GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS 



modified immigrants are the little brocket of Chili and the 

 Pampas deer of Patagonia, whereas the deer of the Guianas 

 is a later arrival and differs but little from the deer of Florida. 

 The wolves, bush dogs, skunks, coati mundis, etc., are obvious 

 variants of northern types. Even the lack of certain animals 

 in North America is reflected in South America, as, for 

 instance, in the almost complete absence of bears, which 

 reached North America from the Old World at a very late 

 period. 



Before the geology of the Isthmus of Panama was known, 

 Messrs. Jordan and Evermann made a comparative study of 

 the sea fishes on both sides of the Isthmus. The difference 

 was so great that these authors concluded that the two seas 

 had been separated by the upheaval of land in the middle 

 of the Tertiary period (Miocene epoch), a result which 

 was exactly confirmed by subsequent geological examination. 



The geological and palaeontological history of North and 

 South America in Tertiary time is known in greater fullness 

 than that of most other continents, and it explains in a very 

 satisfactory way the existing distribution of mammals in the 

 Western Hemisphere, but only to one who believes the evo- 

 lutionary theory. Otherwise, that history has no meaning or 

 application, for the existing species are different from those 

 which we find entombed in the rocks, and if they were not 

 descended from the more ancient ones but created separately, 

 then the history has no relation to the present arrangement 

 of the animals. Can any one really believe that successive 

 acts of creation were deliberately arranged so as to produce 

 a false and illusory effect? Absurd as it may seem, such a 

 belief is involved in the acceptance of the doctrine of special 

 creation. 



North America and Asia have been repeatedly connected 

 and disconnected at the point where Bering Sea and Strait 



[91] 



