8. But perhaps the most startling of all the difficul- ties in the way of the belief in a universal deluge aVB presented to us in the researches of the soologist. From him we learn that, even taking the cubit by which the ark was measured to have been of the lon- gest, the ark was totally inadequate to contain the ani- mals even of a single continent. It would occupy too much space to enter here into the details of this part of the subject We refer the reader to one of the lec- tures of Hugh Miller {Testimomf of the Rocks, p. 267). Sir Walter Raleigh thought he had exhausted the ca- pabilities of the ark when, after calculating the amount of space that would be occupied by the animals known to himself at the time, he concluded that ** all these two hundred and eighty beasts might be kept in one story or room of the ark, in their several cabins, their meat in the second, the birds and their provisions in the third, with space to spare for Noah and his fitmi- ly, and all their necessaries" {History of the World, p. 67). Since Raleigh's time, however, the known number of terrestrial animals has been enormously increased. Of mammalia alone there are now known between 1600 and 1700 species. To these must be added upwards of 6000 bu>ds, 650 reptiles, and 550,000 insects, all of which would require room and a pro- vision of food in the ark. It is needless to remark that no vessel ever fashioned by man could have ac- commodated a tithe of these inmates. See Noah's Ark.
But over and above the impossibility of construct- ing a vessel large enough to contain all the species of terrestrial animals that inhabit the globe, it would ^ave been equally impossible in the days of Noah,
Just as It would be utterly impossible in tm swi to collect all these creatures alive into ob« cm the earth. No one needs to be infbnaed tfat tici mal tribes are not all represented in aojoae that certain races are confined to high itfittiai others roam among the temperate s(iMB,Tfau4 are found only between the tropics. Kor ii it sary to do more than allude to the &ct thstttei similar grouping on all high land, altitade lim sea being thus representative of rsoMsion fi>e equator, so that the bald head of a lofty omn be white with the snows of an etensl shoulders clad with the. spring-like vegetalkKi temperate latitudes, while its feet lie rich it tkF|y ries of a tropical summer. But beaides this an^ ment, according to climate and tempecatin«,t^u still further subdivision intopnmcai, sod ^mtm into generic and specific eenires. Thai, "wA ai tone of latitude has its peculiar ^^bdw Uuaoi4 vegetable life, it contains so many dirtiiietiiin pendent areas, in which the animsis aad pla^ ai a large extent generically or spedfically diftnei^ those of contiguous areas. The evidence of Ottj calized groups of organisms points in ptA to otit* logical changes of sea and Ismd, and ponBilTtB <k causes which are still far from being undentwd. h fsssor Edward Forbes treated them as catm ffn tiofij that is, distinct areas in whidi grosps d"^ and animals had been created, and tmm vfckiJJ common centre, they had gradually rviisteiM » encroach more or less upon the neighboriif ■■ Hence, to collect specimens of all the tfttm^tier trial creatures inhabiting the earth, it wonUbe ns sary not only to visit each parallel of latitsdi n*^ sides of the equator, but to explore the whek a» of each parallel, so as to leave out none of thesi^ provinces. With all the appliances of modn ^ ization, and all the labors of explorers in the c»( science tlironghout every part of the wofiitte« of ascertaining the extent of the animal kisgi^^' probably still fiur from being acconplisbel .^i year passes away without witnessing new bib« * ed to the lists of the zoologbt. Smdj j»»^ pretend that what has not yet been achieTed If ^ dreds of laborers during many centariei casH ^" been performed by one of the 'patritrcbs doiw » ^ years. It was of course necessary that the «oj-* should be brought alive. But this^ owing te thar * matal susceptibilities, was in the case of suar^ impossible, and even with regard to tboee wte* "^ have survived the journey, the difficulties d^ transport must have been, altogether iBfip«»* Noah, moreover, was busy with lib great ^^^*:^ continued to be "a preacher of repentance' to te^ low-men — occupations which admitted of bo p«P* tions to the ends of the earth in search oliamvr. the ark. It is indeed beyond our power to fcB»** the train of impossibilities which soch a i»6* f plies. Dr. J. Pye Smith remarks that tb« ifc*|y collection of all the terrestrial ammali ^^^fJJ brought by Noah to the ark cannot be «*^ " without tmnging up the idea of mirsd* a*** *" pendens than any that are recorded in Sffll*"*''^ what appear appalling in compariaon; ^P^^ cisive miracle of Christianity — tiie wannwtts « Lord Jesus — sinks down before it" ,
The existence of distinct provnices of pW» "^ animals is a fiict fiill of the deepest interest «a<i '^ out many wide fields of inquiry. Ita ***""* "V. question of the deluge is of course that phuj^ more especially requires to be noticed hem j»*^ tion to what has just been said, it may ^J|?"*^ further, that these provinces have s geologi* J* as a zoological significance. Laying aside tf ^, impossible the idea of the representatfan is wj^ every terrestrial spedea, we may «**•"* """J "J?^ atory evidence that the ATJadng noes dpf^