194 
ON THE CREATION AND 
diffused themselves over the neighbouring parts. As their habi- 
tatfons gradually advanced, the new difficulties which they had to 
encounter called forth, by degrees, the spirit of invention, such 
as laying snares for animals, and domesticating those that were 
found suited to their purpose ; and these have accompanied man¬ 
kind in their different migrations nearly over the whole globe. 
Such is the result of historical inquiry. It points out the East 
as the earliest or original seat of our species, the source of our 
domesticated animals, of our principal vegetable food, and the 
cradle of arts and sciences : but it does not furnish the means of 
deciding that all living beings originated in one spot, and from 
thence migrated to their destined abodes. 
Buffon, I believe, was the first who advanced an opinion, that 
each kind had a determinate spot, which was its original abode; 
and that from that region it afterwards issued, according to the 
perfection of its locomotive faculties, and spread through distant 
regions: nor is he singular in the opinion, for at this period, the 
Mosaic account of the dispersion of animals is doubted by many 
persons, including learned divines and distinguished and biblical 
scholars. The progress of science and discovery, and the accurate 
accounts of various travellers, prove the impossibility that all 
animals were brought before Adam in the first place, and of 
their being all collected in the Ark in the second place. 
The collection of living beings in one central point, and their 
gradual diffusion over the whole globe, may not be greatly incon¬ 
sistent with what we know of our own species, and of the few 
more common quadrupeds which I have described as accompany¬ 
ing us in our various migrations, and are able to sustain with us 
great varieties of climate, food, situation, and all external influ¬ 
ences. But when we extend our survey to the rest of the 
mammalia, we find at all points abundant proofs of animals being 
confined to particular situations; and being so completely adapted 
by their structure and functions, by their whole organization, 
economy, and habits, to the local peculiarities of temperature, 
soil, and food, that they cannot subsist where they are no 
longer found. 
In proportion as our knowledge of species becomes more exact, 
the proofs of this locality are rendered stronger; and the exam¬ 
ples of admirable conformity between the organic capabilities of 
animals and the circumstances of the regions which they inhabit, 
are multiplied and strengthened. 
‘'The peculiar adaptation of the camel to the sandy deserts in 
which he is placed strikes the most cursory observer.* The herds 
of antelopes and other ruminant animals, and the great troops of 
* Lawrence’s Lectures. 
