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Show 2S6 H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. DiSSERT. kind of animals are peculiar to intemperate climes, and the {mallet·· ~ kind to climes which are mild . and temperate; and if the advantages of climate :tre to be deduced from the fize of quadrupeds, we would unquefl:ionably fay, that the climate of Africa an.d the follth of Afia is much better than that of Europe. But if iu America, when' it was firO: difcovered by the !Europeans, there were no elephants, rhinoceroifes, fea-horfes, camels, &c. they were however once there, if we give credit to de Paw, Sloane, Du Pratz, Lignay, and fcveral other authors, who affirm the ancient exiCtence of thefe great quadrupeds in America, founded on the difcovcry of bones, and entire ikeletons of immenfe fize, which were dug up in different places of the new world; likewife, if we believe what count de Buffort has written in the eighteenth volume of his HiO:ory, there was formerly an animal fevcn times larger than the elephant, called by Mr. Muller the Mdmmout (/); but in Europe there never was, nor can there be, any quadruped of fuch a fize. There were no horfes, afies, or bulls ( m) in America until they were tranfported there from Europe; but neither were thefe in. Europe until they were tranfported there, or brought fi·om Afia. All animals drew their origin from Afia, and thence fprcad. through other countries; the neighbourhood of Europe, and the commerce of the Aliatics with the Europeans, -facilitated the paffagc of thefe animals into Europe; and with thefe alfo were introduced there fome cull:otm and inventions ufeful to life, of which the Americans were deprived, on account of their di!bnce from thofe countries, and the want of commerce. When count de Buffon affirmed, that the largeft quadruped of the new world was the tapir, and the next the cabiai, he had entirely lofl: memory of the morfe, fea-calves, buffiers, rein-deer, alcos, bears, and (/) Accor?ing to the acc?unt given by Muller of this qulldrupcd, it fhould be one hun· dre~ and tlurty-three . fe~t tn leng.th, and one hundred and five in height. The count Jc Euflon fpcaks thua of It 111 volume xvi. " The monfrrous 111fi1111110IIt, whofe enormous bones "we have frequcntlyconfidered, and which we have conceived to bent !call: fix times larger than "thofe of .the biS:gc fi: elephant, exifis no mCilre," In volume x.xii. he fays, that he is :1!fureu th:1t thofc unmcnlc boneo h:~vc b:longrd to elephants feven or eight times larger than the one whore fkelcton he had exnmmed m the royal mufeum of Paris : but in his new work entitled Epncl,_o dt Ia Nnt11rr, he ngnin nOirms the former cxifience of that enormous quadruped in Amcncn. m} W?en '''?fay there we1·e no bulls in Ameriba, we ntludc Ol)ly to the common fpc cics employed In ngneulture ; for there were bifo!JW; which 'the count llc Buffouiometimes thinks ro l>e the common fpecies; nt other times he is doubtful of it. the H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E . X I C 0. others. He himfelf confeffes ( n) that the - fea-calf feen by lord Anfon and Rogers in America, and ·by them called the fea-lion, was incomparably larger than all the fea-calves of the old world. Who would compare the cabiai, which is not larger than a middling boowith the bufRers and alcos? The· buffiers are equal in general to th; common bulls of Europe, and often exceed them in fiz c. Let us attend to the defcription which Bomare makes of one of thefe quadmpeds tranfported from Louifiana to France, and meafured exactly by that naturalift at Paris, in the year 1769 (o). There was an immenfc multitude of thefe large quadrupeds in t~e temperate zone of North America. The alcos of New Mexico are of the fize of a horfe. There was a gentleman in the city of Zacatecas, who made ufc of them for his chariot inll:ead of horfes, according to the tcll:imony of Betancourt; and fometimes they have been fent as prefents to the king of Spain. The univerfal pofition of the count de Buffon, that all the quadrupeds common to both continents are'fm_~ller in America without any exception, has been proved falfe by feveral Emopean authors who haveJeen thefe an'imals;. and even by count de Buffon himfelf, in other places of his Hifl:ory. Dr~ Hernandez fays of the mt:ztli, or American lion, that it is larger than the lion of the fame fp ecies ·or the old continent. Of the tyger he affirms the fame (p). Neither· the count de l3uf.fon,, nor Mr. de Paw have a juft idea of this wild: animal. We faw one a few. hours after it was killed ~y nine ihots : but it was much larger in fize than we are made to believe by Mr .. Buffon. Thofe authors,. fince they do not truil: the. accounts of Spaniards, ought at leafl: to give credit to lVIr. Condamine, the learned and. impartial French author, w.ho fays that the tygers feen by hirrr in the hot countries of the new world. did not appear to him to differ· (11) Hift. Nat. tom. xxvit, (o) Dk ion. d'Hifl:. Nat. V. Bifon Bomare calls that American nni1nal on account of ito. ~rcat. fi:t.e rhe coloif~l quadruped; .~e fays that its .length fr?m ir.s fno\lt to the beginning of ltS tatl m"afurrd by tts flanks was nmc feet and two 111chcs; 1ts. hetght from . the fummit ot it) back to its hoof, five feet nnd four inches ; its thicknefs mcnfured over the hunch of its back ten feet in circumference. He adds that he underilood from the owner of that nnim:~l, that" the fem ales were n ill largel', (i) Vu.lgaria ell: huic orbi. tygris, fed nollrate mnjor. Hi it QJ:.ad. N: Hi ,fp. c3p. x, fr.omr 287 JHSSERT. IV, ~ |