OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 



3 



dons; upon salt-licks and caves, strewed with the scattered relics of 

 extinct species of quadrupeds. 



On leaving Egj-pt, we no longer have the aid of ascertained dates. 

 Certain portions of coral islands are probably older than any human 

 record ; yet the relics of animals of which they are composed, belong 

 without exception to existing species. 



While the mass of mankind have been engaged in enforcing opinions, 

 a means of measurement has existed upon a secluded island in the 

 Pacific ; a perennial fountain of lava ; the molten rock by its clep- 

 sydra-like passage from tlie deep interior of the planet, marking time 

 ever since the work of creation ceased. 



The next question to be considered, is that of the contemporaneous 

 beginning of existing species. There is, perhaps, no evidence, that 

 an additional species of animal or plant has made its appearance 

 upon our planet during the last six thousand years; but the following 

 observed facts seem to require further examination and explanation : 



The coral islands, composed of the relics of existing species of 

 marine animals, project a few feet above the surface of the ocean ; 

 and, at the present day, are occupied by a variety of land animals 

 and plants. If species, whether land or marine, were all contem- 

 poraneous in their beginnings, there should be no peculiar species 

 upon coral islands. In sailing over the Pacific, this was abundantly 

 tested ; and on every low coral island we visited, the species of land 

 'animals and plants proved to be derived from abroad ; Helicidce, care- 

 fully searched for as including some excessively local species, being 

 absent. 



There is possibly a different state of things on Metia. This is a 

 coral island like the rest ; but an elevated one, forced up by some 

 change in the Earth's crust, two hundred and fifty feet or so out of 

 the water. It is situated about a hundred miles north of Taheiti, 

 the nearest rocky island. On Metia, Mr. Couthouy discovered three 

 diminutive species of land-shells (named by Gould, Helix pertenuis, 

 Helix docclalea, and Partula pusilla) ; species that we did not meet with 

 elsewhere. It is true, minute land-shells may be transported to a dis- 

 tance even by the winds, and the Taheitian Group contains several high 

 islands which we did not visit ; but if, after full examination, any 

 one of these species of land-shells shall prove peculiar to Metia, here 

 will be an instance of a non-contemporaneous exercise of creative 

 power : the island emerged from the ocean after the commencement 



