CHAPTER VIII.

IT would be superfluous to examine the various attempts which were made to 
explain the phenomena of the distribution of species alluded to in the preceding 
chapters, in the infancy of the sciences of botany, zoology, and physical 
geography. The theories or rather conjectures then indulged, now stand refuted 
by a simple statement of facts ; and if Linnæus were living, he would be the 
first to renounce the notions which he promulgated. For he imagined the 
habitable world to have been for a certain time limited to one small tract, the 
only portion of the earth's surface that was as yet laid bare by the subsidence 
of the primæval ocean. In this fertile spot he supposed the originals of all the 
species of plants which exist on this globe to have been congregated, together 
with the first ancestors of all animals and of the human race. “In quâ commodè 
habitaverint animalia omnia, et vegetabilia lætè germinaverint.” In order to 
accommodate the various habitudes of so many creatures, and to provide a 
diversity of climate suited to their several natures, the tract in which the 
creation took place was supposed to have been situated in some warm region of 
the earth, but to have contained a lofty mountain range, on the heights and in 
the declivities of which were to be found