The Geographical Distribution of Animals, Volume 1: With a study of the relations of living and extinct faunas as elucidating the past changes of the Earth's surfaceWallace, Alfred Russel
Science
The Geographical Distribution of Animals, Volume 1: With a study of the relations of living and extinct faunas as elucidating the past changes of the Earth's surface
Wallace, Alfred Russel
Paleontology; Zoogeography
The Coleoptera of these islands have been also collected by Mr. Wollaston,
and he finds that they have generally the same European character as those
of the Canaries and Madeira, several of the peculiar Atlantic genera, such
as _Acalles_ and _Hegeter_, occurring, while others are represented by new
but closely allied genera. Out of 275 species 91 were found also in the
Canaries and 81 in the Madeiran group; a wonderful amount of similarity
when we consider the distance and isolation of these islands and their
great diversity of climate and vegetation.
This connection of the four groups of Atlantic islands now referred to,
receives further support from the occurrence of land-shells of the subgenus
_Leptaxis_ in all the groups, as well as in Majorca; and by another
subgenus, _Hemicycla_, being common to the Canaries and Cape Verd islands.
Combining these several classes of facts, we seem justified in extending
the Mediterranean sub-region to include the Cape Verd Islands.
{216}_III.--The Siberian Sub-region, or Northern Asia._
This large and comparatively little-known subdivision of the Palæarctic
region, extends from the Caspian Sea to Kamschatka and Behring's Straits, a
distance of about 4,000 miles; and from the shores of the Arctic Ocean to
the high Himalayas of Sikhim in North Latitude 29°, on the same parallel as
Delhi. To the east of the Caspian Sea and the Ural Mountains is a great
extent of lowland which is continued round the northern coast, becoming
narrower as it approaches the East Cape. Beyond this, in a general E.N.E.
direction, rise hills and uplands, soon becoming lofty mountains, which
extend in an unbroken line from the Hindu Koosh, through the Thian Shan,
Altai and Yablonoi Mountains, to the Stanovoi range in the north-eastern
extremity of Asia. South of this region is a great central basin, which is
almost wholly desert; beyond which again is the vast plateau of Thibet,
with the Kuenlun, Karakorum, and Himalayan snow-capped ranges, forming the
most extensive elevated district on the globe.
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