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Show 222 DISSERT. I. ' , • HISTORY OF ME X I C 0. t h 61/'.e extraord "m a ry and memorable earthquakes, mentioned in the h.i f- ton·e s o fA men·c a , when the world was thought to have been commg to an end ! · · 1 d fj It may be objeCted to our fyfiem, that if bea~s pa!fe~ _by an rom t h e on·e con t"m en t to the other , it is not eafy to d1vl.l le . th. e cau.f e h .r. r. ~ ffed there without leavin~ a lingle md1V1dual m W y J.OtnC 1pec1eS pa · fu ld the old continent; and, on the contrary, ~hat f~me. e~tire fpec1es ou rem· a·m · mthe old cohtinent ' and not a fmgle tndtvJdual of. them pafs to A men·c a. Why ' fior example ' did the fourteen fp.e c1es of ape. s, w h1.c h are now 1·n Axnerica , pafs there' and not the .e1ghteen fpec1es which count Buffon enumerates in Afia and Africa, although they are all of one clime, and were equally at liberty and freedom to pafs ? How came the iloths to pafs, which are fo iluggiili, and not th~ antelopes which are fo f wilt ? If the beafts proc~eded from Ar~~ma towards America, the fpecies deftined for America mu~ necefianly have pe~formed a journey of fix thoufand miles, fpreading from Armema th ough Mefopotomia and yria to Egypt, from thence through the ce~ter of Africa to the fuppofed fpace of land which formerly united the two continents, and from that, lafily, to Brafil; and although to other beafts there appears no difficulty of their havi~g made that ·progrefs in ten, t'wenty, or forty years, neverthelefs w1th ref~eet to the floths it is not to be comprehended how they could, even m conftant moti~n execute this in lefs than fix centuries. If we give credit to the count ,de Buffon, the floths cannot advance more than a perch in an ~our or fix Parifian feet, wherefore, to make a progrefs of fix thoufand m1les,. they would require about fix hundred and eighty ye~rs and more, if we believe what Maffi i, Herrera, and Pifon have written, who affirm, that that miferable quadruped can hardly go the length of a il:onethrow in fi_fteen days or a fortnight. T his is what may be objeCted to our fyil:em, but fome of the above mentioned arguments are more forcible againfi: all the other opinions,. except the one which employs the angels in the tranfportati0n of beafi:s. If they were men who tranfported beafts, why, inftead of wolves and foxes, did they not carry horfes, oxen, lheep, and goats? And why did not they leave a fpecics of each individual in the old continent? If fuch animals are fuppofed to have paffed by fwimming,. then ' . H I S T 0. R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. then the difliculty of the fea pa!fage to· land ~nimals comeS' in the way. If, all the animals arc f~ ppofed to have palfec!, even thofe of South America by the north , then, infl:ead of making a journey of fix thou. fuud miles, they mufl: have made one of more thaz:>. .fifteen thoufand~ for which length of way their !loth would have had occafion for !?ore than one thoufand feven hundred and forty years. . We anfwer then to the above objeCtions, r. That as all the quadrupeds of the earth are_ not yet known, we cannot fay how many are in th~ one or in the other continent. The count de Buffon numbers only two hundred fpccies of quadrupeds. Bomare, who wrote a little after that author, makes them two hundred and fixty-.five; but .tp fay how many more there may be, until we have examined the inland regions of Africa, of a great part of Tartary, the country of the Amazons, North Louifiana, the countries beyond the river Colorado, the country of the Apaches, the ·salainon ifles,, New Bolland, &c. whicJi countries mcrke a confiderable part of our globe. It is not wonderful that the animals of thefe unkno'?n coun·1!des a:re ftill ft rangers to us, when thofe of countries which have been known; and inhabited for thefe two hundred and fixty years by the Europeans, are yet unnoticed by zoologifts. The count de Buffon, although he is the moil: informed on this fubjecr, omits fome quadrupeds of Mexico, places many out of their native country, and confounds others together, as we fhall fhew in our Di!fertation on animals. But with refpecr to the animals which are certainly not original in America, fuch as camels, elephants, and horfes, feveral reafons may be affigned for this want. Poffibly thofe animals did pafs to the new world, but were deftroyed by other wild beafts, or extirpated by fome diftemper. Perhaps they never did pafs there. Some, fuch as elephants . and rhinocerofes, the multiplication of which , is How, fiopped in the fouthern parts of Afia and Africa, becaufe they found a climate agreeable and fuitable' to their natures, and had not occafion therefore to go further for paftures or food. It is true, that many authors are perfuaded that the great bones dug up near the river Ohio, and other places of America, have belonged to elephants, which would argu~ their ancient exifl:ence in that continent; but as modern zoologifi:s are not agreed with refpeCl: to the fpecies of quadruped to which fuch bones may have belonged, no argument from them can 8 be 22J DISSERT: I. '-v--J |