472 On the Creation, Diffusion, and 



Now if we apply this reasoning to the primitive focus 

 from which all organic nature was diffused, it will follow 

 that the productions of its various climates are not only to 

 be expected partially in surrounding and similar tempera- 

 tures, hut that species of every kind are to be found in one 

 particular country, in that region from whence each origi- 

 nally sprung, while at the same time it will probably contain 

 some peculiar to itself, " naturally those which had not been 

 able to obtain a passage into any one of the surrounding 

 countries." 



Yet this is not found to be a fact, for although widely 

 separated regions may produce some apparently similar cli- 

 mates, still few of the organic productions are the same. 

 In the mountain tracts of tropical regions whose climates 

 are modified by the various degrees of elevation, animals 

 common to the cooler and temperate lowland countries of 

 other regions may be found, but the great proportion of their 

 products, both vegetable and animal, are quite distinct. Be- 

 sides this, many species and some genera are decidedly local, 

 and only to be met with in one peculiar region. Thus while 

 the Toucans (Ramphastus) inhabit South America, the Horn- 

 bills (Buceros) are confined to the east ; — while the Jaguar 

 and Puma are peculiar to the New, the Lions and Tigers are 

 peculiar to the Old World ; — the Kangaroo and Ornithoryn- 

 chus of New Holland, the Birds of Paradise, and the ex- 

 tinct Dodo are only a few, among many instances of this 

 predilection for peculiar and widely separated climates. 

 Thus too does D'Aubnisson truly remark, that of organic 

 beings — "some can only live in the bosom of the sea, — 

 others, in fresh waters ; some are only to be found within 

 the torrid zone, while there are others which would perish 

 the moment they should be removed from the frigid zone ; 

 in a word, each species appears as if it were fixed to an 

 element or climate proper and peculiar to it" 



It might perhaps be more truly said, that apparently 



