The Washington times., 1922-12-03
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bombs and cindery fragments that clog
them.
"The next stop is to be 800 miles west
There will be some delay in Peking be-
cause Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn is
to be there when we return, and we shall
have to review our results with him and
help plan out the work of the succeeding
three or four years. | want to see the
American Museum take up real geological
investigation in connection with some of
the problems that come up in the course
of the season."
Professor Osborn set down his reasons
why he believed the animal Garden of
Eden would be found somewhere in this
region many years ago.
First" he wrote, ION opposite sides
of the globe we observe two great col
onies, one in Europe and one in the Rocky
Mountain region of America, which are
full of different degrees of kindred in
their mammalian life; yet they are sep
arated by ten thousand miles of interven-
ing land in which not a single similar
form is found.
"The fact that the same kinds of man.
mails and reptiles appear simultaneously
in Europe and in the Rocky Mountain
region has long been considered strong
evidence for the hypothesis that the dis
persal centre is halfway between In
this dispersal centre, during the close of
Che Age of Reptiles and the beginning of
the Age of Mammals, there evolved the
most remote ancestors of all the higher
kinds of mammalian life which exist to-
day, including, for example, the fve-toed
horses, which have not as yet been dis
covered in either Europe or America.
Gall this was set forth in 1900. 1t was
written with such confidence in the re-
suits of future explorations that all these
various kinds of mammals were actually
written down upon chart. But we have
waited until 1922 to verify the prediction
of the paleontologists as to the homeland
life of northern Asia. This verifcation
has come with unexpected suddenness and
with completeness beyond our fondest
hopes, and there still remain four years
in which the great expedition, under Roy
Chapman Andrews, will find out the de-
tails"
Before attempting to explain the facts
of the geographic distribution Of animals
it is necessary to know just what these
facts are.
Alfred Russell Wallace, the distin-
guished naturalist, arranges these facts
very clearly in Tsland Life"
He explains that with the fiuctuating
country boundaries and subject to
changes of weather, the mammalian
species is limited to more or less def
mite area. Many species occupy only GER
tain spots or stations in these areas, as,
for instance, the marsh-living species,
which will only build home near a
waterway suited to its existence. Like
wise, well-wooded/ areas are best suited
for certain types of animals, and broad,
expanding plains for others.
The rate of multiplication lmong an
imals is so rapid that they could not be
confined to the areas that first sheltered
them. Every species that increases in
large numbers must constantly roam about
for food, which gives the first impulse for
migration.
According to Professor wallace, "Were
all the young to- survive and breed in
turn, even large and slow-breeding ami
mails which only have one at a birth, but
continue to breed from eight to ten sue
cessive years, may increase from single
pair to 100000 in forty years."