The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-28 00:00:00

The Geography of the World.

The Standard last week gave a most interesting
review of a work entitled " The Geographical Dis-
tribution of Mammals," by ANDREW MURRAY. It
commences by stating that the book is written prin-
cipally for scientific naturalists, but adds, most
truly, that not to these alone will it be interesting.
We make a few extracts
Mr. Murray's opening chapter treats, as might
be expected, of the origin of species—a very im-
portant topic, as the whole question of the geogra-
phical arrangement and relation depends upon it.
He is a strenuous opponent of Darwin's progressive
theory. Mr. Darwin, as the most superficial
student is aware, contends that a constantly
progressive development has been going on from
the first, and the great struggle for life, while
the weaker has perished, the stronger have
produced improved types, and adapted them-
selves in the due course of ages to different
conditions. Thus the fish, as the waters receded,
and great mud swamps were formed, gradually
adapted themselves to their altered condition, their
fins developed into legs, and they became lizards.
The great lizard reptiles of the antediluvian world
in like way change into beasts, and thence upwards
through the monkey into man. Mr. Murray
strongly combats this theory. lie looks in vain
through the existing creation and through fossil
remains of bygone eras, and finds no sign of any
animals passing from one stage to another. He
finds fish and lizards, but no remains of animals in
the transition stage between these. He believes
that one of the great laws of nature is order, and
that nature is essentially and wholly opposed to
change. This he instances from the well-known
difficulty of propagating hybrids between different
species. Hybrids may be produced, it is true, either
by accident or design, between animals or plants of
closely-allied species, but they are generally barren,
and only in occasional instances can they be repro-
duced. If constant change were taking place, as
Mr. Darwin asserts, there would be no fixed species
or variety; whereas we know that, going back at any
rate for some thousands of years, a lion has been a
lion, and a horse a horse. But while Mr. Murray
disbelieves in the progressive theory altogether, and
denies that change is constantly going on, he
believes that nature, acting by changes of climate,
does produce changes and varieties of species ; but
he affirms that she acts simultaneously upon the
whole of the race, or genera, thus influenced. Some
receive the impulse more readily than others.
What may be felt by one may not be felt by
another. Constitutions differ. Thus some species
of plants or animals have a wide range, others a
narrow one. But wherever the change makes
itself felt, then modification commences. Thus
every country has its own race of man, with general
and sometimes strongly-marked facial and physical
peculiarities. Not to mention the difference between
the inhabitants of the various continents, each
separate nation may be distinguished from others.
An Englishman and au Italian, a German and a
Spaniard, could hardly be mistaken for each other.
We have before our eyes an instance of the manner
in which nature acts in forming a nation with dis-
tinct characteristics in the Anglo, or ratherEuropeo-
American race. There is no question but that in
their, case nature is assimilating the numerous mixed
races of which the American nation is composed to
the common type with which we are all familiar,
a type differing strongly from that of any other
nation."
He next discusses various theories in the modes
of dispersal of species ; contending that animals
and plants prefer to remain in the same climate
and condition to which they have been accustomed,
and that emigration is not the mode to account for
races, with similar features and habits, to have once
come from the same lands. From this point Mr.
MURRAY proceeds to examine these views in relation
to the geography of the world at no very distant
period back, and the changes that have taken place.
These changes are infinitely greater than are
generally supposed probable, for Mr. Murray main-
tains that a vast continent existed in the South
Pacific Ocean, uniting Australia with South America,
and another in the Indian Ocean, joining it to South
Africa, and stretching northward up into Ilindostan,
Borneo, Java, and the northern group of the Indian
Archipelago, did not, in all probability, form part
of this continent, but were connected with the main
land of Burmah. This great tract of land was not
all necesssarily above water at the same time, as
great breaks in its continuity may have existed, the
different forces of raising and lowering the land
being at work simultaneously over different por-
tions of it.

" In the northern hemisphere the changes were
no less great. A continent extended across the
Atlantic from somewhere about the longitude of the
Azores to Newfoundland. Great Britain formed
part of the mainland which stretched away north,
and comprised Greenland and Iceland, which were
also joined to North America. The South of
Europe was under water, and the Mediterranean
and Arctic Seas communicated by the way of the
Black Sea and Caspian. The map of the world must,
therefore, have presented an entirely different aspect
to that which it now wears, and most of these great
changes, the risings and sinkings of the surface,
which have occasioned the present alteration, have
taken place since the glacial period. At the termi-
nation of the secondary period a great change had
taken place in the condition of the earth, and the
forms of vegetable and animal life, which had before
been few and simple, increased very greatly. This
development is called the eocene period. And as
the temperature of the land was everywhere simi-
lar, this flora extended nearly over the whole exist-
ing world. Remains of the eocene period are
found in Europe, Asia, and America, as also in
North Africa, but none in Africa south of the
Sahara, nor in Australia, which do not appear even
to have been submerged subsequent to this epoch.
It was towards the termination of this time that
Australia was separatedgrom the main land, for her
present vegetation is almost entirely eocene, and
closely resembles that of which we find fossils
in Europe, North America, and Asia. This con-
tinuation of the same flora shows that Australia
can never have experienced any great change of

climate since that period, and that she cannot have
been connected with the mainland, or she would
have shared in the changes which are now going
on there. PI he eocene period was apparently brought
to a sadden termination ; but the climate of the
north began to change, various rises and mbsidenes
of the land took place, and a new type of vegetation
of the American character spread across the whole
northern hemisphere. This was the miocene period.
The termination of the miocene epoch in Europe
was brought about by the glacial period, when vast
sheets of ice came down and covered the whole of
Northern Europe. The exact cause of this great
change of temperature is a matter of dispute ; but
it was most probably caused by the alterations which
were being caused in the distribution of land and
sea, by the subsidences and upheavals which were
taking place upon such a grand scale, the great
continent in the Indian Ocean and Pacific having
already disappeared, except where the coral in,;ects
were busy at work rearing their long walls upon
what was formerly the coast line. This great sea of
ice swept down over the whole of Europe that was
then in existence, and as the Mediterranean extended
up through the Black Sea and the Caspian to the
Arctic Sea, the vegetation, instead of taking refuge
to the south of the glacial line, was cut off by the
sea, and perished almost entirely. In North
America a similar sweep was made, but the flora
and fauna took refuge in the south-western extre-
mity, in Mexico, and when the ice gradually
retired followed it north, and again occupied
America, but only the western portion, for a
great sea extended up over Texas and the Mis:
sissppi -Valley, and probably extended north,
and joined the North Pacific by British
Columbia. As might be expected, therefore, the
present flora of Mexico, California, and Western
America differs materially from that of Eastern
America, but resembles very closely the fossil
miocene flora. The question next presents itself—
How did Eastern America and Europe again receive
vegetation ? Probably from Asia, where life had
taken refuge in Southern China and Burmah, and
from which at the retreat of the ice it again spread
north and west, crossing into Europe by the con-
nection which was now for the fiArst time formed
between Russia and Asia, an thence by the
northern continent between Britain, Iceland, and
Yorth America, and by the more southern con-
tinent between the Azores and Newfoundland.
But in this great migration of animal and vegetable
life considerable changes took place from the altera-
tion of climate ; and accordingly the present tpye
is considerably altered from the former one, the
greatest number of miocene plants being found
exactly where they might have been looked for
—namely, along the shores of the Mediterranean,
where they may have taken shelter upon project-
ing peninsulas, which may have escaped the sweep
of the ice-drift."

" The existence of the Indian Ocean continent is,
however, still more clearly proved by the chapter
upon the distribution of man—that is, if Mr. Mur-
ray's views upon the subject are correct. He divides
man into two races only, the white and the black,
believing that the brown or copper races are only
varieties of the white, for he finds that there is no
line in nature by which the white and copper va-
rieties can be separated. The tribes in Siberia
which inhabit the neighbourhood of the Esquimaux
can with difficulty be detected from that people ;
the changes through the Tartar to the Chinese upon
one side, and the Tartar and Russian on the other,
are very slight; also between the Tartar and Koords,
and through the Koords to the Hindoos. In
America the same gradual change takes place from
the Esquimaux, through the red Indian, to the
Mexican. Mr. Murray being able to find no marked
line, assumes, and with reason, that all white,
brown, and red races, are varieties of the same
species. The black races inhabited the great Southern
continent of Africa and the Indian Ocean, stretching
in fact nearly round the southern hemisphere, but
separated from South America before the introduc-
tion of man. The continents and islands over the
whole of this space are inhabited by black races, dif-
fering as do the white in variety, but still clearly of
one species. These lines of separation between black
and white are marked by a clear line ; in only one
portion of the earth is there a mixture, and this is
exactly where it would be supposing, as before stated,
that the great southern continent had extended
north into Ilindostan, Burmah, and Cochin China.
In these countries, and also in Sumatra and Borneo,
are hill tribes of black people, differing in language,
habits, and, indeed, in every characteristic, from
those around them."

" Let us picture to ourselves the wonderful changes
which the existence of these tribes in these positions
show us must have taken place. The whole of this
land was inhabited by great black nations. Pre-
sently, however, a great change took place ; the
land began to sink, the sea rushed in over the level
plains, and scenes of terror and death must have
taken place upon an enormous scale. Indeed this
may have been the Noahican deluge. As the land
continued to sink—a process which may have con-
tinued over thousands of years—the survivors took
refuge upon the hills, which had now become islands ;
and here they must have maintained a struggle for
existence until the motion once again changed
and the earth began to rise. When, the plains
showed above the surface and became dry land they
descended and took possession of them. This as-
unding motion continued until the land was higher
than it is at present, for, as has been shown, Sumatra
and Borneo were connected, after their submergence
and the destruction of their eocene flora and fauna
with the main land. The black races were not,
however, to retain possession of the fertile plains,
for a great invasion of a more numerous and war-
like white race from the countries lying to their
north once again drove them to take refuge in their
hill fastnesses, where they have ever since remained.
Only one more change took place, namely, the fresh
sinking of the land which separated the islands of
the Indian Archipelago from the main land, having
now a similar flora to that possessed by the con-
tinent, and with a white race spread over their plains
and black tribes sheltered in the hills. IVe have
given a mere outline of Mr. Murray's arguments
upon these great and interesting theories, and
must leave it to those who may desire more
thoroughly to investigate them to read the work for
themselves."