Page:The National geographic magazine, volume 1.djvu/212



During the year now drawing to a close not a single work which I conceive to fall legitimately within the scope of the department of Geography of Life has appeared in any part of the world, so far as I am aware. It being manifestly impossible, then, to comply with the requirement of the By-law calling for a summary of the work of the year, I may be pardoned for digressing sufficiently to speak of what seems to be the function of this Society in its relations to biology.

The term ',' applied without limitation or qualification to one of the five departments of the Society is not only comprehensive, but is susceptible of different if not diverse interpretations. Indeed, without great violence it might be construed to comprehend nearly the whole domain of systematic botany, zoology, and anthropology. As a matter of fact, I believe it was intended to include everything relating directly to the distribution of life on the earth. Thus it would naturally embrace all sources of information which assign localities to species. Local lists and faunal publications of every kind would fall under this head, and also the narratives of travelers who mention the animals and plants encountered in their journeys. In the single branch of ornithology, about fifty per cent. of the current literature would have to be included. The most obvious objection to this comprehensiveness of scope is the circumstance that a mere bibliographic record of titles alone would fill a journal the size of the.

Hence it may not be amiss to attempt a preliminary reconnoissance, with a view to what my friend Mr. Marcus Baker has recently defined as "a Survey of Class II, for Jurisdictional purposes." Let us seek therefore to run a boundary line about the territory we may fairly claim without trenching on the possessions of others.

Before doing this it becomes necessary to bear in mind certain facts and laws without a knowledge of which it is impossible to think intelligently on the subject. It is a matter of common observation that different groups of animals and plants inhabit different regions, even in the same latitude; that some forms are almost world wide in distribution; that others are restricted to