, as bats; Carnivora, that live on animal food, as the
lion, tiger, bear, &c.; Rodentia, or gnawers, as beavers, squirrels,
mice; Edentata or toothless animals [or more properly wanting certain
teeth, as the canines or incisors], as anteaters and armadilloes;
Pachydermata, or thick-skinned animals, as the elephant, the horse;
Ruminantia, animals that chew the cud, as camels, lamas, giraffes, cows,
sheep, deer; Marsupialia, possessing a pouch in which the young is
received after birth; and Cetaceæ, as whales and dolphins.
The animal creation, like the vegetable, varies correspondingly with
height and latitude; the changes of species in ascending the Himalaya,
for instance, are similar to what a traveller would meet with in his
journey from a southern to a high northern latitude. The number of land
animals increases from the frigid zones to the equator, but the law is
reversed with regard to the marine mammalia, which abound most in high
latitudes. Taking a broad view of the distribution of the nine orders of
mammalia, it may be observed that the tropical forests are the chief
abode of the monkey tribe: Asia is the home of the ape, especially the
islands of the Indian Archipelago, as far as the most easterly meridian
of Timor, beyond which there are none.
They abound throughout Africa from the Cape of Good Hope to Gibraltar,
where the Barbary ape or magot is found: another species of magot
inhabits the island of Niphon, the northern limit of monkeys at the
eastern extremity of the continent.
The bats that live on fruits are chiefly met with in tropical and warm
climates, especially in the Indian Archipelago; the common bats, which
live on insects, and are so numerous in species as to form more than a
third of the whole family, are found everywhere except in arctic
America. The Vampire is only met with in tropical America. Carnivorous
mammalia are distributed all over the globe, though very unequally: in
Australia there are only four species, two of which are bats; there are
only 13 in South America, and 27 in the Oceanic region; while in the
tropical regions of America there are 109, in Africa 130, and in Asia
166 species of carnivora; and so rapid is their increase towards the
tropical regions, that there are nearly three times as many in the
tropical as in the temperate zones.
With regard to the Gnawers or Rodents, species of the same group
frequently have a wide range in the same, or nearly the same, parallels
of latitude, but when they are inhabitants of high mountain-ridges they
follow the direction of the chain, whatever that may be, and groups
confined to high latitudes often appear again at great elevations in low
latitudes. The Edentata are particularly characteristic of South
America, where there are three times as many species as there are in
Asia, Africa, and Australia, taken together. In the three latter
countries they only occur at intervals, but in America they extend from
the tropic of Cancer to the plains of Patagonia. Thick-skinned and
ruminating animals are very abundant in the old continent, especially in
Asia and Africa; they are also in North America, but in the southern
part of that continent there is only the Tapir, and in Australia there
are none. The marsupialia are confined to Australia and America.
The distribution of animals is guided by laws analogous to those which
regulate the distribution of plants, insects, fishes, and birds. Each
continent, and even different parts of the same continent, are centres
of zoological families, which have always existed there, and nowhere
else; each group being almost always specifically different from all
others.
Food, security, and temperature have no influence, as primary causes, in
the distribution of animals. The plains of America are not less fit for
rearing oxen than the meadows of Europe; yet the common ox was not found
in that continent at the time of its discovery; and with regard to
temperature, this animal thrives on the llanos of Venezuela and the
pampas of Brazil as well as on the steppes in Europe. The horse is
another example: originally a native of the deserts of Tartary, he now
roams wild in herds of hundreds of thousands on the grassy plains of
America, though unknown in that continent at the time of the Spanish
invasion. All animals, however, are not so flexible in their
constitutions, for most of them would perish from change of climate. The
stations which the different families now occupy must have been allotted
to them as each part of the land rose above the ocean; and because they
have found in these stations all that was necessary for their existence,
many have never wandered from them, notwithstanding their powers of
locomotion; while others have migrated, but only within certain bounds.
Instinct leads animals to migrate when they become too numerous; the rat
in Kamtchatka, according to Pennant, sets out in spring in great
multitudes, and travels 800 miles, swimming over rivers and lakes; and
the Lapland marmot or lemming, native in the mountains of Kolen,
migrates in bands, once or twice in 25 years, to the Western Ocean,
which they enter and are drowned; other bands go through Swedish Lapland
and perish in the Gulf of Bothnia. Thus, nature provides a remedy
against the over increase of any one species, and maintains the balance
of the whole. A temporary migration for food is not uncommon in animals.
The wild ass, a native of the deserts of Great Tartary, in summer feeds
to the east and north of the lake of Aral, and in autumn they migrate in
thousands to the north of India, and even to Persia.[183] The ruminating
animals that dwell in the inaccessible parts of the Himalaya descend to
their lower declivities in search of food in winter; and for the same
reason the reindeer and musk-ox leave the Arctic snows.
The Arctic regions form a district common to Europe, Asia, and America.
On this account, the animals inhabiting the northern parts of these
continents are sometimes identical, often very similar; in fact, there
is no genus of quadrupeds in the Arctic regions that is not found in the
three continents, though there are only 27 species common to all, and
these are mostly fur-bearing animals. In the temperate zone of Europe
and Asia, which forms an uninterrupted region, identity of species is
occasionally met with, but, for the most part, marked by such varieties
in size and colour as might be expected to arise from difference of food
and climate. The same genera are sometimes found in the intertropical
parts of Asia, Africa, and America, but the same species never; much
less in the south temperate zones of these continents, where all the
animals are different, whether birds, beasts, insects, or reptiles; but
in similar climates analogous tribes replace one another.
Europe has no family and no order peculiarly its own, and many of its
species are common to other countries; consequently the great zoological
districts, where the subject is viewed on a broad scale, are Asia,
Africa, Oceanica, America, and Australia; but in each of these there are
smaller districts, to which particular genera and families are confined.
Yet when the regions are not separated by lofty mountain-chains, acting
as barriers, the races are in most cases blended together on the
confines between the two districts, so that there is not a sudden
change.
EUROPEAN QUADRUPEDS.
The character of the animals of temperate Europe has been more changed
by the progress of civilization than that of any other quarter of the
globe. Many of its original inhabitants have been extirpated, and new
races introduced; but it seems always to have had various animals
capable of being domesticated. The wild cattle in the parks of the Duke
of Hamilton and the Earl of Tankerville are the only remnants of the
ancient inhabitants of the British forests, though they were spread over
Europe, and perhaps were the parent stock from which the European cattle
of the present time have descended; though the Aurochs, a race nearly
extinct, and found only in the forests of Lithuania and the Caucasus,
may have some claim to the pedigree. Both races are supposed to have
come from Asia. The Mouflon, which exists in Corsica and Sardinia, is
said to be the parent stock of our domestic sheep. The pig, the goat,
the fallow-deer, and red-deer, have been reclaimed, and also the
reindeer, which cannot strictly be called European, since it also
inhabits the northern regions of Asia and America. The cat is European;
and, altogether, eight or ten species of tamed quadrupeds have sprung
from native animals.
There are still about 180 wild land-animals in Europe: 45 of these are
also found in western Asia, and nine in northern Africa. The most
remarkable are the reindeer, elk, red and fallow deer, the roe-buck,
glutton, lynx, polecat, several wild-cats, the common and black
squirrels, the fox, wild boar, wolf, the black and the brown bear, eight
species of weasels, and seven of mice. The otter is common; but the
beaver is now found only on the Rhine, the Rhone, the Danube, and some
other large rivers; rabbits and hares are numerous; the hedgehog is
everywhere; the porcupine in southern Europe only; the chamois and ibex
in the Alps and Pyrenees. Many species of these animals are widely
distributed over Europe, generally with variations in size and colour.
The chamois of the Alps and Pyrenees, though the same in species, is
slightly varied in appearance; and the fox of the most northern parts of
Europe is larger than that in Italy, with a richer fur, and somewhat
different colour.
Some animals never descend below a certain height, as the ibex and
chamois, which live on higher ground than any of their order, being
usually found between the region of trees and the line of perpetual
snow, which is about 8900 feet on the southern, and 8200 on the northern
declivities of the Alps. The common stag does not go above 7000 feet,
and the fallow-deer not more than 6000, above the level of the sea:
these two, however, descend to the plains, the former never do. The
bear, lynx, and the stoat ascend nearly to the limit of perpetual snow.
Some European animals are much circumscribed in their locality. The
ichneumon is peculiar to Egypt; the mouflon is confined to Corsica and
Sardinia; there are a weasel and bat which inhabit Sardinia only; and
Sicily has several peculiar species of bats and mice. There is only one
species of monkey in Europe, which lives on the rock of Gibraltar, and
is supposed to have been brought from Africa. All the indigenous British
quadrupeds now existing, together with the hyæna, tiger, bear, and wolf,
whose bones have been found in caverns, are also found in the same state
in Germany. Ireland was separated by the Irish Channel before all the
animals had migrated across England; so that our squirrel, mole,
polecat, dormouse, and many smaller quadrupeds, never reached the sister
island. Mr. Owen has shown that the British horse, ass, hog, the smaller
wild ox, the goat, roe, beaver, and many small rodents, are the same
species with those which had co-existed with the mammoth, the great
northern hippopotamus, and two kinds of rhinoceros long extinct. So that
a part only of the modern tertiary fauna has perished, from whence he
infers that the cause of their destruction was not a violent universal
catastrophe from which none could escape. The Bos longifrons was
co-existent with man.
ASIATIC QUADRUPEDS.
Asia has a greater number and a greater variety of wild animals than any
country, except America, and also a larger proportion of those that are
domesticated. Though civilized from the earliest ages, the destruction
of the animal creation has not been so great as in Europe, owing to the
inaccessible height of the mountains, the extent of the plains and
desert, and, not least, to the impenetrable forests and jungles, which
afford them a safe retreat: 288 mammalia are Asiatic, of which 188 are
common to it and other countries; these, however, chiefly belong to the
temperate zone.
Asia Minor is a district of transition from the fauna of Europe to that
of Asia. There the chamois, the bouquetin, the brown bear, the wolf,
fox, hare, and others, are mingled with the hyæna, the Angora goat,
which bears a valuable fleece, the Argali or wild sheep, the white
squirrel; and even the Bengal royal tiger is sometimes seen on Mount
Ararat, and is not uncommon in Azerbijan and the mountains in Persia.
Arabia is inhabited by the hyæna, panther, jackal, wolf, and musk-deer.
Antelopes and monkeys are found in Yemen and Aden. Most of these are
also indigenous in Persia. The wild ass, Onagra, a handsome spirited
animal of great speed, and so shy that it is scarcely possible to come
near it, wanders in herds over the plains and table-lands of central
Asia. It is also found in the Indian desert, and especially in the Run
of Cutch—“the wilderness and the barren lands are his dwelling”—and in
the most elevated regions of Tartary and Tibet, on the shores of the
sacred lakes of Manasarowar and Rakastal, at a height of more than
15,250 feet above the sea.[184]
The table-lands and mountains which divide eastern Asia almost into
polar and tropical zones, produce as great a distinction in the
character of its indigenous fauna. The severity of the climate in
Siberia renders the skins of its numerous fur-bearing animals more
valuable. These are reindeer, elks, wolves, the large white bear, that
lives among the ice on the Arctic shores, several other bears, the lynx,
various kinds of martens and cats, the common, the blue, and the black
fox, the ermine, and sable. The fur of these last is much esteemed, and
is only equalled by that of the sea-otter, which inhabits the shores on
both sides of the northern Pacific.
With the exception of the Jerboa, which burrows in sandy deserts, on the
table-land and elsewhere, all the Asiatic species of gnawers are
confined to Siberia. The most remarkable of these is the flying
squirrel. The Altaï Mountains teem with wild animals, besides many of
those mentioned. There are large stags, bears, some peculiar weasels,
the argali, and the wild sheep. The wild goat of the Alps is found in
the Sayansk part of the chain; the glutton and musk-deer in the Baikal;
and in Da-Ouria the red-deer and the Antelope Saiga. The Bengal tiger
and the Felis Irbis, a species of panther, wander from the Celestial
Mountains to the Altaï chain and southern Siberia: the Tiger is met with
even on the banks of the Obi, and also in China, though in the northern
regions it differs considerably from the same species in Bengal; thus it
can bear a mean annual temperature of from 81° of Fahrenheit to the
freezing point. The Tapir, and many of the animals of the Indian
Archipelago, are found in the southern provinces of the Chinese empire;
but its fauna is little known. It is, however, probable that in the
northern parts it resembles that of the Altaï mountains and Siberia. The
animals of Japan have a strong analogy to those of Europe: many are
identical, or slightly varied, as the badger, otter, mole, common fox,
marten, and squirrel. On the other hand, a large species of bear in the
island of Jezo resembles the grizzly bear in the Rocky Mountains of
North America. A chamois in other parts of Japan is similar to the
Antelope montana of the same mountains: and other animals native in
Japan are the same with those in Sumatra; so that its fauna is connected
with that of very distant regions.
A few animals are peculiar to the high cold plains of the table-land of
eastern Asia: the dziggetai, a very fleet animal, resembling both the
horse and the ass, is peculiar to these Tartarian steppes; it is
probably the same species as the Kiang of Tibet, which inhabits at very
great heights, and has been seen on the banks of the sacred lake of
Manasarowar, at an elevation of 15,250 feet, by Lieutenant Strachey: two
species of antelopes inhabit the plains of Tibet, congregating in
immense herds, with sentinels so vigilant that it is scarcely possible
to approach them.
The Dzeran, or yellow goat, which is both swift and shy, and the
handsome Tartar ox, are native in these wilds; also the shawl-wool goat
and the manul, from which the Angora cat, so much admired in Persia and
Europe, is descended. Most of the animals that live at such heights
cannot exist in less elevated and warmer regions, exhibiting a striking
instance of the limited distribution of species. Goats and sheep best
endure the thin air and great cold of high lands: the Cashmere goat and
Argoli sheep browse on the plains of Tibet at elevations of from 10,000
to 13,000 feet; the rass, a sheep with straight spiral horns, lives on
the table-lands of Pamer, which are 15,000 feet above the sea; and also
the kutch-gar, a species of sheep which is about the height of a
year-old colt, with fine-curling horns: they congregate in flocks of
many hundreds, and are hunted by the Kirghis.
The ruminating animals of Asia are more numerous and excellent than
those of any other part of the world; 64 species are native, and 46 of
these exist there only. There are several species of wild oxen; one in
the Birmese empire, and on the mountains of north-eastern India, with
spiral twisted horns. The buffalo is native in China, India, Borneo, and
the Sunda Islands; it is a large animal, formidable in a wild state, but
domesticated universally in the East. It was introduced into Italy in
the sixth century, and large herds now graze in the low marshy plains
near the sea.
Various kinds of oxen have been domesticated in India time immemorial:
the handsome Indian ox, with a hump on the shoulder, has been venerated
by the Brahmins for ages; the beautiful white silky tail of the
domesticated ox of Tartary, used in the East to drive away flies, was
adopted as the Turkish standard; and the common Indian ox differs from
all others in the great speed of its course. Some other species of
cattle have been tamed, and some are still wild in India, Java, and
other Asiatic islands. The Cashmere goat, which bears the shawl-wool, is
the most valuable of the endless varieties of goats and sheep of Asia;
it is kept in large herds in the great valleys on the northern and
southern declivities of the Himalaya, and in the upper regions of
Bhotan, where the cold climate is congenial to it.
The Bactrian camel, with two humps, is strong, rough, and hairy, and is
said to occur in a wild state in the desert of Shamo: it is the camel of
central Asia, north of the Himalaya and Taurus, also of the Crimea and
the countries round the Caucasus. The common or Arabian camel with one
hump is a native of Asia, though only known now in a domesticated state;
it has been introduced into Africa, Italy, the Canary islands, and even
into the elevated regions of the Peru-Bolivian Andes. The best come from
the province of Nejed in Arabia, which, on that account, is called the
“mother of camels.” The camel of Oman is remarkable for beauty and
swiftness.
Ten species of antelopes and twenty of deer are peculiar to Asia: two
species of antelopes have already been mentioned as peculiar to the
table-lands, the others are distributed in the Asiatic archipelago. The
genuine musk-deer (Moschus moschiferus) inhabits the mountainous
countries of central and south-eastern Asia, between China and Tartary,
the regions round Lake Baikal, the Altaï mountains, Nepaul, Bhotan,
Tibet, and the adjacent countries of China and Tonquin.
Asia possesses about ten native species of Pachydermata, including the
elephant, horse, ass, which have been domesticated from the time of the
earliest scriptural records. The horse is supposed to have existed wild
in the plains of central Asia, as the dromedary in Arabia; though now
they are only known as domestic animals. The Arabian and Persian horses
have acknowledged excellence and beauty, and from these our best
European horses are descended; the African horse, which was introduced
into Spain by the Moors, is probably of the same race.
The elephant has long been a domestic animal in Asia, though it still
roams wild in formidable herds through the forests and jungles at the
foot of the Himalaya, in other parts of India, the Indo-Chinese
peninsula, and the islands of Sumatra and Ceylon; the hunting elephant
is esteemed the most noble. A one-horned rhinoceros is a native of
continental Asia.
There are 60 genera of Asiatic carnivorous animals, of which the royal
tiger is the handsomest and the most formidable: its favourite
habitation is in the jungles of Hindostan, though it wanders nearly to
the limit of perpetual snow in the Himalaya, to the Persian and Armenian
mountains, to Siberia and China. Leopards and panthers are common, and
there is a maneless lion in Guzerat: the Chitta, used in hunting, is the
only one of the panthers capable of being tamed. The hyæna is found
everywhere, excepting the Birman empire, in which there are neither
wolves, hyænas, foxes, nor jackals. There are four species of bears in
India; that of Nepaul has valuable fur: the wild boar, hog, and dogs of
endless variety, abound.
The Edentata have only two representatives in India, both manis or
pangolins; which differ from all others except the African, in being
covered with imbricated scales. Of these the short-tailed pangolin, or
scaly anteater, is found throughout the Deccan, Bengal, Nepaul, the
southern provinces of China, and Formosa.
The Indian Archipelago and the Indo-Chinese peninsula form a zoological
province of a very peculiar nature, being allied to the faunas of India,
Australia, and South America, yet having animals exclusively its own.
The royal tiger is in great abundance in the Malay peninsula, and also
the black variety of the panther, leopard, wild cats, multitudes of
elephants, the rhinoceros of all three species, the Malayan tapir, many
deer, the Babiroussa hog, and another species of that genus. Some groups
of the islands have several animals in common, either identical or with
slight variations, that are altogether wanting in other islands, which,
in their turn, have creatures of their own. Many species are common to
the archipelago and the neighbouring parts of the continent, or even to
China, Bengal, Hindostan, and Ceylon. Flying quadrupeds are a
distinguishing feature of this archipelago, though some do not
absolutely fly, but, by an extension of the skin of their sides to their
legs, which serves as a parachute, they take long leaps. Nocturnal
flying squirrels, of several species, are common to the Malayan
peninsula and the Sunda Islands, especially Java; and three species of
flying Lemurs inhabit Sunda, Malacca, and the Pelew Islands. Besides
these, there are the frugivorous bats, which really fly, differing from
bats in other countries by living exclusively upon vegetable food. The
edible roussette, or kalong, one of the largest known, appears in flocks
of hundreds, and even thousands, in Java, Sumatra, and Banda: the
Pteropus funereus, another of these large bats, assembles in as great
numbers.
A hundred and eighty species of the ape and monkey tribe are entirely
Asiatic: monkeys are found only on the coast of India, Cochin-China, and
the Sunda Islands; the long-armed apes or gibbons are in the Sunda
Islands and the Malayan peninsula. The Simayang, a very large ape of
Sumatra and Bencoolen, goes in large troops, following a leader, and
makes a howling noise at sunrise and sunset that is heard miles off.
Sumatra and Borneo are the peculiar abode of the Orang-outang, which, in
the Malay language, means the “man of woods,” which, except perhaps the
Chimpanzee of Africa, approaches nearest to man. It has never spread
over the islands it inhabits, though there seems to be nothing to
prevent it, but it finds all that is necessary within a limited
district. The orang-outang and the long-armed apes have extraordinary
muscular strength, and swing from tree to tree by their arms.
The Malays have given the name of orang, or man, to the whole tribe, on
account of their intelligence as well as their form.
A two-horned rhinoceros is peculiar to Java, of a different species from
the African, also the Felis macrocelis, and a very large bear; there are
only two species of squirrels in Java, which is remarkable, as the Sunda
Islands are rich in them. The royal tiger of India and the elephant are
found only in Sumatra, and the babiroussa lives in Borneo; but these two
islands have many quadrupeds in common, as a leopard, the one-horned
rhinoceros, the black antelope, some graceful miniature creatures of the
deer kind, the Tapir, also found in Malacca, besides a wild boar, an
inhabitant of all the marshy forest from Borneo to New Guinea. In the
larger islands deer abound, some as large as the elk, probably the
Hippelaphus of Aristotle.
The Anoa, a ruminating animal about the size of a sheep, a species of
antelope, shy and savage, goes in herds in the mountains of Celebes,
where many forms of animals strangers to the Sunda Islands begin to
appear, as some sorts of phalangers, or pouched quadrupeds. These new
forms become more numerous in the Moluccas, which are inhabited by
flying phalangers and other pouched animals, with scaly tails. The
phalangers are nocturnal, and live on trees. In New Guinea there are
kangaroos, the spotted phalanger, the pelandoe, the New Guinea hog, and
the Papua dog, said to be the origin of all the native dogs in Australia
and Oceanica, wild or tame.
The fauna of the Philippine Islands is analogous to that in the Sunda
Islands. They have several quadrupeds in common with India and Ceylon,
but there are others which probably are not found in these localities.
AFRICAN QUADRUPEDS.
The opposite extremes of aridity and moisture in the African continent
have had great influence in the nature and distribution of its animals;
and since by far the greater part consists of plains utterly barren or
covered by temporary verdure, and watered by inconstant streams that
flow only a few months in the year, fleet animals, fitted to live on
arid plains, are far more abundant than those that require rich
vegetation and much water. The latter are chiefly confined to the
intertropical coasts, and especially to the large jungles and deep
forests at the northern declivity of the table-land, where several
genera and many species exist that are not found elsewhere. Africa has a
fauna in many respects insulated from that of every other part of the
globe; for although about 100 of its quadrupeds are common to other
countries, there are 250 species its own. Several of these animals,
especially the larger kinds, are distributed over the whole table-land
from the Cape of Good Hope to the highlands of Abyssinia and Senegambia
without the smallest variety, and many are slightly modified in colour
and size. Ruminating animals are very numerous, though few have been
domesticated: of these, the ox of Abyssinia and Bornou is remarkable
from the extraordinary size of its horns, which are sometimes 2 feet in
circumference at the root; and the Galla ox of Abyssinia has horns 4
feet long. There are many African varieties of buffalo; that at the Cape
of Good Hope is a large, fierce animal, wandering in herds in every part
of the country, even to Abyssinia: the flesh of the whole race is
tainted with the odour of musk. The African sheep and goats, of which
there are many varieties, differ from those of other countries; the wool
of all is coarse, except that of the Merino sheep, said to have been
introduced into Spain by the Moors from Morocco.
No country has produced a ruminating animal similar, or even analogous,
to the Giraffe, or Camelopard, which ranges widely over south Africa
from the northern banks of the Gareep, or Orange river, to the Great
Desert; it is also found in Dongola and in Abyssinia. It is a gentle,
timid animal, which has been seen in troops of 100. The earliest record
we have of it is in the sculptured monuments of the ancient Egyptians,
and it is well known that it was brought to Rome to grace the triumph of
a victorious emperor.
Africa may truly be said to be the land of the genus Antelope, which is
found in every part of it, where it represents the deer of Europe, Asia,
and America. Different species have their peculiar localities, while
others are widely dispersed, sometimes with and sometimes without any
sensible variety of size or colour. The greater number are inhabitants
of the plains, while a few penetrate into the forests. Sixty species
have been described, of which at least 26 are found north of the Cape of
Good Hope and in the adjacent countries. They are of every size, from
the pigmy antelope not larger than a hare, to the Caama, which is as
large as an ox. Timidity is the universal character of the race. Most
species are gregarious; and the number in a herd is far too great even
to guess at. Like all animals that feed in groups, they have sentinels;
and they are the easy prey of so many carnivorous animals, that their
safety requires the precaution. At the head of their enemies is the
lion, who lurks among the tall reeds at the fountain to seize them when
they come to drink. They are graceful in their motions, especially the
spring-buck, which goes in a compact troop; and in their march there is
constantly one which gathers its slender limbs together and bounds into
the air.
Africa has only two species of deer, both belonging to the Atlas: one is
the common fallow-deer of Europe.
The 38 species of rodentia, or gnawing quadrupeds, of this continent,
live on the plains; and many of them are leaping animals, as the Jerboa
capensis. Squirrels are comparatively rare.
There are some species of the horse peculiar to south Africa; of these
the gaily-striped Zebra and the more sober-coloured Quagga wander in
troops over the plains, often in company with ostriches. An alliance
between creatures differing in nature and habits is not easily accounted
for. The two-horned rhinoceros of Africa is different from that of Asia:
there are certainly three, and probably five, species of these huge
animals peculiar to the table-land. Dr. Smith saw 150 in one day near
the 24th parallel of south latitude. The hippopotamus is exclusively
African: multitudes inhabit the lakes and rivers in the intertropical
and southern parts of the continent; those that inhabit the Nile and
Senegal appear to form different species. An elephant, differing in
species from that of Asia, is so numerous, that 200 have been seen in a
herd near Lake Tchad. They are not domesticated in Africa, and are
hunted by the natives for their tusks. The Phacochœre, or Ethiopian hog,
and a species of Hyrax, are among the Pachydermata of this country. The
monkey tribe is found in all the hot parts of Africa: peculiar genera
are allotted to particular districts. Except a few in Asia, the family
of guenons is found in no part of the world but the Cape of Good Hope,
the coasts of Loango and Guinea, where they swarm.
The species are numerous, and vary much in size and colours: the
cynocephalus, or blue-headed baboon, with a face like that of a dog, is
large, ferocious, and dangerous. One species of these baboons inhabits
Guinea, others the southern parts of the table-land, and one is met with
everywhere from Sennaar to Cafraria. A remarkable long-eared kind is
found in Abyssinia; the mandrills, which belong to the same genus, are
confined to central Africa. The magot or Barbary ape is in north Africa;
and the only macac in this continent inhabits the mountains in the high
country of southern Abyssinia, 8000 feet above the level of the sea. The
African species of thumbless apes are met with in the tropical countries
on the west coast, where the Colobus comosus, or king of the monkeys,
also lives, so called by the natives from its beautiful fur and singular
head of hair; another of these is peculiar to the low lands of Gojam,
Kulla, and Damot. The Chimpanzee, which so nearly approaches the human
form, inhabits the forests of south Africa from Cape Negro to the
Gambia. Living in society like all apes and monkeys, which are eminently
sociable, it is very intelligent and easily tamed. A new species of
African Chimpanzee, equalling in size the Orang-outang, has been
recently described by Professor Owen: it is probably the largest of the
quadrumana, and by all accounts the most dangerous and ferocious.
Baron Humboldt observes that all apes resembling man have an expression
of sadness; that their gaiety diminishes as their intelligence
increases.
Africa possesses the cat tribe in great variety and beauty; lions,
leopards, and panthers are numerous throughout the continent; servals
and viverrine cats are in the torrid districts; and the lion of the
Atlas is said to be the most formidable of all. In no country are foxes
so abundant. Various species inhabit Nubia, Abyssinia, and the Cape of
Good Hope. The corsac is peculiar to the Cape. The long-eared fox, the
famel of Kordofan, and some others, are found in Africa only. There are
also various species of dogs, the hyæna, and the jackal. The hyænas hunt
in packs, attack the lion and panther, and easily destroy them.
Two species of Edentata are African—the long-tailed manis, and the
Aard-vark, or earth-hog: the first is covered with scales, the latter
with coarse long hair; they burrow in the ground and feed on ants. Great
flocks of a large migratory vampire-bat frequent the Slave-coast.
Altogether there are 26 species of African bats.
Multitudes of antelopes of various species, lions, leopards, panthers,
hyænas, jackals, and some other carnivora, live in the oases of the
great northern deserts; jerboas, and endless species of leaping gnawers,
rats, and mice burrow in the ground. The dryness of the climate and soil
keeps the coats of the animals clean and glossy; and it has been
observed that tawny and grey tints are the prevailing colours in the
fauna of the north African deserts, not only in the birds and beasts,
but in reptiles and insects. In consequence of the continuous desert
extending from North Africa through Arabia to Persia and India, many
analogous species of animals exist in those countries: in some instances
they are the same, or varieties of the same, species, as the ass, the
dziggeti, antelopes, leopards, panthers, jackals, and hyænas.
The fauna on the eastern side of the great island of Madagascar is
analogous to that of India; on the western side it resembles that of
Africa, though, as far as it is known, it seems to be a distinct centre
of animal life. It has no ruminating animals; and the monkey tribe is
represented by the Lemures and the Galagos, which are characteristic of
this fauna. A frugivorous bat, the size of a common fowl, forms an
article of food.
AMERICAN QUADRUPEDS.
No species of animal has yet been extirpated in America, which is the
richest zoological province, possessing 537 species of mammalia, of
which 480 are its own; yet no country has contributed so little to the
stock of domestic animals. With the exception of the Llama and Alpaca,
and the turkey, and perhaps some sheep and dogs, America has furnished
no animal or bird serviceable to man, while it has received from Europe
all its domestic animals and its civilized inhabitants.
Arctic America possesses most of the valuable fur-bearing animals that
are in Siberia; and they were very plentiful till the unsparing
destruction of them has driven those yet remaining to the high
latitudes, where the hunters that follow them are exposed to great
hardships. Nearly 6,000,000 of skins were brought to England in one
year, most of which were taken in the forest regions; the barren grounds
are inhabited by the Arctic fox, the polar hare, by the brown and the
white bear, a formidable animal which often lives on the ice itself. The
reindeer lives on the lichens and mosses of these barren grounds, and
wanders to the shores of the Polar Ocean: its southern limit in Europe
is the Baltic Sea, in America it is the latitude of Quebec. Some of the
fur-bearing quadrupeds of these deserts never pass the 65th degree of N.
lat.; the greater number live in the northern forests, as the black
bear, racoon, badger, the ermine, and four or five other members of the
weasel tribe, the red fox, the polar and brown lynxes, the beaver, the
musquash or musk-rat, of which half a million are killed annually, and
the moose-deer, whose northern range ends where the aspen and willows
cease to grow. The grizzly bear, the largest and most ferocious of its
kind, inhabits the range of the Rocky Mountains to Mexico, as well as
the western savannahs. The prairie-wolf, the grey fox, the Virginian
hare, live in the prairies; the Wapiti, a large stag, inhabits those on
both sides of the Rocky Mountains; and the Prongbuck, an antelope
fleeter than a horse, roams throughout the western part of the
continent, and migrates to California and Mexico in winter. The musk-ox
and shaggy bison are peculiar to North America. The musk-ox travels to
Parry’s Islands in the Arctic regions, yet it never has been seen in
Greenland or on the north-western side of the continent. The shaggy
bison goes south to the Arkansas, roams in herds of thousands over the
prairies of the Mississippi and on both sides of the Rocky Mountains. It
never wanders farther north than the 30th parallel, the southern limit
of the musk-ox. A marmot known as the prairie-dog is universal.
There are at least eight varieties of American dogs, several of which
are natives of the far north. The lagopus, or isatis, native in
Spitzbergen and Greenland, is found in all the Arctic regions of America
and Asia and in some of the Kurile Islands. Dogs are employed to draw
sledges in Newfoundland and Canada; and the Esquimaux travel drawn by
dogs as well as by reindeer. The dogs are strong and docile. The
Esquimaux dogs were mute till they learned to bark from dogs in our
discovery ships.
There are 13 species of the ruminating genus in North America, including
the bison, the musk-ox of the Arctic regions, the big-horned sheep, and
the goat of the Rocky Mountains. The horse, now roaming wild in
innumerable herds over the plains of South America, was unknown there
till the Spanish conquest. The quadrupeds of the temperate zone are
distributed in distinct groups: those of the state of New York,
consisting of about 40 species, are different from those of the Arctic
regions, and also from those of South Carolina and Georgia; while in
Texas another assemblage of species prevails. The Racoon, the
Coatimondi, and the Kinkajou are all natives of the southern States.
There are 118 species of rodentia or gnawing animals in North America,
rats, mice, squirrels, beavers, &c., many of which, especially in the
north, appear to be identical with those in the high latitudes of Europe
and Asia. The genera of very different latitudes are often
representative but never identical. Squirrels abound in North America;
the grey squirrel is found in thousands.
There are 21 species of Opossum in this continent, a family of the
pouched animals which are so peculiarly characteristic of Australia. Of
these, the Virginian opossum inhabits the whole extent of the American
continent between the great Canadian lakes and Paraguay, and also the
West Indian islands, where it is called the manitu; and two other
animals of that order live in Mexico. There is a porcupine in the United
States and Canadian forests which climbs trees. The bats are different
from those in Europe, and, excepting two, are very local. In California
there are ounces, polecats, the Berenda (an animal peculiar to that
country), and a deer of remarkable size and speed.
The high land of Mexico forms a very decided line of division between
the fauna of North and that of the South America; yet some North
American animals are seen beyond it, particularly two of the bears, and
one of the otters, which inhabits the continent from the icy ocean to
beyond Brazil. On the other hand, the Puma, Jaguar, Opossum, Kinkajou,
and Peccari, have crossed the barrier from South America to California
and the United States.
In the varied and extensive regions of South America there are several
centres of a peculiar fauna, according as the country is mountainous or
level, covered with forest or grass, fertile or desert, but the mammalia
are inferior in size to those of the old world. The largest, most
powerful, and perfect animals of this class are confined to the old
continent. The South American quadrupeds are on a smaller scale, more
feeble and more gentle; many of them, as the toothless group and the
sloths, are of anomalous and less perfect structure than the rest of the
animal creation, but the fauna of South America is so local and so
peculiar, that the species of five of the terrestrial orders, which are
indigenous there, are found nowhere else.
The monkey tribe are in myriads in the forests of tropical America and
Brazil, but they never go north of the Isthmus of Darien, nor farther
south than the Rio de la Plata. They differ widely from those in the old
world, bearing less resemblance to the human race, but they are more
gentle and lively, and, notwithstanding their agility, are often a prey
to the vulture and puma.
There are two great American families of four-handed animals—the
sapajous with prehensile tails, by which they suspend themselves, and
swing from bough to bough. Some of these inhabitants of the woods are
very noisy, especially the Argualis, a large ape whose bawling is heard
a mile off. The howlers are generally very large, and have a wider range
than any of the genus; one species, the Mycetus rufimanus or beelzebub,
ascends the Andes to the height of 11,000 feet. The cebus or weepers,
which are frequently brought to Europe, belong also to this family; the
genus has a greater number of species than any other in the New World,
but a very narrow location; they are most abundant in Guiana.
The saquis or bushy-tailed monkeys form the other great American family.
The fox-monkey sleeps during the day; it frequents the deepest forests
from the Orinoco to Paraguay. Squirrel-monkeys inhabit the banks of the
Orinoco, and the night-monkeys, with very large eyes, live in Guiana and
Brazil. The marmosets are pretty little animals, easily tamed,
especially the Midas leonina, not more than 7 or 8 inches long. Some
American monkeys have no thumb, others have a versatile thumb on both
their hands and feet. In the New World the monkey tribe inhabit the
continent from Honduras to beyond Brazil, in thousands, yet each kind
has its own peculiar location.
The forests are also inhabited by opossums, a family of the marsupial
tribe, or animals with pouches, in which they carry their young; they
are analogous to those which form the distinguishing feature of the
Australian fauna, but of distinct genera and species. Few of these
animals are larger than a rat, and they mostly live on trees, except one
kind which is aquatic, found near the small streams from Honduras to
Brazil. A species in Surinam carries its young upon its back; the
elegant opossum is very numerous on the west side of the Andes, and
there only. All the opossums and the yassacks of this country have
thumbs on their hind feet, opposite to the toes, so that they can grasp;
they are, moreover, distinguished from the Australian family by a long
prehensile tail, and by greater agility. The numerous tribe of sapajou
monkeys, the ant-eaters, the kinkajou, and a species of porcupine, have
also grasping tails, a property of many South American animals.
Five genera and 20 species of the Edentata are characteristic of this
continent, and exclusively confined to South America: they are the
sloths of two kinds, the ai and unau; the Armadilloes, Chlamyphores, and
Anteaters. The animals of these five genera have very different habits:
the sloths, as their name implies, are the most inactive of animals;
they inhabit the forests from the southern limit of Mexico to Rio de
Janeiro, and to the height of 3000 feet on the Andes in the region of
palms and scitamineæ. Of these, the common sloth or Ai ranges from
Honduras to Brazil; while the Unau, the larger of the two, is confined
to Guiana. The Armadillo, in its coat of mail, is in perpetual motion,
and can outrun a man in speed. They live on all the plains and
table-lands of South America even to Paraguay. The one-banded armadillo
rolls itself up like a ball; the nine-banded species is eaten by the
natives; the giant armadillo, 3 feet long, inhabits the forests only.
Most species of these animals are nocturnal, and burrow in the earth in
the Pampas. The chlamyphores are also burrowing animals, peculiar to the
province of Cuyo on the eastern slope of the Chilian Andes; they have
the faculty of sitting upright. The ant-eater, larger than a
Newfoundland dog, with shorter legs, defends itself against the jaguar
with its power claws; it inhabits the swampy savannahs and damp forests
from Columbia to Paraguay, and from the Atlantic to the foot of the
Andes; its flesh, like that of some other American animals, has a
flavour of musk. The little ant-eater has a prehensile tail, and lives
on trees in the tropical forests, feeding on the larvæ of bees, wasps,
honey, and ants; another of similar habits lives in Brazil and Guiana.
The cat tribe in South America is beautiful and powerful: the Puma, the
lion of America, is found both in the mountains and the plains, in great
numbers; so different are its habits in different places, that in Chile
it is timid and flies from a dog; in Peru it is bold, though it rarely
attacks a man. The Jaguar, which inhabits the lower forests, is very
abundant, and so ferocious that it has been known to spring upon Indians
in a canoe; hunting as it sometimes does in troops, it has been known to
destroy the inhabitants of entire Indian villages; it is one of the few
South American animals that cross the Isthmus of Darien, being found in
California, on the territory of the Mississippi, and has been seen in
Canada.
The vampire is a very large bat, much dreaded by the natives, because it
enters their huts at night, and, though it seldom attacks human beings,
it wounds calves and small animals, which sometimes die from the loss of
blood. The other three South American bats are harmless.
The only ruminating animals that existed in South America prior to the
Conquest were the four species of the genus Auchenia—the Llama, the
Alpaca, the Vicuña, and the Guanáco: the three first are exclusively
confined to the colder and more elevated regions of the Peruvian Andes;
the last has a wider geographical range, extending to the plains of
Patagonia, and even to the southernmost extremity of the continent. The
Llama inhabits the high valleys of the Peru-Bolivian Andes, its
favourite region being in the valley of the lake of Titicaca: it was the
only beast of burthen possessed by the aborigines; hence, we find it
wherever the Incas carried their conquests and civilization, from the
equator to beyond the southern tropic. It is still extensively employed
by the Indian as a beast of burthen, and its wool, though coarse, is
used by the aborigines: like all domestic animals, it varies in colour;
its flesh is nauseous, black, and ill tasted.
The Alpaca, or paco, a gentle and handsome animal, although more closely
allied to the llama than any of its congeners, is a distinct species: it
inhabits at still more elevated places than the llama, its favourite
haunts being on the streams descending from the snowy peaks: it is only
found in a domestic state; it is reared for its wool, which is extremely
fine, silky, and long, and which now bears a high price, from its
introduction into some of our finest woollen tissues. The vicuña is only
found in the wild state, in the plains on the Andes, as high as 1500
feet: its wool is much prized for its fineness. The animal has a shrill
whistle; it is easily domesticated. The Guanáco, by some naturalists
considered erroneously as the parent stock of the llama and alpaca, is
also only found in the wild state: it is seen as far north as lat. 12°
S., is very abundant and in large flocks on the Bolivian and Chilian
Andes, and has been seen as far as the southern extremity of the
American continent. All these animals feed on a species of coarse wiry
grass called ichu.[185]
Several species of deer are found in the tropical regions of South
America, and a remarkable species, with fragile hair like that of the
roebuck, the cervus (Andium), as high as 11,000 feet in the Andes.
The rodentia, or gnawers, of South America, are very numerous; there are
92 in Brazil alone: there are only 8 species of squirrels and 64 species
of rats and mice, some of which are very peculiar.
The agoutis represent our hares in the plains of Patagonia, in Paraguay,
&c., and extend as far as Guiana. The family of the cavias, or
guinea-pigs, are found in Brazil, and some species in the great
table-lands of the Peru-Bolivian Andes; the Echymys, or spiny rat, is an
inhabitant of the shores of the Rio de la Plata and Paraguay; the
Vizcacha of the pampas, a burrowing animal, inhabits the great plain of
Buenos Ayres; an animal bearing the same name is frequent in the rocky
districts of the Andes, as high as 15,000 feet above the sea; and the
beautiful Chinchilla, nearly allied to the latter, whose fur is so
highly esteemed, inhabits the same regions at the same great elevations
in the Andes of Peru, Bolivia, and Chile: the best fur of the chinchilla
is collected in the Bolivia province of Potosi, and in the Chilian
province of Copiabo. The largest of all the rodentia, the Cabiai
(Myopotamus), inhabits the banks of the great rivers of tropical
America, where its habits resemble, according to some travellers, those
of the hippopotamus. The Paca, the next in size, is less aquatic in its
habits, and lives in the dense forests of Brazil and Paraguay.
It is very remarkable that in a country which has the most luxuriant
vegetation there should not be one species of hollow-horned ruminants,
as the ox, sheep, goat, or antelope; and it is still more extraordinary
that the existing animals of South America, which are so nearly allied
to the extinct inhabitants of the same soil, should be so inferior in
size not only to them, but even to the living quadrupeds of South
Africa, which is comparatively a desert. The quantity of vegetation in
Britain at any one time exceeds the quantity on an equal area in the
interior of Africa ten-fold, yet Mr. Darwin has computed that the weight
of 10 of the largest south African quadrupeds is 24 times greater than
that of the same number of quadrupeds of South America; for in South
America there is no animal the size of a cow, so that there is no
relation between the bulk of the species and the vegetation of the
countries they inhabit.
The largest animals indigenous in the West Indian islands are the
Agouti, the Raccoon, the Houtias, a native of the forests of Cuba; the
Didelphous carnivora and the Kinkajou are common also to the continent:
the kinkajou is a solitary instance of a carnivorous animal with a
prehensile tail.
AUSTRALIAN QUADRUPEDS.
Australia is not farther separated from the rest of the world by
geographical position than by its productions. Its animals are creatures
by themselves, of an entirely unusual type; few in species, and still
fewer individually, if the vast extent of country be taken into
consideration; and there has not been one large animal discovered. There
are only 53 species of land quadrupeds in New Holland, and there is not
a single example of the ruminating or pachydermatous animals, so useful
to man, among them; there are no native horses, oxen, or sheep, yet all
these thrive and multiply on the grassy steppes of the country, which
seem to be so well suited to them. There are none of the monkey tribe;
indeed they could not exist in a country where there is no fruit.
Of the species of indigenous quadrupeds, 40 are found nowhere else, and
138 are marsupial or pouched animals, distinguished from all others by
their young being, as it were, prematurely born and nourished in the
pouch till they are mature.[186] Though all the members of this numerous
family agree in this circumstance, they are dissimilar in appearance,
internal structure, in their teeth and feet, consequently in their
habits; two genera live on vegetable food, one set are gnawers and
another toothless. The Kangaroo and the kangaroo-rat walk on their hind
legs, and go by bounds, aided by their strong tail; the rat holds its
food in its hands like the squirrel; the opossum walks on all fours; the
phalangers live on trees, and swing by their bushy tail, some burrow in
the sand; the flying opossum or Phalanger, peculiarly an Australian
animal, lives on the leaves of the gum-tree; by expanding the skin of
its sides it supports itself in the air in its leaps from bough to
bough. Several of the genera come out at night only, a characteristic of
many Australian animals.
The pouched tribe vary in size from that of a large dog to a mouse; the
kangaroos, which are the largest, are easily domesticated, and are used
for food by the natives. Some go in large herds in the mountains, others
live in the plains; however, they have become scarce near the British
colonies, and, with all other native animals, are likely to be
extirpated. In Van Diemen’s Land they are less persecuted; several
species exist there. The kangaroos, of which there are 40 species, are
more widely dispersed than any of the marsupial animals of the old
world. They exist not only in New Holland and Van Diemen’s Land, but
also in New Guinea and Java. Some are limited within narrow bounds: the
banded kangaroo, the handsomest of his tribe, is found only in the
islands of Shark’s Bay, on the west coast of Australia. The Wombat is
peculiar to Australia, the islands in Bass’s Strait, and Van Diemen’s
Land; to which the two largest carnivorous marsupials peculiarly belong,
called by the natives the tiger hyæna, and the native devil; both are
nocturnal, predatory, and ferocious. A wild dog in the woods, whose
habits are ferocious, is, with the tiger hyæna, the largest carnivorous
animal in Australia.
The gnawing animals are aquatic and very peculiar, but the edentata of
New Holland are quite anomalous; of these there are two genera, the
Ornithorhynchus, or duck-billed mole, and the Echidna: they are the link
that connects the edentata with the pouched tribe, and mammal with
oviparous animals. The ornithorhynchus is about 14 inches long, and
covered with thick brown fur; its head is similar to that of a
quadruped, ending in a bill like that of a duck: it has short furry legs
with half-webbed feet, and the hind feet are armed with sharp claws. It
inhabits burrows on the banks of rivers, which have two entrances, one
above, the other below the level of the water, which it seldom leaves,
feeding on insects and seeds in the mud.
The echidna is similar in its general structure to the ornithorhynchus,
but entirely different in external appearance, being covered with quills
like the porcupine; it is also a burrowing animal, sleeps during winter,
and lives on ants in summer.
A singular analogy exists between Australia and South America in this
respect, that the living animals of the two countries are stamped with
the type of their ancient geological inhabitants, while in England and
elsewhere the difference between the existing and extinct generations of
beings is most decided. Australia and South America seem still to retain
some of those conditions that were peculiar to the most ancient eras.
Thus, each tribe of the innumerable families that inhabit the earth, the
air, and the waters, has a limited sphere. How wonderful the quantity of
life that now is, and the myriads of beings that have appeared and
vanished![187] Dust has returned to dust through a long succession of
ages, and has been continually remoulded into new forms of existence—not
an atom has been annihilated; the fate of the vital spark that has
animated it, with a vividness sometimes approaching to reason, is one of
the deep mysteries of Providence.