6 Geographical Distribution of Animals. 



live in the sama countries ; shewing that uniformity in the 

 aspect of the surface of the globe, as well as in the nature of 

 animals and plants, was at first the prevailing rule, and that, 

 whatever was the primitive region of these animals and plants, 

 their types occupied much more extensive districts than any 

 race of living beings during later periods. Are we to infer 

 from this fact, that, at that period, these animals and plants 

 originated from one common centre, and were distributed 

 equally all over the globe \ By no means. Though slight, 

 we find nevertheless such differences among them in distant 

 parts of the world as would rather sustain the view of an 

 adaptation in the earliest creations to more uniform circum- 

 stances, than that of one centre of origin for all animals and 

 plants of those days. During later periods, indeed, we find 

 from geological evidence that large islands had been formed, 

 more extensive tracts of land elevated above the surface of 

 the ocean, and the remains both of the animals and plants 

 derived from these different regions present already marked 

 differences when we compare them with each other, — varieties 

 similar to those which exist between the respective continents 

 at present, though perhaps less marked. Shall we here again 

 assume that animals and plants originated from another 

 centre, or from the same centre as those of former periods, to 

 migrate over those different parts of the*world, through the 

 sea as well as over land ? It is impossible to arrive at such 

 a conclusion, when we consider the distribution of fossil re- 

 mains in the more recent geological deposits, or in those 

 strata which were formed during the latest geological periods, 

 immediately before the present creation. For we find in 

 these comparatively modern beds a distribution of fossil re- 

 mains which agrees in a most remarkable manner with the 

 present geographical arrangement of animals and plants. 

 For instance, the fossils of modern geological periods in New 

 Holland are of the same types as most of the animals now 

 living there. Again, the recent fossils of Brazil belong to the 

 same families as those prevailing at present in Brazil; though, 

 in both cases, fossil species are distinct from living ones. If, 

 therefore, the organized beings of the recent geological periods 

 bad arisen from one central point of distribution, to be dis- 



