The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1895-08-16
TERRESTRIAL LIFE.
Anomalies in the distribution of Animals
ON the Earth's >urfnce.

ne apparent anomalies IN the DIS
tribut.on OF animals on the surface Of
the earth have for a long time attract
Ell the attention of the zoologist. How
came the lemurS, those frail inhab-
iiants of tropical forests. to live along
the southern parts of Asia. separated
from their kin in Africa and Madagas-
car by the wide ocean? Why should
ostrichlil<e birds live in Africa and Aus
tralia, and again at the southern part
of South America? Not long ago zoolo-
gists. relying upon the current opinion
Of geology, played the Titan with land
and water, inventing great continents
and planting them in the oceans. Thus
at their command "Lemuria" arose
from out the sea 10 make land pas
sage from Madagascar to India; even
at the present moment many assert
that a huge continent, now sunk in the
waste of waters round the southern
hemisphere, stretched from the cape to
Australia and from Australia to Pata-
lonia.
But geology, as il has abandoned the
theory of catastrophes for the theory
of slow Transformation. is also giving
up belief in such gigantic alterations
= land and sea. The great oceans,
The great land masses. il tells rs, date
rs far back a. geological evidence goes.
Oceans and continents may have al
tered their outlines: Malaysia. now an
archipelago, was once a continent.
africa, now continuous land mass.
may have been broken IN into Islands
hy the intruding sea. In great land
areas, continuous slow rising and fall
iur has occurred each area passing re-
currently through successive phases;
nrchi pelagors have risen to be in
Jcuted continents. ndcnted continents
To Ice a continuous mass, and the whole
has then fallen back again TO its orig
nal con iition. But the sea and the
and in their broad masses remain a,
when first divided.
What, then IS the form Of this sem
pitcrnal couiiguration? In the minds
of most Of rs il is a vague image re-
memhcrei from a distorted "Merca-
tors Projection" or from the eastern
and western hemi>phercs hattened on
the pages of an atlas. These images
are dimmed toward the poles. and 50
fail to give the most striking aspect
of sea and land But, taking globe.
turn either pole alternately toward
YOU In the south a clump Of icebound
land. well within the Atlantic circle.
surrounds the pole All else is the
wide domain of ocean broken only bv
tapcring and Isolated tongues of land.
south America, the Cape. Australia,
leaning down from the north On the
other hand, all the great continents
expand in the northern hemisphere
and shoulder each other around the
pole. America is separated from Asia
only by the >hallowest and narrowe~t
Of straits; an elevation Of few
fathoms would unite Greenland with
Europe. The great land area of the
globe is as a cap thrown over the
northern hemisphere, with only tat
tered fringes hanging across the equa.
tor to the south.
And where dad terrestrial animals
come into being? Tradition places
their home eastward of Eden. Science
points certainly to some part of tn,
great northern land area "a, the center
of life for the larger terrestrial forms.
We know that these arose succeSsiyr-
Is primitive birds like the ostriche~
coming before higher forms, like Nh,
pheusants and singing birds. The
pouched marsupial, preceding The
antelopes and the LION the lcmu~~
coming before mau-Iikn apes Each
wave of life, spread over the whole
continuous area, producing after it,
kind; then, pressing around the north
eru hemisphere, ii met "A thousanl dif.
orent conditions Of environments. dit
forent foods. enemies aud climates. ana
IT, ,r MP into different genera and
species But there was never q way.
~ lie that had not another following
it. In the struggle for existence be-
tween the older and newer type. gsu.
orally the newer prevailed and drove
The Older southwark toward the di.
,erging frinEes of the land masses
he vanquished left behind them on
the field Of battle only their bones to
become fossils. Sometimes succeeding
ave, swept along to the extreme
limits OF the land. and many early
d pe, were utterly destroyed Ept
others found sanctuary in the ends ot
t.c south. ana We're preserved b. IL
lands bro0en Oft before The never
ttPc, ha reac1ei them or sarea
tae.r lives br becoming creature, Il
tHe gight, dwelling II the Businesses
OF tropical forests.
Fossil bones 81 o,tricu-.ike birds oc-