Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1873-08-07
gflistellaueuns &eadiug,
LIFE IN THE TROPICS.

The idea generally entertained of the trop
les is that they are Eden.like regions, abound
ing in the most brilliant flowers, the most
magnificent birds, as we'll as the most varied
and abundant animal life. To compare them
with temperate regions in these particulars, to
declare that the temperate zones are, in fact
the true lands of floral and animal abundance,
would have sounded to our ancestors like the
language of madman. Yet the voice OF
modern discovery has dispelled this ideal, as
it has destroyed dozen other strongholds OF
ancient belief, and our fancies must veer to a
new conception of the realms OF perpetual
summer.
We are now assured that there is no special
abundance of fowersin the tropics. Wallace
tells US that equatorial landscapes are marked
by fine foliage and rarity Of flowers. The
large and magnificent flowers which we know
to be of tropical origin are rare and are gath
cred from widely-separated districts. The
short period of bloom usual in these regions
also causes paucity of floral adornments
and as rule temperate landscapes far exceed
tropical in variety and abundance of flowers
The same may be said in regard to bird and
animal life, the tropics in this particular also
falling far below the temperates. Strain wan:
dered for weeks through the woods of Central
America without seeing any animal, and rare
ly bird, and, so far as he could judge, the
rivers contained no fish. Even the frigid
zones appear to surpass the tropics in this re-
spect Thus, in Alaska animal life is abun'
dant in summer, and the rivers swarm with
fish the white hare, the moose and beaver
abound The Kamtchatdales have thousands
of reindeer, and as rule the short summer
of the extreme North is marked by great
animal abundance. So in regard to the song
of birds. It is almost entirely temperate
phenomenon. Song is indeed rather an ex
ceptional feature than an attribute of birds
The singers are omparatively few, and these
few dwell chiefly outside the tropics. Why
these few sweet.voced tribes have been so far
favored above their contemporaries is one OF
the questions in natural science which yet
await solution. Yet, in the tropics are found
the largest and finest beasts, the most poison
Gus reptiles and insects, the most brilliant
birds and flowers. The carnivorous 6erceness
may be one principle reason of the paucity Of
life, as it needs wide district to support each
of these rapacious animals. So there may be
a lack of food necessary to support other gen
tie creatures. We have an instance Of this in
the temperate zones in the absence of bird
life in the pine forests. The great woods ot
Russia are strangely silent frem this cause
the pines seeming incapable of sustaining the
smaller animal life
The character of life in the tropics is in re-
markabe accordance with the intensity of so
lar light and heat to which they are subjected
The fire of the sun seems to impart ierceness
to the animals, its rich hues to give intense
brilliance to birds and flowers, its production
of malaria to fill with venom the insects and
reptiles The equatorial regions are thus tru
ly the lands of the sun, whose warmth and
brilliance is typi6ed throughout the tropics in
a thousand symbols, even the human race
there gaining an impulsive and passionate
character which is foreign to the cooler ye1
more enduring dwellers within the temperate
zones.