Hooker from the same species growing at different heights
on the Himalayas, were found to possess in this country different
constitutional powers of resisting cold. Mr. Thwaites informs me that he
has observed similar facts in Ceylon; analogous observations have been made
by Mr. H.C. Watson on European species of plants brought from the Azores to
England; and I could give other cases. In regard to animals, several
authentic instances could be adduced of species having largely extended,
within historical times, their range from warmer to colder latitudes, and
conversely; but we do not positively know that these animals were strictly
adapted to their native climate, though in all ordinary cases we assume
such to be the case; nor do we know that they have subsequently become
specially acclimatised to their new homes, so as to be better fitted for
them than they were at first.
As we may infer that our domestic animals were originally chosen by
uncivilised man because they were useful, and because they bred readily
under confinement, and not because they were subsequently found capable of
far-extended transportation, the common and extraordinary capacity in our
domestic animals of not only withstanding the most different climates, but
of being perfectly fertile (a far severer test) under them, may be used as
an argument that a large proportion of other animals now in a state of
nature could easily be brought to bear widely different climates.
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