26 Where did Life Begin? 



oceans had always been as we now find them, 

 and confine our attention to the more fully 

 explored arctic regions, rsither than both frigid 

 zones. 



As might be readily supposed, these arctic 

 regions which first became cool enough to 

 maintain life, would from the same causes be 

 the first to become too cold for the same pur- 

 pose. And this cold would occur first as a 

 temperate climate near and around the pole; 

 at any rate, in the centre of a zone just suffi- 

 ciently removed from the pole to combine the 

 influence of the sun with Its own cooling tem- 

 perature, so as to become the first fit habita- 

 tion of life. 



This central cold creating a temperate clim- 

 ate would thus have become the first and all- 

 sufficient cause of a dispersion and distribu- 

 tion of both the tropical plants and animals 

 over another zone next south, next further 

 removed from the pole, and next sufficiently 

 cool to maintain such life. Moreover, this 

 cooler climate occurrinof In the centre would 

 have driven out and dispersed such life 

 equally, In all possible directions. So, if the 



