Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/723

EUROPE in the prehistoric period, are not without importance, and coniferous trees have been again introduced. The Russian forest area is mainly in the northern part of the country, but it is separated from the Arctic coast by a wide treeless belt. Towards the south there are no great stretches of woodland, and for the most part the only trees are found along the banks of the rivers. The Mennonites on the Sea of Azoff have formed plantations, and there are others in ths land of the Don Cossacks. The fir-tree is found as far south as 48 N. between Novomovskovsk and Pavlograd in tlis government of Kharkoif. 1 The most widely distributed true is the pine ; and of the deciduous trees the most j frequent are the birch, the aspen, and the oak. In the north of Russia alone the annual production of tar amounts to 297,000,000 fix In Austria-Hungary there is still abundance of wood, especially in the Alps and the Car pathians; but in some quarters, more particularly in Tran sylvania, the most reckless destruction is allowed to take place. The principal trees are the pine, the fir, the beech, the oak, the larch, and the hornbeam; next come the ash, the elm, the maple, and the birch; and in the third place, the acacia, the poplar, and the Gotterbaiun. According to the Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Belgium, the value of the timber obtained on the lands of the Hungarian crown amounts annually to about 1,042,000. In Ger many, the pine and fir are most frequent in the south, and the oak and birch in the west and south-west; while in the central district coniferous and deciduous trees are about equally common. In no part of Europe are the forests under more judicious management. France is most indebted to the oak ; the birch, the chestnut, the fir, and the pine; but they fail to satisfy the home consump tion. The poplar gives a peculiar character to its southern landscapes, and the chestnut furnishes a valuable addition to its alimentary resources. Italy has a rich variety of types the silver fir (Abies pectinata) and other conifers, the Quercus sessiliflora, the cork-tree, and other oaks, the chestnut, the sycamore, the mountain ash, the evergreen oak. It exports manna, which is obtained from the ash tree, galls, and turpentine. Switzerland not only supplies a great internal demand for timber, but is able to con tribute to foreign markets. The common trees are for the most part the same as in Austria- Hungary. In Spain and Portugal the first rank as an economic factor belongs to the cork tree, which yields in the former country about 3,820,000 worth of bark for export, and gives employment to thousands of the population. The oak, the red birch, the chestnut, the cypress, the plane, and several conifers are also of importance. In Portugal the largest individual forest the royal domain of Leiria consists mainly of the Bordeaux pine. . According to the system proposed by Dr Sclatcr, and adopted by Mr Wallace, the most recent English writer on the distribution of animals, Europe belongs to the great Palajarctic Region, which also includes the most part of the continent of Asia and a broad belt along the north of Africa. The northern and central portions of Europe con stitute a special sub-region, distinguished as the "Euro- pean " par excellence; and the southern portions in con junction with the African belt constitute the Mediterranean sub-region. The line of demarcation between these two is almost the same as that which separates the zone of sub tropical rains from the zone of rain at all seasons of the year, the only important difference being that, while the Italian Alps and the Lombard plain belong meteorologi cally to the north, they are zoologically assigned to the south. According to Mr Wallace, the " European " sub- region contains two distinctive genera of mammals, the 1 See Wojeikof, Die At/nosjiharische Circulation, 1874. Myyale or musk-rat and the Rupicapra or chamois, and ita characteristic forms are the mole, the hedgehog, the shrew, the badger, the bear, the wolf and the fox, the weasel, the otter, the hare and the rabbit, and the dormouse. In the Mediterranean sub-region a similar position is held by the Duma or fallow deer, the civet, the h ena, and the por cupine. In former geological periods not only were the Quadrumana represented in Europe by several species, but one of those, the Dryopithecus, discovered in the Miocene formations, probably approached nearer to man than any of the existing anthropoids. At present the only species of the order in the continent is the Macacus inuus, a little monkey about a foot and a half long, which disports itself about the rock of Gibraltar, but strangely enough has Asiatic rather than African affinities. The cosmopolitan Cheiroptera or bats are well represented, no fewer than thirty species of the family Vespertilionidce alone being described. Perhaps the most common species throughout central Europe is the Vespertilio 2^pistrellus or ordinary British bat, but several others, as the Vespwtilio discolor and the Vespertilio limnophilus, have a wide range. Of the genus Sorex among the Insectivora there are at least ten species, the Sorex tetrayonurus or common shrew inhabiting nearly every country in the continent. An Italian species. Sorex etruscus or Crocidura etrnsca, is re markable as the smallest of all known quadrupeds. Besides the Myfjale muscovitica, already mentioned as peculiar to the European sub-region, there is another species, the Mycjale pyrenaica. The common hedgehog (Erinaceus europceus) is universally distributed; and a smaller species, E. auritus, is found in the province of Astrakhan. The ordinary English mole, Taipei europwa, is unknown in Ireland, and in southern Italy gives place to the Talpa ca ca. There are comparatively few of the larger members of the Carnivora, and their domain is continually being diminished. The brown bear, or Ursus arctiis, is still found in the Pyrenees, here and there in the Alps, in the Carpa thians, and the Scandinavian mountains ; and his polar cousin, the Ursus maritimus, is met with along the arctic coasts. To the general distribution of the badger there appears to be no exception. The glutton is for the most part confined to the forest regions of the countries that border the Arctic Ocean. The genus Mustela is repre sented, not only by the polecat and the weasel, but by the martin, the pine-martin, and the ermine, all of which are pretty familiar in most of the sub-region, though it is only in the colder countries that their value as fur-bearers is developed. The Mustela boccamela or honey-weasel appears to be confined to Sardinia; and it is questionable if the ferret, Mustela furo, introduced by man from Africa, exists in the wild condition. An important place in the fauna of Europe is still held by the wolf and the fox, the former being from its numbers the most formidable of man s feral antagonists. It will be a long time ere the more mountainous countries of the Continent can boast, like Britain and Ireland, that their last wolf is killed, and the " tabunchiks" or horse-herds of Russia will probably for many generations have to renew their annual battles with the famished packs. It is indeed asserted that since the abolition of serfdom the number of wolves has considerably increased, since the peasants are no longer obliged, as they formerly were by their landlords, to organize regular hunting expeditions. Besides the common or grey wolf, Canis lupus, of universal distribution, there is a black species, Canis lycaon, of less frequent occurrence. The jackal, Canis aureus, is found in southern Russia, Greece, and Turkey. There are at least four species of fox: the Canis vulpes, well-known in western, central, and northern Europe; the Canis ?<7^;to//rt^eT,orblack-bellied fox,fami!iar in Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia; the Canis laoopus, arctic or

blue fox, whose most popular name indicates its localities ;