OF ORGANIC NATURE. 21 



Labrador down to Cape Horn. This is an empirical 

 fact, and it is what is called, stated in the way I have 

 given it you, the ' Geographical Distribution ' of the 

 Horse. 



Why horses should be found in Europe, Asia, and 

 Africa, and not in America, is not obvious ; the expla- 

 nation that the conditions of life in America are un- 

 favourable to their existence, and that, therefore, they 

 had not been created there, evidently does not apply ; 

 for when the invading Spaniards, or our own yeomen 

 farmers, conveyed horses to these countries for their 

 own use, they were found to thrive well and multiply 

 very rapidly ; and many are even now running wild in 

 those countries, and in a perfectly natural condition. 

 Now, suppose we were to do for every animal what we 

 have here done for the Horse,— that is, to mark off and 

 distinguish the particular district or region to which 

 each belonged ; and supposing we tabulated all these 

 results, that would be called the Geographical Dis- 

 tribution of animals, while a corresponding study of 

 plants would yield as a result the Geographical Dis- 

 tribution of plants. 



I pass on from that now, as I merely wished to 

 explain to you what I meant by the use of the term 

 ' Geographical Distribution.' As I said, there is an- 

 other aspect, and a much more important one, and 

 that is, the relations of the various animals to one 

 another. The Horse is a very well-defined matter-of- 

 fact sort of animal, and we are all pretty familiar with 

 its structure. I dare say it may have struck you, 

 that it resembles very much no other member of the 

 animal kingdom, except perhaps the Zebra or the Ass. 



