Circumscribed Boundaries of Animals, 29 



few hermit-like terrestrial animals that live upon the low islands of 

 the Pacific and the fishes which play among the corals, or in the 

 sand and mud of their shores % And nevertheless there is but one 

 plan in the creation ; fresh-water animals under similar latitudes 

 are as uniform as the corresponding vegetation, and however isolated 

 and apparently unconnected the tropical islands may seem, their in- 

 habitants agree in their most important traits. 



The best evidence that in the plan of creation animals are intend- 

 ed to be located within circumscribed boundaries, is further derived 

 from their regular migrations. Although the arctic birds wander 

 during winter into temperate countries, and some reach even the 

 warmer zones ; although there are many which, from the colder tem- 

 perate climates, extend quite into the tropics, there is nevertheless 

 not one of these species which passes from the northern to the 

 southern hemispheres ; not one which does not return at regular 

 epochs to the countries whence it came from. And the more minutely 

 we trace this geographical distribution, the more we are impressed 

 with the conviction that it must be primitive ; that is to say, that 

 animals must have originated where they live, and have remained 

 almost precisely within the same limits ever since they were created, 

 except in a few cases, where, under the influence of man, those limits 

 have been extended over large areas. To express this view still more 

 distinctly, I should say the question to be settled is, whether for in- 

 stance the wild animals which live in America originated in this 

 continent, or migrated into it from other parts of the world ; whether 

 the black bear was created in the forests of New England and the 

 northern states, or whether it is derived from some European bear, 

 which by some means found its way to this continent, and being 

 under the influence of a new climate, produced a new race ; whether 

 the many peculiar birds of North America which live in forests 

 composed of trees different from those which occur either in Europe 

 or Asia, whether these birds, which themselves are not identical with 

 those of any other country, were or were not created where they 

 live ; whether the snapping turtle, the alligator, the rattlesnake, 

 and other reptiles which are found only in America, have become 

 extinct in the Old World after migrating over the Atlantic, to be 

 preserved in this continent ; whether the fishes of the great Cana- 

 dian lakes made their appearance first in those waters, or migrated 

 thither from somewhere else ? These are questions which such an 

 inquiry into the geographical distribution of animals involves ; it is 

 the great question of the unity or plurality of creations ; it is not 

 less the question of the origin of animals from single pairs or in 

 large numbers ; and, strange to say, a thorough examination of the 

 fishes of Lake Superior, compared with those of the adjacent waters, 

 is likely to throw more light upon such questions, than all traditions, 

 however ancient, however near in point of time to the epoch of crea- 

 tion itself. 



In order to proceed methodically in this investigation, our first 



