378 SlNQLa CENTEM OF CREATION. 



now inhabiting distant and isolated regions, must have 

 proceeded from one spot, where their parents were first 

 produced: for, as has been explained, it is incredible that 

 individuals indentically the same should have been pro- 

 duced from parents specifically distinct. 



SINGLE CENTEES OF SUPPOSED CREATION. 



We are thus brought to the question which has been 

 largely discussed by naturalists, namely, whether species 

 have been created at one or more points of the earth's sur- 

 face. Undoubtedly there are many cases of extreme dififi - 

 culty in understanding how tlie same species could possi- 

 bly have migrated from some one point to the several dis- 

 tant and isolated points, where now found. Nevertheless 

 the simplicity of the view that each species was first pro- 

 duced within a single region captivates the mind. He who 

 rejects it, rejects the vera causa of ordinary generation 

 with subsequent migration, and calls in the agency of a 

 miracle. It is universally admitted, that in most cases the 

 area inhabited by a species is continuous; and that when a 

 plant or animal, inhabits two points so distant from each 

 other, or with an interval of such a nature, that the space 

 could not have been easily passed over by migration, the 

 fact is given as something remarkable and exceptional. 

 The incapacity of migrating across a wide sea is more clear 

 in the case of terrestrial mammals than perhaps with any 

 other organic beings; and, accordingly, we find no inex- 

 plicable instances of the same mammals inhabiting distant 

 points of the world. No geologist feels any difficulty in 

 Great Britain possessing the same quadrupeds with the 

 rest of Europe, for they were no doubt once united. But 

 if the same species can be produced at two separate points, 

 why do we not find a single mammal common to Europe 

 and Australia or South America? The conditions of life 

 are nearly the same, so that a multitude of European 

 animals and plants have become naturalized in America 

 and Australia; and some of the aboriginal plants are 

 identically the same at these distant points of the 

 northern and southern hemispheres? The answer, as 

 I believe, is, that mammals have not been able to 

 migrate, whereas some plants, from their varied means 



