44 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 



worm, the garden and vineyard snails, as well as the great 

 majority of plants, a single individual. 



Linn&eus further follows the Mosaic legend in regard to the 

 flood, by supposing that the great general flood destroyed all 

 existing organisms, except those few individuals of each 

 species (seven pairs of the birds and of clean animals, one 

 pair of unclean animals) which Noah saved in the ark, and 

 which were placed again on land, on Mount Ararat, after the 

 flood had subsided. He tried to explain the geographical 

 difficulty of the living together of the most different animals 

 and plants, as follows : Mount Ararat, in Armenia, being 

 situated in a warm climate, and rising over 16,000 feet in 

 height, combines in itself the conditions for a temporary 

 common abode of such animals as live in different zones. 

 Accordingly, animals accustomed to the polar regions could 

 climb up the cold mountain ridges, those accustomed to 

 a warm climate could go down to the foot of the mountain, 

 and the inhabitants of a temperate zone could remain mid- 

 way up the mountain. From this point it was possible for 

 them to spread north and south over the earth. 



It is scarcely necessary to remark that this Linneean 

 hypothesis of creation, which evidently was intended to 

 harmonize most closely with the prevailing belief in the 

 Bible, requires no serious refutation. When we consider 

 Linnseus' clearness and sagacity in other matters, we may 

 doubt whether he believed it himself As to the simulta- 

 neous origin of all individuals of each species from one pair 

 of ancestors respectively (or in the case of the hermaphro- 

 dite species, from one original hermaphrodite), it is clearly 

 quite untenable ; for, apart from other reasons, in the first 

 days after the creation, the few animals of prey would have 



