CiiAP. I. EARLY LOCALIZATION OF TYPES. 103 



IIow far similar facts are likely to occur in other classes, remains to be ascer- 

 tained. Our knowledge of the geographical distribution of the fossil remains is 

 yet too fragmentary to furnish any further data upon this point. It is, however, 

 worthy of remark, that though the types of the oldest geological periods had a 

 much wider distribution than most recent families exhibit now, some families of 

 fishes largely represented in the Devonian system of the Old World have not 

 j^et been noticed among the fossils of that period in America, as, for instance, 

 the Cephalaspids, the Dipteri, and the Acanthodi. Again, of the many gigantic 

 Eeptiles of the Triasic and Oolitic periods, none are known to occur elsewhere 

 except in Europe, and it can hardly be simply owing to the less extensive dis- 

 tribution of these, formations in other parts of the world, since other fossils of 

 the same formations are known from other continents. It is more likely that 

 some of them, at least, are peculiar to limited areas of the surface of the globe, 

 as, even in Europe, their distribution is not extensive. 



Without, however, entering upon debatable ground, it remains evident, that 

 before the establishment of the present state of things, peculiar t3-pes of animals, 

 which were formerly circmnscribed within definite limits, have continued to occupy 

 the same or similar grounds in the present period, even though no genetic con- 

 nection can be assumed between them, their representatives in these different forma- 

 tions not even belonging to the same genera. Such facts are in the most direct 

 contradiction with any assumption that phj^sical agents could have any thing to 

 do with their origin ; for though their occurrence within similar geographical areas 

 miuht at first seem to favor such a view, it must be borne in mind that these 

 so localized beings are associated with other types which have a much Avider range, 

 and, what is still more significant, they belong to different geological periods, 

 between which great physical changes have undoubtedly taken place. Thus the 

 facts indicate precisely the reverse of what the theory assumes ; they prove a 

 continued similarity of organized beings during successive geological periods, not- 

 withstanding the extensive changes, in the prevailing physical conditions, which the 

 country they inhabited may have undergone, at chfferent periods. In whatever direc- 

 tion this theory of the origin of animals and plants, under the influence of physical 

 agents, is approached, it can nowhere stand a critical examination. Only the delib- 

 erate intervention of an Intellect, acting consecutively, according to one plan, can 

 account for ])henomena of this Idnd. 



