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412
LIFE.
ago; ten sorts of fish inhabit its coasts, while the lower orders of animals
are represented by only a very small number of forms: only twenty-three
insects and fifteen mollusks have been discovered there. To the south
of the northern regions the number of species, genera, and families is
multiplied ten-fold, or even a hundred-fold; and in the equatorial countries, where vegetation exhibits all its luxuriance and wealth, the fauna
shows also a marvelous variety of organisms, and its types are of the
most beautiful and dazzling colors. A single naturalist, Bates, after a
stay of eleven years on the banks of the Amazon, brought back a zoological collection of 14,712 animals, 8000 of which were new to science.
How many must still remain to be discovered, especially among the insects and Annulosae. According to Agassiz, the Amazon alone possesses
three times as many different fish as the immense basin of the Atlantic.
It is true that, if the countries nearest the pole are poor in species,
these species themselves are, for the most part, represented in immense
numbers. On all the promontories and in all the fjords of the Hebrides,
the Shetland and Faroe Islands, Norway, Spitzbergen, and Nova Zembla,
the shelves of rock, similar to the shelves of an amphitheatre, are occupied, far as eye can see, by ranks of birds crowded together like an army
of soldiers. When these prodigious flocks of birds set off in search of
prey, they rise like clouds, and man has only to shoot at hazard in order
to strike down his victims, unless, armed with a stick, he prefers to dispatch the females, which, screaming with rage, remain devotedly covering their broods.
The oceanic faunas must necessarily present a greater regularity in
their distribution than the terrestrial faunas, for they are not liable to
such changes in physical conditions as affect the surface of the land.
' The sea is not, like the land, full of obstacles which check the distribution
of animals, and modify in various ways the configuration of their domain.
Thus the limits of each great maritime fauna are precisely those of the
basin where this fauna is developed; to the east and west, they are the
shores of the continents; to the north and south, they are the different
climates which arrest the species, and cause them to be succeeded by
other animal forms.
Edward Forbes was the first who attempted to. draw a map of the distribution of living organisms in the seas, and since then the general results which he indicated have been confirmed in great part by the various savants who have followed him in this way. Each region or maritime province is characterized by species which may serve as representatives of all the other organisms of the province, and which attain their
greatest development in these parts. From all sides of the central zone,
where the fauna peculiar to the province shows itself in all its richness,
the species go on diminishing by degrees toward the other regions, and
are finally replaced by the prevailing species which in this portion ofthe
sea constitute the bulk of the marine population. Forbes compares the
domain of each of these fauna to a nebula, the luminous points of which,
| Title | The ocean, atmosphere, and life |
| Creator | Reclus, Elisée |
| Publisher | Harper |
| Place of Publication | New York |
| Date | 1873 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000455 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | 412 LIFE. ago; ten sorts of fish inhabit its coasts, while the lower orders of animals are represented by only a very small number of forms: only twenty-three insects and fifteen mollusks have been discovered there. To the south of the northern regions the number of species, genera, and families is multiplied ten-fold, or even a hundred-fold; and in the equatorial countries, where vegetation exhibits all its luxuriance and wealth, the fauna shows also a marvelous variety of organisms, and its types are of the most beautiful and dazzling colors. A single naturalist, Bates, after a stay of eleven years on the banks of the Amazon, brought back a zoological collection of 14,712 animals, 8000 of which were new to science. How many must still remain to be discovered, especially among the insects and Annulosae. According to Agassiz, the Amazon alone possesses three times as many different fish as the immense basin of the Atlantic. It is true that, if the countries nearest the pole are poor in species, these species themselves are, for the most part, represented in immense numbers. On all the promontories and in all the fjords of the Hebrides, the Shetland and Faroe Islands, Norway, Spitzbergen, and Nova Zembla, the shelves of rock, similar to the shelves of an amphitheatre, are occupied, far as eye can see, by ranks of birds crowded together like an army of soldiers. When these prodigious flocks of birds set off in search of prey, they rise like clouds, and man has only to shoot at hazard in order to strike down his victims, unless, armed with a stick, he prefers to dispatch the females, which, screaming with rage, remain devotedly covering their broods. The oceanic faunas must necessarily present a greater regularity in their distribution than the terrestrial faunas, for they are not liable to such changes in physical conditions as affect the surface of the land. ' The sea is not, like the land, full of obstacles which check the distribution of animals, and modify in various ways the configuration of their domain. Thus the limits of each great maritime fauna are precisely those of the basin where this fauna is developed; to the east and west, they are the shores of the continents; to the north and south, they are the different climates which arrest the species, and cause them to be succeeded by other animal forms. Edward Forbes was the first who attempted to. draw a map of the distribution of living organisms in the seas, and since then the general results which he indicated have been confirmed in great part by the various savants who have followed him in this way. Each region or maritime province is characterized by species which may serve as representatives of all the other organisms of the province, and which attain their greatest development in these parts. From all sides of the central zone, where the fauna peculiar to the province shows itself in all its richness, the species go on diminishing by degrees toward the other regions, and are finally replaced by the prevailing species which in this portion ofthe sea constitute the bulk of the marine population. Forbes compares the domain of each of these fauna to a nebula, the luminous points of which, |
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