The
Existence Of These Last Animals Is Regarded As Being Independent Of
Latitude.
To confine ourselves to marine species, one sees it constantly
repeated in books of the most estimable character, that
The great whale
(Balaena mysticetus, Linn.) is found equally amidst the frozen waters of
Spitzbergen and in the Antarctic seas; that the sharks and seals of
various kinds are found in equally innumerable tribes in seas the
farthest apart in the two hemispheres; that the turtle and the tortoise
inhabit indifferently the Atlantic, the Indian, and the great equinoctial
oceans.
"Were one to consult only reason and analogy, such assertions would
appear to be doubtful, as a matter of experience they are found to be
absolutely false. Let any one glance at the evidence upon which these
pretended identities rest; one will then see that they exist only in the
names, and that there is not a single WELL-KNOWN animal belonging to the
northern hemisphere, which is not specifically different from all other
animals EQUALLY WELL KNOWN in the opposite hemisphere. I have taken the
trouble to make that difficult comparison in the case of the cetacea, the
seals, etc.; I have examined many histories of voyages; I have gathered
together all the descriptions of animals; and I have recognised important
differences between the most similar of these supposedly identical
species.
"Nobody, I dare say, has collected more animals than I have done in the
southern hemisphere. I have observed and described them in their own
habitat. I have brought several thousands of kinds to Europe; they are
deposited in the Natural History Museum at Paris. Let any one compare
these numerous animals with those of our hemisphere, and the problem will
soon be resolved, not only in regard to the more perfectly organised
species, but even as to those which are simpler in structure, and which,
in that regard, it would appear, should show less variety in nature...In
all that multitude of animals from the southern hemisphere, one will
observe that there is not one which can be precisely matched in northern
seas; and one will be forced to conclude from such a reflective
examination - such an elaborate and prolonged comparison - as I have been
forced to do myself, THAT THERE IS NOT A SINGLE SPECIES OF WELL-KNOWN
ANIMALS WHICH, TRULY COSMOPOLITE, IS INDISTINGUISHABLY COMMON TO ALL
PARTS OF THE GLOBE.
"More than that - and it is in this respect above all that the
inexhaustible variety of nature shines forth - however imperfect each of
these animals may be, each has received its own distinct features. It is
to certain localities that they are fixed; it is there that they are
found to be most numerous, largest in size and most beautiful; and to the
extent that they are found most distant from the appropriate place, the
individuals degenerate and the species becomes gradually extinguished."
On the geographical side the series of causes described in preceding
pages prevented the achievement of that measure of success which the
French Government and the Institute had a right to expect. While Baudin
dallied, Flinders snatched the crown of accomplishment by his own
diligent and intelligent application to the work entrusted to him in the
proper field of activity. The French filled in the map of eastern
Tasmania, and contributed details to the knowledge of the north-west
coast of Australia; but what they did constitutes a poor set-off against
what they failed to do. The chief feature of interest, in an estimation
of the work done, is the publication of the first map of Australia which
represented the whole outline of the continent - saving defects - with any
approach to completeness. The Carte Generale of 1807 showed the world for
the first time what the form of Australia really was, with its south
coasts fairly delimited, and the island of Tasmania set in its proper
position in relation to them. But the circumstances in which this result
was effected were not such as secured any honour to the expedition, and
must, when the facts became known, have been deeply deplored by
instructed French people. Flinders was working at his own complete map of
Australia in his miserable prison at Mauritius while his splendidly won
credit was being filched from him; and it was merely the misfortune that
placed him in the power of General Decaen that debarred him from issuing
what should have been the first finished outline of the vast island which
he had been the earliest to circumnavigate. Historically the Carte
Generale is interesting, but no honour attaches to it.
Yet full praise must be given to Louis de Freycinet for the charts issued
by him. He drew them largely from material prepared by others, and much
of that material, as we have seen, was rough and poor. As a piece of
artistic workmanship, the folio of charts issued by Freycinet in 1812 was
a fine performance, and fairly earned for him the command of the
expedition entrusted to him by the Government of Louis XVIII. Before the
volume was published by the order of Napoleon, it was submitted by the
Minister of Marine to Vice-Admiral Rosily, Director-General du Depot de
la Marine. That officer's report* (* Printed in the Moniteur, January 15,
1813.) gave an account of the work which Freycinet had done not only in
the drawing but in regard to the actual engraving of the charts. "M.
Freycinet," said the Vice-Admiral, "who has done the principal part of
this work, was more capable than any one else known to us of
accomplishing such a result. It is to him that we owe the preparation of
this fine atlas. He has neglected no means of giving to it the last
degree of perfection. He has himself made the drawings of the charts and
plans, and then he has reproduced them upon the copper-plates, and has
engraved the scales of latitude and longitude by a new method perfected
by himself, and which assures the exactitude of his work.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 72 of 82
Words from 72833 to 73838
of 83218
