INTRODUCTION. 69 



all animals from the high lands of Asia, or any other single centre. 

 It i; not probable that the same animals would have twice wandered 

 across land and sea to the smif localities. Of this local creation of 

 animals, the island of New Holland furnishes a striking' example ; 

 nearly as large as all Europe, it contains animals and plants pecu- 

 liar to itself. With the exception of our opossum, the marsupial 

 animals are peculiar to this region, and no higher animals are abun- 

 dant. Most of the genera and all the species of plants were new to 

 botanists. Must of the fishes belong to the cartilaginous type. To 

 Asia belong the orang-outang, the tiger, the i, &c. ; to 



Africa, the chimpanzee, the zebra, the hippopotamus, the lion, the 

 gnu, the giraffe, &C. ; to America, the ant-eater, the bulHilo, the 

 llama, the grizzly hear, the moose, the beautiful humming hirds, and 

 the mocking bird. 



There seems no avoiding the conclusion that there have heen 

 many local centres of animal and vegetable creation. Is it most 

 consistent with the wisdom of God to place originally every species 

 in the climate and soil most congenial to it ' or to create all species 

 in one spot, whether suited to them or not, and leave them to find 

 out their present localities, at the risk, perhaps, of life ? To adopt 

 the latter view seems to he placing the Deity below a mere human 

 contriver.* Wherever we examine nature, we find a perfed adap- 

 tation of animals to the circumstances under which they live ; when 

 these are changed, the animals cease to exist. The domestic animals 

 and man are able to resist external changes for a longer period, hut 

 even these finally degenerate and die. " That which," says Arjassiz, 

 ' ; among organized beings is essential to their temporal existence must 

 be at least one of the conditions under which they were created." 



The American trihes are uniform from Canada to Cape Horn, 

 whatever the variety of climate ; yet they differ from Africans, 

 Asiatics, or Australians; while the inhabitants of the southern 

 extremities of America, Africa, and New Holland, regions having 

 almost the same physical conformation, are extremely unlike each 

 other. We must conclude that " these iaces cannot have ass'imcd 

 their peculiar features after they had migrated into these countries 

 from a supposed common centre; that they must have originated, 

 with the animals and plants living there, in the same numerical pro- 

 portions and over the same area in which they now occur." These 

 conditions are necessary to their maintenance. 



* " Distribution," says Vai Amringe, " can only relate to the subjects 



to )>e distrilmtod ; but the Old World never had the fauna of New Hoi 

 land and America ; and therefore could not distribute them. Fror* 

 whence did thr>y come ? " (p. 144.) 



