ANIMATED NA.TURF 



133 



and the very slight development of volcanic rock on its 

 surlace seem to indicate a system of physical conditions, 

 such as we may suppose to have existed elsewhere in the 

 oolite era ; perhaps we see the chalk formation preparing 

 there in the vast coral beds frontiering the coast. Aus- 

 tralia thus appears as a portion of the earth which has, 

 from some unknown causes, been belated in its physical 

 and organic development. And certainly the greater part 

 of its surface is not fitted to be an advantageous place of 

 residence for beings above the marsupialia, and judging 

 from analogy, it may yet be subjected to a series of 

 changes in the highest degree inconvenient to any human 

 beings who may have settled upon it. 



The general conclusions regarding the geography of 

 organic nature, may be thus stated. (1.) There are nu- 

 merous distinct foci of organic production throughout the 

 earth. (2.) These have everywhere advanced in accor- 

 dance with the local conditions of climate, &c, as far as 

 at least the class and order are concerned, a diversity tak- 

 ing place in the lower gradations. No physical or geo- 

 graphical reason appearing for this diversity, we are led 

 to infer that (3.) it is the result of minute and inappreci- 

 able causes giving the law of organic development a par- 

 ticular direction in the lower subdivisions of the two 

 kingdoms. (4 ) Development has not gone on to equal 

 results in the various continents, being most advanced in 

 the eastern continent, next in the western, and least in 

 Australia, this inequality being perhaps the result of the 

 comparative antiquity of the various regions, geologically 

 and geographically. 



It must at the same time be admitted that the line of 

 organic development has nowhere required for its advance 

 the whole of the families comprehended in the two king- 

 doms, seeing that some of these are confined to one con- 

 tinent, and some to another, without a conceivable possi- 

 bility of one having been connected with the other in the 

 way of ancestry. The two great families of quadrumana, 

 cebidae and simiadae, are a noted instance, the one being 

 exclusively American, while the other belongs entirely to 

 the old world. There are many other cases in which the 

 full circular group can only be completed by taking sub- 

 divisions from various continents. This would seem to 

 imply that while the entire system is so remarkable for its 

 unity, it has nevertheless been produced in lines geogra- 



