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The City of God

Chapter 7.--Whether Even the Remotest Islands Received Their Fauna from the Animals Which Were Preserved, Through the Deluge, in the Ark.

There is a question raised about all those kinds of beasts which are not domesticated, nor are produced like frogs from the earth, but are propagated by male and female parents, such as wolves and animals of that kind; and it is asked how they could be found in the islands after the deluge, in which all the animals not in the ark perished, unless the breed was restored from those which were preserved in pairs in the ark. It might, indeed, be said that they crossed to the islands by swimming, but this could only be true of those very near the mainland; whereas there are some so distant, that we fancy no animal could swim to them. But if men caught them and took them across with themselves, and thus propagated these breeds in their new abodes, this would not imply an incredible fondness for the chase. At the same time, it cannot be denied that by the intervention of angels they might be transferred by God's order or permission. If, however, they were produced out of the earth as at their first creation, when God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature," ¹ this makes it more evident that all kinds of animals were preserved in the ark, not so much for the sake of renewing the stock, as of prefiguring the various nations which were to be saved in the church; this, I say, is more evident, if the earth brought forth many animals in islands to which they could not cross over.

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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput VII: An omne bestiarum genus etiam remotissimae a terris insulae ex eo numero acceperint, qui in arca a diluuii inundatione seruatus est.

Sed quaestio est de omni genere bestiarum, quae sub cura hominum non sunt neque sicuti ranae nascuntur ex terra, sed sola commixtione maris et feminae propagantur, sicut lupi atque huiusmodi cetera, quomodo post diluuium, quo ea, quae in arca non erant, cuncta deleta sunt, etiam in insulis esse potuerint, si reparata non sunt nisi ex his, quorum genera in utroque sexu arca seruauit. possunt quidem credi ad insulas natando transisse, sed proximas. sunt autem quaedam tam longe positae a continentibus terris, ut ad eas nulla uideatur natare potuisse bestiarum. quod si homines eas captas se cum aduexerunt et eo modo ubi habitabant earum genera instituerunt uenandi studio, fieri potuisse incredibile non est; quamuis iussu dei siue permissu etiam opere angelorum negandum non sit potuisse transferri. si uero terra exortae sunt secundum originem primam, quando dixit deus: producat terra animam uiuam, multo clarius apparet non tam reparandorum animalium causa quam figurandarum uariarum gentium propter ecclesiae sacramentum in arca fuisse omnia genera, si in insulis, quo transire non possent, multa animalia terra produxit.