56 GEOGRAPHICAL AND LOCAL 



genus, for Latham has included in it two others, 1 

 both stated to have been found in African 

 islands. This affords a strong presumption that 

 the head quarters of the genus are on the conti- 

 nent of Africa, and that these three species have 

 been conveyed to the islands they are stated to 

 have inhabited by some accidental cause. By 

 the direction of Providence, a floating island, 

 like that seen by Captain Smyth, might be the 

 means of conveying this and their other inha- 

 bitants to them. 



I think, therefore, that there is no necessity 

 to have recourse to a new and more recent crea- 

 tion, to account for the introduction of its pecu- 

 liar animals into any given country. 



The fact itself, that almost every country has 

 its peculiar animals, affords a proof of design, 

 and of the adaptation of means to an end, 

 demonstrating the intervention and guidance of 

 an invisible Being, of irresistible power, to whose 

 will all things yield obedience, and whose wis- 

 dom and goodness are conspicuous in all the 

 arrangements he has made. Wherever we see a 

 peculiar class of animals we usually see peculiar 

 circumstances which require their presence. 

 Thus the Elephant and Rhinoceros, the Lion 

 and the Tiger, are found only in warm climates, 

 where a rapid vegetation, and infinite hosts of 



1 Didus soliturius and nazareiius. 



