O ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF ANIMALS. 



that ihe fossil remains of animals, every where dis- 

 coverable, chiefly belong to races different from t!iose 

 ■wliich now exist ; these were probably exterminated in 

 the great catastrophe. Mankind escaped by the means 

 recorded in the sacred, and in many profane, histories ; 

 and with them were saved the stock of animals peculiar 

 to the region in which, before the flood, they had their 

 dwelling, and of which they, and most of the early do- 

 mesticated animals, are in all probability the native 

 inhabitants. After the deluge, when new regions 

 emerged from the ocean, it is probable they were sup- 

 plied with organised inhabitants suited to the soil and 

 climate of each district. Among these new races, man, 

 and the tribes which had survived with him, and which 

 were his companions, spread themselves in a later time. 

 The scripture liistory may thus be reconciled with the 

 facts established by zoological research." Some per- 

 sons will object to this hypothesis that it assumes po- 

 sitions not laid down in the sacred narrative, such as a 

 partial creation subsequent to the deluge. This must 

 be granted, and the proof of such position must be 

 sought, not in the scriptural history, but in external 

 phenomena. The silence of the Scriptures, in respect 

 to such facts, seems to be of little consequence. It is 

 not to be presumed that these sacred books contain a 

 narrative of all that it has pleased Divine Providence to 

 effect in the physical creation, but only of His dis- 

 pensations to mankind, and of the facts with which man 

 is concerned : and it was of no importance for man to 

 be informed at what era Australia began to contain 

 kangaroos, or the woods of Paraguay ant-eaters and 

 armadilloes. 



(7-) Other writers, by circumscribing their views to 

 the local distribution of a few native animals, have so 

 far lost sight of the original question, as to suppose 

 that " the geographic distribution of each species may be 

 represented by a circle, towards the centre of which 

 existence may be comfortably maintained ; but, as we 

 approach the circumference, restraints multiply, and 



