ch.ix.] SPECIAL-CREATION, OR DERIVATION? 461 



Mr. Darwin, "that I strongly insisted, in 1839 and 1845, on 

 this wonderful relationship in the same continent between 

 the dead and the living. Prof. Owen has subsequently ex- 

 tended the same generalization to the mammals of the Old 

 World. We see the same law in this author's restorations of 

 the extinct and gigantic birds of New Zealand. We see it 

 also in the birds of the caves of Brazil. Mr. Woodward has 

 shown that the same law holds good with sea-shells. Other 

 cases could be added, as the relation between the extinct and 

 living land-shells of Madeira ; and between the extinct and 

 living brackish-water shells of the Aralo-Caspian Sea." 



It has indeed been urged, by upholders of the special- 

 creation hypothesis, that these striking resemblances may 

 be explained by supposing each species to have been created 

 in strict adaptation to the conditions of life surrounding it. 

 That is to say, God has continued to create edentata in 

 South America and marsupials in Australia, because these 

 two continents are best fitted for the comfortable main- 

 tenance respectively of edentata and of marsupials. 

 Stubborn facts, however, are opposed to this theory of the 

 methods of Divine working. The assumption that each 

 species is best adapted to its own habitat is refuted by such 

 facts as the now rapidly progressing extermination of native 

 animals and plants in New Zealand by European organisms 

 lately carried there. Cow-grass, thistles, dock, and white 

 clover flourish more vigorously in New Zealand than in 

 England, and within a few years have almost displaced the 

 native grasses ; while the native rats and flies are fast dis- 

 appearing before the rats and flies imported from Europe. 

 The assumption is still more strikingly refuted by a comparison 

 of the forms of life which inhabit Australia with those which 

 inhabit the southern extremities of Africa and South America. 

 These three tracts of land are very similar in their physical 

 conditions ; and yet, as Mr. Darwin has observed, it would 

 be impossible to point out three faunas and floras more 



