412 THE INDUCTIONS OF BIOLOGY. 



opportunity. Neither can we suppose that the purpose has 

 been to establish varieties of Floras and Faunas ; since, if so, 

 why are the Floras and Faunas but little divergent in widely- 

 sundered areas between which migration is possible, while 

 they are markedly divergent in adjacent areas between which 

 migration is impossible ? 



Passing to distributions in Time, there arise the questions 

 — why during nearly the whole of that vast period geologically 

 recorded have there existed none of those highest organic 

 forms which have now overrun the Earth? — how is it that 

 we find no traces of a creature endowed with large capacities 

 for knowledge and happiness? The answer that the Earth 

 was not, in remote times, a fit habitation for such a creature, 

 besides being unwarranted by the evidence, suggests the 

 equally awkward question — why during untold millions of 

 years did the Earth remain fit only for inferior creatures? 

 What, again, is the meaning of extinction of types? To 

 conclude that the saurian type was replaced by other types at 

 the beginning of the tertiary period, because it was not 

 adapted to the conditions which then arose, is to conclude 

 that it could not be modified into fitness for the conditions; 

 and this conclusion is at variance with the hypothesis that 

 creative skill is shown in the multiform adaptations of one 

 type to many ends. 



What interpretations may rationally be put on these and 

 other general facts of distribution in Space and Time, will 

 be seen in the next division of this work. 



