ir6 VESTIGES OF THE 



Consideiiiig that, in the geological epoch, species are not 

 limited to particular regions, and that since the close of 

 that epoch, they are very peculiarly limited, are we to 

 presume the present organisms of the world to have been 

 created ah initio after that time? To this it may be 

 answered — Xot necessarily, as it so happens that animals 

 begin to be much varied, or to appear in a considerable 

 variety of species, towards the close of the geological 

 history. It may have been that the multitudes of 

 locally peculiar species only came into being after the 

 unit'urm climate had passed away. It may have only 

 been wlien a. varied climate arose, that the originally few 

 species branclied off into the present extensive variety. 



A question of a very interesting kind will now pro- 

 bably aris^3 in the reader's mind — ]V/i at place or status is 

 assigned to man in the new natural si/stem ? Before 

 going into this inquiry, it is necessary to advert to 

 several particulars of the natural system not yet 

 noticed. 



It is necessary, in particular, to ascertain the (jrades 

 which exist in the classification of animals. In the line 

 of the aves, Mr. Swainson finds these to be nine, the 

 species pica, for example, being thus indicated : — 



This l)ringi us down to species, the subdivision where 

 intermarriage or breeding is usually considered as 

 natural to animals, and where a i-esemblance of ofispring 



