Ch. IX.] SPECIES OLDER THAN THEIR STATIONS. 115 



perhaps, no less surprise at the great vicissitude which it has 

 undergone during the same period. 



We have seen that a large portion of Sicily has been con- 

 verted from sea to land since the Mediterranean was peopled 

 with the living species of testacea and zoophytes. The newly 

 emerged surface, therefore, must, during this modern zoological 

 epoch, have been inhabited for the first time with the terrestrial 

 plants and animals which now abound in Sicily. It is fair to 

 infer, that the existing terrestrial species are, for the most part, 

 of as high antiquity as the marine, and if this be the case, a 

 large proportion of the plants and animals, now found in the 

 tertiary districts in Sicily, must have inhabited the earth before 

 the newer Pliocene strata were raised above the waters. The 

 plants of the Flora of Sicily are common, almost without ex- 

 ception, to Italy or Africa, or some of the countries surrounding 

 the Mediterranean *, so that we may suppose the greater part 

 of them to have migrated from pre-existing lands, just as the 

 plants and animals of the Phlegraean fields have colonized 

 Monte Nuovo, since that mountain was thrown up in the six- 

 teenth century. 



We are brought, therefore, to admit the curious result, that 

 the flora and fauna of the Val di Noto, and some other moun- 

 tainous regions of Sicily, are of higher antiquity than the coun- 

 try itself, having not only flourished before the lands were 

 raised from the deep, but even before they were deposited be- 

 neath the waters. Such conclusions throw a new light on the 

 adaptation of the attributes and migratory habits of animals and 

 plants, to the changes which are unceasingly in progress in the 

 inanimate world. It is clear that the duration of species is so 

 great, that they are destined to outlive many important revolu- 

 tions in the physical geography of the earth, and hence those 

 innumerable contrivances for enabling the subjects of the ani- 

 mal and vegetable creation to extend their range, the inhabitants 



* Professor Viviani of Genoa informed me, that, considering the great extent of 

 Sicily, it was remarkable that its flora produced scarcely any, if any peculiar indi> 

 genous species, whereas there are several in Corsica, and some other Mediterranean 

 islands, 



II 



