DISTRIIiUTIOX OF OPHIDIANS. 197 



"\ntliout a motive, from one place to anotlier. It is true that 

 there exist certain reptiles which form exceptions to wliat 

 we have stated. Several species of Tortoises are dispersed 

 over various parts of the globe ;* the Scincks and the Geckos 

 are perhaps carried in ships from one region to another ; 

 the Sea Tortoises undertake voyages at certain periods 

 of the year, and are known upon coasts which their race 

 never inhabit ; Crocodiles-|- and Boas I have been some- 

 times carried by currents far from their native regions ; 

 but these examples are very few in comparison of what we 

 observe in mammals and in birds, and merely form excep- 

 tions, as regards serpents, § to what we shall state in the 

 following pages. It is evident, after what we have said, 

 that the geographic distribution of Ophidians should pos- 

 sess an interest altogether peculiar in this, that it presents 

 the most certain means of knowing the relations which 

 exist between the animals and the places they inhabit. 

 This study will contribute to clear up the grand and im- 

 portant questions on the Foci of creation, and the immu- 

 tability of species. In reposing on the facts which it pre- 

 sents to us, we shall more readily arrive at an idea of the 

 face of Nature, such as she w^as in the primeval state, 

 before the art of man had transformed the surface of the 

 earth, before he had driven from their habitations a great 

 number of animals, cither destroying them totally, or reduc- 

 ing them to a state of domesticity, and changing or modify- 

 ing their nature, by altering that of the places they inhabit. 

 We cannot at all apply this to reptiles in general, and still 



* The Indian Tortoise, probably originally from Madagascar and 

 the neighbouring isles, has been acclimated in the Galapagos Isles, in 

 California, and in several other points on the western coasts of South 

 America. 



t Lesson (Voy. de la Coquille Zoologie, ii. 2, chap. 9, p. 10) quotes 

 two facts, drawn from Makiner and Kotzebue, which create the sus- 

 picion of the presence of a large Crocodile in the isles of Pelcw and 

 Fidschi, where those animals do not ordinarily dwell. 



X GuiLDiNG (Zooloff. Journ., iii. p. 403) relates a fact of this nature : 

 a Boa, entwined around a tree, having been driven from the adjacent 

 coasts of America, and thrown on the shores of St Vincent. 



§ The Hydrophis, for example, have their native region always cir- 

 cumscribed within the same limits ; although all these Ophidians inliabit 

 the sea. 



