And again, this temperate fauna has such reference to the fauna of the arctic, and to that of the warmer zones, that any transposition of isolated members of the whole plan would disturb the harmony which is evidently maintained throughout the natural distribution of organized beings all over the world. This internal evidence of an intentional arrangement, having direct reference to the present geographical distribution of the animals, dispersed over the whole surface of our globe, shews most conclusively, that they have been created where they are now found. Denying this position were equivalent to denying that the creation has been made according to a wise plan. It were denying to the Creator the intention of establishing well-regulated natural relations between the beings he has called into existence. It were denying him the wisdom which is exemplified in nature, to ascribe it to the creatures themselves,—to ascribe it even to those creatures in which we hardly see evidence of consciousness, or, worse than all, to ascribe this wonderful order to physical influence or mere chance.
As soon as this general conclusion is granted, there are, however, some further adaptations which follow as a matter of course. Each type, being created within the limits of the natural area which it is to inhabit, must have been placed there under circumstances favourable to its preservation and reproduction, and adapted to the fulfilment of the purposes for which it was created. There are in animals peculiar adaptations which are characteristic of their species, and which cannot be supposed to have arisen from subordinate influences. Those which live in shoals cannot be supposed to have been created in single pairs. Those which are made to be the food of others cannot have been created in the same proportions as those which feed upon them. Those which are everywhere found in innumerable specimens, must have been introduced in numbers capable of maintaining their normal proportions to those which live isolated, and are comparatively and constantly fewer. For we know that this harmony in the numerical proportions between animals is one of the great laws of nature. The circumstance that species occur within definite limits where no obstacles prevent their wider distribution, leads to the further inference that these limits were assigned to them from the beginning and so we would come to the final conclusion, that the order which prevails throughout the creation is intentional,—that it is regulated by the limits marked out on the first day of creation,—and that it has been maintained unchanged through ages, with no other modifications than those which the higher intellectual powers of man enable him to impose upon some of the few animals more closely connected with him, and in reference to those very limited changes which he is able to produce artificially upon the surface of our globe.[4]
[4] The above view of the geography of animals appeared partly in an American periodical and partly in Professor Agassiz's beautiful and important work (just received) on Lake Superior.
On the Geography and Geology of the Peninsula of Mount Sinai, and the adjacent Countries.
By John Hogg, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S.;
Honorary Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, &c.
Communicated by the Author.
(Continued from page 219.)
This town is named in Scripture Elath or Eloth; in the Septuagint Αἰλὰθ, and Αἰλὼν; Αἰλὰς, Ἀειλὰ, or Aila by the Greeks; Ælana by the Romans; and Ailah by the Arabians: it is described in 1 Kings ix. 26, as “on the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom;” and in 2 Chron. viii. 17, “at the sea-side in the land of Idumea.” From Procopius, in the 6th century, we learn the following exact account,[5] which agrees very well with the site of those mounds—“the eastern limits of Palæstina (including of course that part of the peninsula which he elsewhere relates[6] was called Palæstina Tertia), reach along the Red Sea. On the shore is placed the town Aïlas, where, the sea ending, it is contracted into a very narrow bay.”
Edrisi, in the 12th century, terms the steep descent from the Desert El Tyh by El Nakb to Akaba—“Akaba Ailah”—i.e., the “Descent of Ailah;” and Makrisi, in the 14th century, as cited by Burckhardt (p. 511), speaks of “the Akaba, or steep mountain before Aila.” Consequently, I take it to be correct that these mounds indicate the former position of Elath,[7] on the shore of the Sea of Edom or Idumea—an arm of the Red Sea.
At a short distance from them, but westward, a large space, like a marsh, seemed to be impregnated with nitre, which is left incrusted in some spots upon their surface. From hence, going up the extensive valley El Araba, it is found to be full of sand drifts, with here and there a few trees scattered about; the torrents, after rain, flow along the west side, and their waters, which are not absorbed by the sand, enter the sea at the north-west angle. The width of this part of the Wadi is near 5 miles, but in advancing farther to the north it becomes wider. The mountains on the east are high—from 2000 to 2500 feet; being of granitic, or rather porphyritic formation, they are highly picturesque, and have fine, lofty, jagged peaks: but those on the west, which are sandstone and chalk, are lower; rising to about a level with the desert El Tyh, they do not exceed 1500, or in places 1800 feet in elevation.
Not far from Wadi Ghadyan,[8] towards the west side, a great marsh-like tract, apparently impregnated with nitre, exhibits an incrustation on its surface. And the water in the spring itself is, according to M. De Bertou, strong of sulphur.