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Show 250 DISSERT. J1I, ' .. I • H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. why ought they not to be afcribed to the fame caufe in America ( t) ? On the contrary, if the waters of the univerfal deluge wet:e not thofe which carried the above mentioned marine bodies into the inland places of Europe, but thofe of a pofterior inundation~ if Europe is in ge .. neral, according to what I3uffon fays ( u ), a new country : if it is not long fince it was covered with woods and madhes, why do we not fee ·in Europe, and why were there not feen two thoufand years ago, thofe ll:u pen.dous effeCts of the inundation which thofe authors fee in America ? WI}y have the animals of Europe degenerated like thofe of America? Why are not the Europeans cold in confritution like the Americans ? Why are or have not the women of both the one and the other part of the wprld been equally barren ? Why, if Europe was overflowed like America, and more fo, and for a much longer time than it, as is clearly deducible from the arguments of Buffon, has its foil remained fertile, and that of America barren ? Why are the fkies of Europe fo mild, thofe of America fo inclement? Why to Europe ihould all the bleffings have been deil:ined, to America all the evils ? Whoever would be better lnformed refpeCl:ing thofe difficulties, may read Buifon on the inundation of Europe. The lafi argument of M. de Paw is taken from the extinction or dcfiruction of the great quadrupeds in America, which he fays are the firft to peri{h in water. This author believes that anciently there were elephants, camels, fca-horfes, and other large quadrupeds in America. but that they all periihcd in .this fuppofed inundation. But what perion will not wond~::r that elephants and camels, who are fo fwift, {houlJ (t) One of the highefi mountaius -of America is ~he Drzcnbrzrult~, fituatcd among the alps of Chili, upwards of live hundred miles from the tea. Its perpcndicuhr height above the level nf the fen is, according to Molin:~, a 1c:Irnc.d and diligent hiftorian ~Jf thnt kingdom, more than thr~e miles: On t.hc top o~ this very lofly mountain is found a great gu:tntity of petrified snanne bod1es, wh~..:h. ccrra1u!y cou!d. I\flt llav.c been cnrried to that !lupcndo.us heigh t by the waters of :tny partwlulllou:Ltio.n, ditlcrcnt from the dclllgc which h:1 ppcncd in the lime of Noah. Neuber can~t be raid tlwt that fut~1mit might formerly have been the bet! of the fca, :~nd. ~radu~lly have been r .• i{j;d by fubtcmmcous lir~s, bearing along with it thofc marine bodtcs; bccaufc although (his cafe is not <improbable in fome places, which we fcc but a li ttle eJ;,·atcd n_bcwc_ the te~c l of the fca. and we even think it may frequently have happened, .notwu~ O:lndtn~, LOa hc,ght fo cxrraonljoary as this, it :1ppcars <'ntircly incredible: fo rl.at thofe ~ann~ bod1cs, fotmd on that fummit, ought to be confidcrcd as unqucfiionablc proofs anLl mduha:ablc trnccs of the univct·f:~ l dclug.c • . (u) Tom. Theoric de b Terre. peri!h, • , H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. peri.lh, and that the lloth, which is fo flow, and unable to move, fhould efcape? that they could not, as well as men, betake themfelves to the mountains, either by fwjmming, at which they :J.'re moft dexterous, or by a~ailing themfelves o~ the fwiftnefs of their fee t, which is [o great, that m one day, accordmg to the account of Buffon, they go one· hundred and fifty miles; and yet the iloths could find leifure to afcend to the tops of the mountains, wh-ich, according to the account of the .fi.1mc author: can hardly move a perch in an hour r Although we lhould admit that fuch quadrupeds have been fonnerlv in America we are not obi iged to believe that their defl:ruCl:ion has b~etl occa!ioned by the fuppofcd inundation, becaufe it might be afcribed to other caufes very different. M.· de Paw himfelf aflinns ( x ), that if elephants were tranfported to America, as the Portuguefe have attempted, they would meet w1th the :Uune fortune with camels; that they would not prop:1gate, although they were left in the woods to their own infrincl ? becau{e the change of aliment and clime is infinitely more fenfibly felt by elephants than all other quadrupeds of the largeft kind. He likewife declares in another place, that the cauf~.:s wh' h operate to the de!l:rnCl:ion of thofe animals, that is, the quadru}) ed.s of the new world, are difiiculties of a high degree, and at the fame tit one of the mo(l: interefi:ing fubjects of the natural hiil:ory of the ten·aqucous globe. Wl1y then does he decide fo poiitively, that the fuppofed inundation was the caufe of their extirpation? Button endeavours to perfuade us of the recent inundation of America by feveral arguments, to which we will anfwer in a few words. .[( tbis contimn~ is_ as ancient as tbi! othi!r, he f:.ys, fpcaking of Amenca, 'w!Jy have jo fi!w men been found there? The men who have been found there cannot be called few, but in refpetl: to the very extenfive country which they have inhabited. Thole who lived in focieties as the Mexicans, the natives of Michuac:llJ, the Acolhuas, and oti1ers who occnp~cd all that very extenfive tract of the· country, which lies between mne and twenty-three degrees of latitude, and two hundred and. feventy-one and two hundred and' ninety-four of longitude, were bodtes of pe~ple as numerous as thofe of Europe, which we lhall fhew ( ·") Recherches Philofovhiqucs, pntte i. K k 2 . m 251 DISSE!t 1.'. III. ...___.,~ • .. |