DISTKIBUTIOif OF OPHIBIAK-S. 
197 
without a motive, from one place to another. It is true that 
there exist certain reptiles which form exceptions to what 
we have stated. Several species of Tortoises are dispersed 
over various parts of the globe the Scincks and the Geckos 
are perhaps carried in ships from one region to another ; 
the Sea Tortoises undertake voyages at certain periods 
of the year, and are knov/n upon coasts which their race 
never inhabit ; Crocodiles-f- and Boas J have been some- 
times carried by currents far from their native regions ; 
but these examples are very few in comparison of what we 
observe in mammals and in birds, and merely form excep- 
tions, as regards serpents, § to what we shall state in the 
following pages. It is evident, after what we have said, 
that the geographic distribution of Ophidians should pos- 
sess an interest altogether peculiar in this, that it presents 
the most certain means of knowing the relations which 
exist between the animals and the places they inhabit. 
This study will contribute to clear up the grand and im- 
portant questions on the Foci of creation, and the immu- 
tability of species. In reposing on the facts which it pre- 
sents to us, we shall more readily arrive at an idea of the 
face of Nature, such as she was in the primeval state, 
before the art of man had transformed the surface of the 
earth, before he had driven from their habitations a great 
number of animals, either destroying them totally, or reduc- 
ing them to a state of domesticity, and changing or modify- 
ing their nature, by altering that of the places they inhabit. 
We cannot at all apply this to reptiles in general, and still 
* The Indian Tortoise, probably originally from Madagascar and 
the neighbouring isles, has been acclimated in the Galapagos Isles, in 
California, and in several other points on the western coasts of »South 
America. 
t Lesson (Voy, de la Coquille Zoologie, ii. 2, chap. 9, p. 10) quotes 
two facts, drawn from Mariner and Kotzebue, which create the sus- 
picion of the presence of a large Crocodile in the isles of Pelew and 
Fidschi, where those animals do not ordinarily dwell. 
t Guilding (^Zoolog, Journ.^ iii. p. 403) relates a fact of this nature : 
a Boa, entwined around a tree, having been driven from the adjacent 
coasts of America, and thrown on the shores of St Vincent. 
§ The Hydrophis, for example, have their native region always cir- 
cumscribed within the same limits ; although all these Ophidians inhabit 
the sea. 
