After the different statements which have been given, the extremely desert character of that region will not be disputed.

In the European division of the world, we must look back to the tertiary epochs, to find a condition of things among the mammalia, resembling that now existing at the Cape of Good Hope.
Those tertiary epochs, which we are apt to consider as abounding to an astonishing degree with large animals, because we find the remains of many ages accumulated at certain spots, could hardly boast of more large quadrupeds than Southern Africa does at present.

If we speculate on the condition of the vegetation during those epochs, we are at least bound so far to consider existing analogies, as not to urge as absolutely necessary a luxuriant vegetation, when we see a state of things so totally different at the Cape of Good Hope.
We know that the extreme regions of North America many degrees beyond the limit where the ground at the depth of a few feet remains perpetually congealed, are covered by forests of large and tall trees.

(5/9.

See "Zoological Remarks to Captain Back's Expedition" by Dr.Richardson.He says, "The subsoil north of latitude 56 degrees is perpetually frozen, the thaw on the coast not penetrating above three feet, and at Bear Lake, in latitude 64 degrees, not more than twenty inches.