St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1895-06-08
LIFE CAME FROM THE NORTH.

LIFE CAME FROM THE NORTH.
Tho Proof sspplied By Animals sf South
err Coatinents.
The apparent anomalies In the dis
tribution of animals ON the surface Of
the earth have for = long time attract
ed the attention of the zoologist. How
came the lemurs, those frail inhabit-
ants of tropical forests, to live along
the southern part of Asia, separated
from their kin in Africa and Madagas-
car by the wide ocean9 Why should
ostrich-lilxe sbirds live in Africa and
Australia, and again at the southern
part of South America? Not long ago
biologists, .rclying 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 to
make land passage from Madagascar
many assert that . huge continent,
now sunk in the waste of waters round
the southern hemisphere. stretched
from the cape to Australia, and from
Australia to Patagonia
But geology. as it has abandoned
the theory of catastrophes for the
theory of slow transformation, is also
giving up belief in such gigantic alter
atiOns of land and sea. The great
hn In ri - n.
us, date as far back as geological evil
dence goes Oceans and continents
may have altered their outlines;
Malaysia, now an archipelago, was
once . continent Africa. now q con-
tinuous land-mass, may have been
broken up into islands by the intrud-
ing sea. In the great land areas, con-
tinuOus slow raising and falling has
occurred. each area passing rccurrent-
ly through successive phases; archipel-
agoes have risen to be indented con-
tinents, linden ted continents to be .
continuous mass, and the whole has
then slowly fallen back again to its
original condition. but the sea and
the land in their broad masses remain
rs when first divided.
What, then, is the form of this SEM
piternal configuration? In the minds o:
most of us. it is q vague image, remem-
bered from a distorted ''Mercator's Pro-
lection" or from the eastern and west
ern hemispheres dattened on the pages
of an atlas These images are the
dimmest at the poles, and 80 fail 70
give the mosA striking aspect Of go
and land. But, taking . globe. turn
eithes pole alternately towards you-
II the south a clamp Of ice-buand land.
well witAan the antarctic circle, sur
rounds the pole. All che n the wide
domain of ocean, broken only by tspss-
ing 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 shoul-
der each other around the pole. Amer
lea is separated from Asia only by the
shallowest and narrowest of straits; an
elevation of q few fathoms would unite
Greenland with Europe. The great
land area of the globe is as = cap
thrown over the northern hemisphere,
VIII O0ly S0ttCICu AIiukCS u0uKAUk
across the equator to the south.
Aud where did terrestrial ami
mails come into being? Tradition
pla ces their home eastward in Eden.
Science points certainly to some part
of the great northern land area rs the
center of life for the larger terrestrial
forms. We know that these arose sue
DnSes~n1v, v~~Sn~iHixvn hs.lc 1S1y~ h.
triches coming before higher forms
like the pheasant and singing birds,
the pouched marsupials preceding the
antelopes and the lion, the lemurs COM
ing before man-like apes. Each wave
of life. spread over the whole continu-
GUS area, producing after its kind;
then, pressing round the northern
hemisphere, it met = thousand differ
ent conditions CT environment, differ
broke up into different genera and
species. But there was never . wave
oflife that had not another followingit-
In the struggle for existence between
the older and newer type. generally the
newer prevailed and drove the older
southwark toward the diverging fringes
of the land masses. The vanished left
behind them on the field of battle only
their bones, to become fossils. Some
times succeeding waves swept along to
the extreme limits of the land, and
many early types were utterly de-
stroyed. But others found sanctuary
in the ends of the south, and were pre-
served in islands broken of before the
newer types had reached them, or
saved their lives by becoming Great
ures of the night, dwellers in the fast
nesses of tropical forests.
Fossil bones of ostrich-like birds oc-
cur in Europe and in Asia and North
America. Their living representatives
are the Cassowarries of New Guinea.
the emeus of Australia, the ostriches
of Africa and the rheas of South Amer
ica. The oldest mammals now alive,
the duck-billed platypus and the
spiny echidna, layers of eggs,
kinsmen Of the reptiles, have al
lies among American and Euro
pean fossils; in life they arc found
only in Australia and New Guinea.
The pouched marsupials once ranged
all over the earth, covering it with q
strange mimicry of existing mammals.
Now they have been beaten out of Eu-
rope and Asia, even out of Africa, and
almost entirely out of North America:
but they have found refuge in South
America, and, secluded in Australia,
they form nearly the whole of primi-
tive fauna So also with the lemurs;
their fossil remains bestrew the whole
earth. A few surviving forms remain
in the forests of Africa and southern
Asia; still more of them. shut OF in
Madagascar, have defied the advent of
newer rivals
But why multiply instances when the
conclusion is so plain? As surely as
in passing down the Thames. from
its source in the hills to the London
clay, one ascends in geological time
and must dig deeper for the older beds.
SO, sreviewing the animals from the
south towards the north, one ascends
in the scale of life, and must seek in
northern fossils creatures alive in the