Modern Geography Part 6

The European section of it is somewhat impoverished as compared with the Asiatic section, partly perhaps because of the effects of the ice, and certainly also because for long ages Europe has been densely populated, and the larger wild animals have thus been exterminated. Asia, with its northern forests and its more southerly steppes, has always been a great reservoir of life, which has periodically overflowed into Europe. Some of these overflowing animals, like the black and the brown rats, succeeded in establishing themselves very firmly; others, like the saiga antelope, died out rapidly except in the extreme east of the European area.

It is possible that further investigation will show that not the mammals only, but land animals in general can be grouped according to their habitat like plants, but so far the attempts made in this direction have been tentative only. Generally, we may say that the mammals of Central Europe are of the woodland type, but no detailed cla.s.sification into steppe and woodland animals exists. It may be useful, therefore, to indicate the chief kinds of mammals found in the European area, grouped according to affinity, in the absence of a geographical cla.s.sification.

Mammals, apart from the egg-laying monotremes, and the marsupials of Australia, are divided into nine orders, and of these, one, that including the anteaters, etc., of South America, Africa and India, is entirely unrepresented in Europe. Another, the Cetaceans, or whales, has no land representatives; and the same is true of the aberrant sea-cows, though their ancestors lived on land and occurred in Egypt.

Excluding these orders we are left with six which have European representatives. These are the following:--

Primates, or monkeys and apes.

Insectivores, or insect-eating mammals, such as moles, shrews and hedgehogs.

Chiroptera, or bats.

Ungulates, or hoofed animals, including horses, cattle, sheep, deer, pigs, etc.

Carnivores, or flesh-eaters, including lions, cats, foxes, dogs, etc.

Rodents, or gnawing animals, among which are rats, mice, squirrels, etc.

The _Primates_ are represented by one form only, the Barbary ape, found in Gibraltar. _Bats_ are numerous, but are of less geographical interest than land forms. The remaining four orders are all important.

The _Ungulates_ include the largest land mammals, and their size and conspicuous nature have led to the gradual replacement of the wild forms by domesticated ones. Only a very few, such as deer, wild goats (ibex), the wild boar, the wild sheep (moufflon) of Corsica, manage to survive, and that mostly by aid of special protection. The presence of the large wild forms is incompatible with almost any form of agriculture as is often proved disastrously in Africa, hence man's ruthless warfare upon them.

But if man has destroyed the large ungulates he has found himself unable even to reduce the numbers of the _Rodents_, who gain in many ways by civilisation. The destruction of their rivals, the gra.s.s-eating ungulates, increases their natural food-supply. In South America, where there were very few ungulates till the white man brought his flocks and herds, the rodents were very numerous and reached a great size. Again, the operations of agriculture give the rodents enormous artificial sources of food-supply, and the number of man's domesticated or semi-domesticated animals makes him wage a bitter war against the small carnivores, the natural enemies of the rodents. Protected from their enemies, abundantly fed by man's providence, it is no wonder that these small animals have multiplied greatly.

Their multiplication has been a.s.sisted by the fact that they inherit from their early days, when the struggle was keen, an enormous fertility. Many of the rodents are steppe animals, and share with steppe organisms in general the power of periodic multiplication in enormous numbers.

The steppe is a region where the rainfall is normally just enough to ensure a free growth of gra.s.s at certain seasons. Variations in rainfall, which perhaps occur in great cycles, may at one time produce a luxuriance of growth which increases the food-supply all round, and at another give rise to semi-desert conditions with a resulting enormous death-rate. The steppe organisms, then, must be very fertile because of the risks of their environment, and the Asiatic overflow is possibly determined by successions of years of abundant rainfall, which increase the number of individuals, followed by a series of years of scanty rain, which make it necessary for the overflow of population to migrate.

Among examples of European rodents we may mention the very destructive rats, mice and voles, which practically feed everywhere at man's expense; and the hamster, an Asiatic form which reaches as far west as the Rhine, and stores large quant.i.ties of corn and other food in an elaborately made burrow. The hamster has the rodent power of rapid multiplication, and is often terribly destructive to cultivated crops.

Rabbits are similarly very destructive where special precautions are not taken. Even the porcupine of southern Europe is capable of doing considerable damage. Less serious enemies of man are such forms as the following:--lemmings; marmots, of which there are two forms, an Alpine and an Asiatic, the latter extending like the other steppe animals into the plains of central Europe; beavers; squirrels; dormice; etc. These examples may be sufficient to ill.u.s.trate the important points in regard to the rodents--their destructiveness, their fertility, and the fact that many were originally inhabitants of steppes and open plains, but tend, as man clears the forest-land for his own purposes, to extend their range to the cleared land, and to appropriate the new and extensive food-supply furnished by man's industry.

While the ungulates, because of the nature of their food, must almost necessarily be rather large animals, the carnivores occur both in large and small forms. The tendency is for the large forms to be killed out with the progress of civilisation; thus the lion has wholly disappeared from Europe, wolf and bear are almost gone, but a considerable number of smaller forms still remain, such as badger, genet, wolverene, lynx, wild cat, stoat, marten, weasel, etc. The last order to be mentioned, that of the _Insectivores_, includes small mammals, such as moles, shrews, and hedgehogs, which feed largely on insects, but may be partially vegetarians.

As was to be expected from the climate and from the peculiar flora, the Mediterranean region possesses a richer fauna than central Europe, both as regards mammals and lower forms. Even the European portion shows considerable African influence.

A few words must be said about other land animals apart from mammals. In regard to birds it is noticeable that the habit of migration, and the fact that the greater part of the continent of Europe lies on the direct line between the northern breeding grounds of many species and the southern winter quarters, gives Europe a very rich bird fauna. The British Islands owe to their peculiarly mild climate a rich bird fauna at all seasons, for while the summer climate attracts many forms for nesting purposes, the mild winter brings many migrants flying from the cold of continental Europe.

In regard to birds as well as to other animals, the Mediterranean owes to its warm climate a richer fauna than countries farther north. Some interesting southern forms, such as pelican, flamingo and ibis, reach this region, though not extending into central Europe, except as stragglers.

The climate of Europe is not hot enough anywhere to lead to the presence of a rich reptilian fauna, but there is, again, a marked increase to the south. It is stated that there are only twenty-one species of reptiles in central Europe, while there are fifty-nine in southern Europe, and no less than a hundred and forty in the Mediterranean region taken in the large sense. Poisonous forms are few, and do not, as in hotter countries, const.i.tute a serious menace to man. Very interesting is the presence of the chameleon in southern Spain, as in north Africa.

Perhaps the most important human aspect of the European reptiles is the presence of numbers of insect-eating forms. In the warmer parts of Europe every wall or patch of rock seems alive with lizards in the summer sunshine, and these must play a not inconsiderable part in the keeping down of noxious insects.

Omitting a great number of other groups, we may say something about insects, which are of enormous importance in human life, both directly and indirectly.

It has been shown of late years that many insects are the sole means by which certain very deadly diseases are transmitted from man to man, or from one animal to another. Almost every few months a new announcement of an insect-carried disease is made, but the most important forms are the following:--Mosquitoes and gnats transmit such diseases as malaria, yellow fever, and more horrible diseases still, due to the presence in the blood of small parasitic worms. Tsetse flies carry sleeping sickness, and also transmit the very fatal fly disease of domesticated animals, a fact which has been and is of great importance in the settlement of Africa. In the case of most diseases there seems to be a close connection between one particular species of insect and a particular disease.

Mosquitoes and gnats are very abundant in many parts of Europe, and the forms belonging to the genus Anopheles, which carry the germ of malaria, are widely distributed. In parts of the Mediterranean area their presence is a.s.sociated with the prevalence of malaria, which has existed there for a prolonged period, and is believed by some to have had an important bearing upon the fates of the ancient civilisations of the Mediterranean basin.

The regions in Europe affected, or seriously affected, by malaria are diminishing yearly. This is now due to conscious efforts, but a similar process has been going on probably for a long period, for many obscure diseases, notably "ague," seem to have been forms of malaria. Their disappearance seems to be due to drainage, which diminishes the breeding places of the mosquitoes, and also to the progress of agriculture, for ponds which form on rich, well-manured land are apparently unsuited to mosquito larvae. The subject is of great geographical importance, for the spread of man over the surface of the globe, and the progress of civilisation must have been influenced in all time by the prevalence of fly-borne disease. Such diseases have hitherto been the greatest obstacle in the way of the civilisation of Africa.

In Uganda extensive tracts of fertile wooded land have had to be abandoned on account of the presence there of the tsetse fly, while, prior to this abandonment, there were districts in which every living soul had been destroyed by the deadly sleeping sickness transmitted by this fly. We can hardly suppose that such facts are without a parallel in human history; and man's distribution over the surface of the globe, and in detail the distribution of his settlements within a country, have doubtless been greatly influenced by the distribution even of such insignificant creatures as the various kinds of flies.

Even apart from their power of transmitting disease, the blood-sucking flies must have influenced man in his choice of localities for settlements, and must have been an important factor in the process of adjustment to his surroundings. The naturalist Brehm gives an appalling picture of the number and blood-thirstiness of the mosquitoes of the Siberian tundra, which render life almost intolerable there for both man and beast in summer. Even within the British Islands the uncultivated and undrained regions are often badly infested with small blood-sucking flies, and their numbers must have been vastly greater in the old days before drainage and intensive cultivation had reduced them. It is quite possible that some of the anomalies in regard to the spread of particular races of men over the surface can be explained by the varying susceptibility of different races to insect attack, and there can be no doubt that the blood-sucking insects must have had some effect in determining the rapidity or slowness with which particular tracts were colonised by man.

Apart from the blood-sucking flies, there are many other interesting points about the insects of Europe, notably the wealth of beautiful and striking forms which occur round the Mediterranean basin. One of these, which extends northwards and westwards to northern France, is the curious Praying Mantis, a predatory insect belonging to the same order as the locust. It is an eastern form, which, like so many others, has taken advantage of the mild climate of western Europe to extend its range far beyond what we must regard as its natural limits. In France it shows the effect of relatively unfavourable conditions in the fact that it takes some nine to ten months for the eggs to hatch, whereas in hotter countries the process may take place in a few weeks.

In the warmer parts of Europe a very striking feature is the number and large size of the members of the locust and gra.s.shopper families, whose shrill noise is so characteristic a sound in, for example, the pastures of Switzerland in summer-time. Among the locusts there occur, in many parts of Europe, those migratory forms which possess that power of periodic enormous multiplication which we have already noted so frequently among gra.s.sland animals. The migratory instinct only seems to develop when the numbers have greatly increased in any given locality, and in Europe generally the climate does not permit this to take place.

It does, however, occur in the south-east of the Mediterranean basin, notably in the island of Cyprus, in Syria, and also in Northern Africa, where locusts sometimes reach the dimensions of a plague.

We may add to this account of land animals a few details on the land mammals of North America. The great point of contrast here is that Europe, from the beginning of the historic period, has always been a relatively well-peopled region, while in America, prior to the advent of the white man, the population was scanty. There was thus far more room in North America than in Europe for great flocks of large mammals. Thus the plains and prairies carried great herds of bison, while to the north there were other herds of reindeer, which were never tamed by the inhabitants of North America as they were in the Old World by the Lapps and others. The musk-ox is another interesting animal found in the north of America. It once also lived in Europe, but died out long ago. Just as the coniferous forest and tundra in Asia produce many small fur-bearing animals, so do the forest and tundra of North America. Deer are present as in the Old World, though they are of different types, and there is a curious animal known as the p.r.o.ng-buck which is peculiar. Wild sheep occur as they do in Europe, but no wild horse nor a.s.s roams the plains of America as they roam to-day the wastes of Asia. Without going into further detail, we may say generally that as regards wild animals, no less than as regards wild plants, North America shows a closer resemblance to Asia than to that favoured peninsula of Asia which the geographers call Europe.

CHAPTER VII

CULTIVATED PLANTS AND DOMESTICATED ANIMALS

Before proceeding to discuss the chief races of men in Europe, something must be said of its cultivated plants and animals. Originally, doubtless, the various human groups which have mingled in Europe had each their own type of culture, based upon the possession and cultivation of particular animals and plants. The lapse of time has caused so complete an intermixture that it is only possible to a very small extent to disentangle the different elements which have gone to the making of present day civilisation. Nevertheless, as climatic differences remain and still determine minor differences, it seems worth while to consider briefly the distribution of cultivated plants and domesticated animals at the present day.

Europe has been so strongly influenced by the neighbouring land-ma.s.ses of which it forms a part, that we must begin with a few words about them.

The great continent of Asia, of which Europe, as we have seen, is but a peninsula, can be divided into a series of zones, distinguished alike by climate and by vegetation. To the north we have the cold tundra region, pa.s.sing to the south into the forest region. The Asiatic forest region is continuous with that of Europe, but while the European forest extends southward till Mediterranean conditions intervene, close to the sea of that name, the Asiatic forest has its southern limit in about the lat.i.tude of London. To the south of the Asiatic forest stretches a zone of steppes pa.s.sing into desert, and even into tundra in the elevated regions of Central Asia. The steppe region, as we have already indicated, enters Europe by way of Russia and pushes a long arm up the Danube into Hungary.

South of the Asiatic steppes and deserts comes an interrupted band of warm temperate or tropical forest, luxuriant to the east where there are summer rains, scanty and scrub-like to the west, where Asia meets the Mediterranean.

The steppes and desert of Asia are populated, scantily enough, with wandering pastoral nomads, who constantly tend to overflow from their own region into those of the surrounding agricultural populations. These agricultural populations are concentrated in three areas, all specially favoured by nature. To the east the summer rains, the luxuriant indigenous flora, and the presence of great river valleys, that is, of naturally fertile regions, led to the early establishment of agricultural populations in China and India. Further to the west, the fertile valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates early saw the founding of a great civilisation. This region, the Mesopotamia of geographers, is very near the third area, the Mediterranean, though far enough removed to have a very scanty rainfall, which made irrigation a necessity for agriculture. Its inter-relations with the Mediterranean must have begun early, and, remembering that part of the Mediterranean itself is in Asia, we need not stop to discuss the vexed question as to whether the Mediterranean civilisation was largely indigenous, or originated in the continent of Asia. It is often difficult to ascertain whether plants which have long been grown in the Mediterranean area, and are well-fitted to it, are really indigenous there, or were brought to it from the Mesopotamian countries. There is much similarity of climatic conditions, and for our purpose it is sufficient to note that the cultivated plants of the Mediterranean basin fall into three main categories. There are, first, the plants specially adapted to its climate; these are either native or were introduced from the countries close at hand. Second, there are many plants, much less perfectly adapted to conditions of drought, and therefore often demanding irrigation in summer, which were introduced from the Far East, after they had been cultivated there for long periods. Thirdly, and much fewer in number, there are the plants introduced, at a relatively late date, from America.

Of the first group the most important are the cereals barley and wheat, and the olive and the vine. These four have been known in the area from the earliest times, and they still form the basis of the diet of Mediterranean peoples. Bread, olive oil to replace the b.u.t.ter used by pastoral peoples, wine as a beverage, with fresh grapes and the dried forms of raisins and currants, these early made life possible in the Mediterranean area.

Barley is older than wheat, and is more productive but less valuable. It is now largely grown in the basin of the Mediterranean as a food for horses, instead of oats which, like rye, is a cereal not well suited to the Mediterranean climate. As a bread plant it was early replaced in the Mediterranean by wheat, but it is still used to make bread in some other parts of Europe, _e. g._ in Scandinavia, and is also of importance outside the Mediterranean as the origin of fermented beverages.

Wheat is the most valuable bread plant which exists, both on account of its proteid content and on account of its digestibility. It demands a warm dry period for ripening, with much sunshine, and is well adapted to Mediterranean conditions. Here it is sown in the autumn, to enable it to take advantage of the "early and the latter rain," _i. e._ the autumn and spring rains, and ripens early before the excessive drought of summer sets in. Like barley it has always been a.s.sociated with plough culture, the animal used being the ox. According to most authorities plough culture originated in Mesopotamia.

The vine and olive are apparently both indigenous to the Mediterranean, and both are well adapted to withstand drought. In regard to the vine there are several interesting points. To the traveller from the north it is most familiar in France or Germany, where it is grown on sunny slopes, usually terraced to prevent stagnant water from lying. In the Mediterranean, on the other hand, it is planted in hollows, or low-lying ground, which permits of the collection of water, for it will receive no summer rain. The vintage is more secure than further north, and the resistance to the attacks of parasites is greater, yet, curiously enough, the Mediterranean countries do not produce the finest wines.

This seems to be partly because the climate does not permit of the long storage necessary for maturing to take place. The cool cellars, so important in the wine industry further north, are here absent.

To the four plants which we have mentioned we must add such forms as the fig, which if not indigenous was of very early introduction; garlic, greatly valued as a flavouring matter; various kinds of pulse; sesame; millet, once widely grown though no longer important, and flax, known from remote antiquity.

The second group, that comprising plants introduced from the Far East, includes many valuable fruit trees, which in the region of the absolutely rainless summer mostly require irrigation. The peach came from China in the time of Alexander the Great; the various citrus fruits, lemon, orange, lime, citron, etc., now so characteristic a feature, were introduced from China or India. India also gave rice, extensively cultivated during long ages, and still extensively consumed, though the facility with which communication with the East is now effected makes it relatively little grown, except in the plain of Lombardy, which is easily irrigated. China sent the white mulberry, and with it the cultivation of the silkworm, so important in many regions.

From the Far East also came the sugar-cane, very important till the recent development of the sugar beet industry. Cotton also was probably introduced from the Far East, which thus supplied many cultivated plants and has enormously enriched life for Mediterranean man.

Of the American plants of late introduction the most interesting is maize, which fed the somewhat limited indigenous civilisation of North America. Maize requires a warm climate with much sunshine, but needs much moisture during its short growing season. It is not a very valuable cereal, but it is enormously productive and therefore cheap.

Generally it may be said to be used as food by man only when necessity compels its use. It is thus employed by subject races, _e. g._ negroes, and by the poor in the warmer parts of Europe. In the Mediterranean it is not sufficiently valuable to be grown on irrigated land, and it will not grow without irrigation where the summer is rainless. Where there are summer rains, however, as in North Italy, or where mountain slopes increase the rainfall, as in parts of Greece, or where the land is rendered valueless for wheat by winter flooding, there maize is grown.

Generally it occurs within the Mediterranean area wherever the necessary water occurs naturally or can be supplied cheaply. It forms a very important part of the food of the poor in North Italy, for example, but not in the south, where water is too costly.