THE OSPRKY. 



167 



WILLIAM SWAINSON AND HIS TIMES.— XII. 



By Theodore Gill, Washington, D. C. 



( Continued from I 'ol. I '. page rff. I 



"New Guinea and the neighbouring islands 

 mark its limits in that direction; Australia 

 Proper is its chief seat, and it spreads over 

 the whole of the numerous islands of the Pacific 

 Ocean; whether this province blends with that 

 of America or of Europe, remains for future 

 discovery; but its connection with Africa and 

 Asia has already been intimated*'. 



The student of the present day scarcely needs 

 to be reminded of the imperfections of this 

 system. 1. The Ural moutains are by no means 

 "a natural and well-defined barrier between the 

 two continents;" that range is less of a barrier 

 between Europe and Asia than are the Rocky 

 mountains between Eastern and Pacific 

 America. The "European range", as to its 

 fauna, extends across the entire Asiatic continent 

 down to India. The differentiation of the 50 

 called "continents'" of Europe and Asia is an 

 heirloom of the past that is an expression of the 

 conservative spirit of geographers and is in op- 

 position to fi ■ experience of travellers and geo- 

 desists as well as the present knowledge of nat- 

 uralists. Swainson's acceptance of the Ural 

 mountains as a natural barrier is evidence of 

 the extent to which a name or idea may mislead 

 an honest investigator. 2. The "Asiatic range" 

 as understood by Swainson drives place, nowa- 

 days, to .ni Indian range or realm. 3. The 

 "American range" is an unnatural combination 

 of at least two very distinct "ranges" or realms. 

 4. The African and Australian ranges are ac- 

 cepted, with nearly the same limits attributed to 

 them by Swainson, by many zoogeographers 

 of the present day. 



Like most of the old speculators on zoogeo- 

 graphy, Swainson regarded the animals of tin- 

 sea as constituents of the same "ranges" or 

 "provinces" as those of the land. This is a 

 fallacy which mos1 zoologists who have studied 

 chiefly land animals have fallen into and some 

 still persist in it and therefore, in this respect. 

 he was simply no wiser than his contempora- 

 ries. 



The perusal of some of his ideas promulgated 

 in this work published in 1835 lets in a vivid 

 li^'ht on the state of information at that time. 

 He represents that — 



"It was the opinion of Linnaeus that all races 

 of animals, no less than of plants, originated in 

 one common central spot; from which they were 

 gradually dispersed over those portions of the 

 earth which they now inhabit. This opinion 

 appears to receive full confirmation from the 

 sacred writings; and. in reference to the general 

 interpretation of the deluge, it would appear 

 presumptuous to controvert this belief, were not 

 the inference here deduced from the Mosaic nar- 

 rative contradicted by innumerable and unde- 

 niable facts. If all the tribes of terrestrial 

 animals, now in existence, descended from a 

 stock preserved in the ark, and subsequently 

 liberated, in what way can we account for the 

 remote and partial locations of innumerable 

 families, cut off by deserts and oceans from 



those regions in which all the events of Scrip- 

 ture history took place? Contradictory, there- 

 fore, as these facts, at first sight, may appear to 

 be to the Mosaic account of the deluge, the re- 

 sults furnished by zoological science will, never- 

 theless, on a closer view, rather tend to explain 

 and illustrate the sacred records'". 



He then considers the alternative attempts of 

 Prichard. the ethnologist, to explain away this 

 discrepancy and adopts one (p. 5). 



" 'The deluge recorded in Genesis," continues 

 our author, "was perhaps, not universal, in 

 the strict sense of the word, as it is now un- 

 derstood . . . It might only extend to the utmost 

 limits of the human race: and other regions, 

 with their peculiar organised creations, might 

 be supposed to have escaped; and this hypo- 

 thesis might, perhaps, be maintained without 

 doing any violence to the sacred text, of which 

 every expression has received a divine sanc- 

 tion". But this supposition, as our author very 

 candidly admits, 'is directly opposed to geolo- 

 gical phenomena; which, with a variety of con- 

 siderations, render it more probable that this 

 deluge was strictly universal. It is incontesta- 

 ble that the fossil remains of animals, every 

 where discoverable, chiefly belong to races dif- 

 ferent from those which now exist; these were 

 probably exterminated in the great catastrophe. 

 Mankind escaped by the means recorded in the 

 sacred, and in many profane, histories; and 

 with them were saved the stock of animals pe- 

 culiar to the region in which, before the flood, 

 they had their dwelling, and of which they, and 

 most of the early domesticated animals, are in 

 all probability the native inhabitants. After 

 the delude, when new regions emerged from the 

 ocean, it is probable they were supplied with 

 organised inhabitants suited to the soil and 

 climate of each district. Among these new 

 races, man, and the tribes which had survived 

 with him. and which were his companions, 

 spread themselves in a later time. The scrip- 

 ture history may thus be reconciled with the 

 facts established by zoological research.' 

 Some persons will object to this hypothesis that 

 it assumes positions not laid down in the sacred 

 narrative, such as a partial creation subse- 

 quent to the deluge. This must be granted, and 

 the proof of such position must be sought, not 

 in the scriptural history, but in external pheno- 

 mena. The silence of the Scriptures, in respect 

 to such facts, seems to be of little consequence. 

 It is not to be presumed that these sacred books 

 contain a narrative of all that it has pleased 

 Divine providence to effect in the physical crea- 

 t ii mi. but only of His dispensations to mankind. 

 and of the facts with which man is concerned: 

 and it was of no importance for man to lie in- 

 formed at what era Australia began to contain 

 kangaroos, or the woods of Paraguay ant-eaters 

 and armadilloes". 



These extracts from Swainson's work dis- 

 play a striking want of general culture, or ignor- 

 ance, even for his time. In the same mouth as 



