186 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OF 



pliocene beds of South Carolina. Indeed I have been thinking of them 

 continually since I saw them, and nothing impressed me so deeply for many 

 years past as the sight of these bones. I consider their careful study in all 

 their relations as of the utmost importance for the progress of our science. It 

 is true there is hardly anything of interest in the animals themselves, since 

 they appear to be all well known types, but their simultaneous occurrence in 

 the same beds, showing that they have lived together at a time when the white 

 man had not yet planted himself upon this continent, render their association as 

 undisputed. How does it happen, that horses, sheep, bulls and hogs, not distin- 

 guishable from our domestic species, existed upon this continent, together with 

 the deer, the musk-rat, the beaver, the hare, the opossum, the tapir, which in 

 our days are peculiar to this continent, and not found in the countries where 

 our domesticated aoimals originated ? The whole matter might seem to admit 

 of an easy solution by supposing that the native American horse, sheep, bull, 

 and hog were different species from those of the old world, even though the parts 

 preserved show no specific differences; but this would be a mere theoretical 

 solution of a difficulty which seems to me to have far deeper meaning, and to 

 bear directly upon the question of the first origin of organized beings. 



The circumstances under which these remains are found, admit of no doubt, 

 bat the animals from which they are derived, existed in North America long 

 before this continent was settled by the white race of men, together with ani- 

 mals which to this day are common in the same localities, such as the deer, the 

 musk-rat, the opossum and others only now found in South America, such as 

 the_ tapir. This shows beyond the possibility of a controversy, that animals 

 which cannot be distinguished from one another, may originate independently 

 in different fauna, and I take it that the facts you have brought together are a 

 satisfactory proof that horses, sheep, bulls and hogs, not distinguishable at pre- 

 sent from the domesticated species, were called into existence upon the conti- 

 nent of North America prior to the coming of the white race to these parts, 

 and that they had already disappeared here when the new comers set foot upon 

 this continent; but the presence of tapir teeth among the rest show also that a 

 genus peculiar to South America and the Sunda Islands existed also in North 

 America in those days, and that its representative of that period is not distin- 

 guishable from the South American species. 



It would be desirable in this stage of the enquiry to compare your tapir teeth 

 with those of the species from Central America, which is considered distinct 

 from the Brazilian species. This circumstance leads naturally to the question 

 of the specific identity of all these animals with those now living in the same 

 locality, and with the domesticated species. And here I confess the difficulty 

 to be almost insuperable, or at least hardly approachable in the present state of 

 our science, when the views of naturalists are so divided as to what are species 

 among the genera bos, ovis, capra. For myself. I entertain doubt respecting 

 the unity of origin of the domesticated horses. But whatever be the final re- 

 sult of this enquiry, this much is already established by the fossils you have 

 collected, that horses, hogs, bulls and sheep were among the native animals of 

 North America, as early as the common American deer, the opossum, the 

 beaver, the musk-rat, etc. What remains to be settled respecting their specific 

 identity is involved in the controversy now carried on between naturalists, who 

 admit specific distinctions upon a very wide range of differences, and those 

 who limit them within narrow boundaries. But the final solution of this point 

 can in no way lessen the interest of your discoveries. 



Should you publish anything upon this subject, let me have your notice, for 

 I am deeply interested in the subject, as I always shall be, in everything you 

 d- Ever truly your friend, 



L. AGASSIZ. 



