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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



and planted the region round about Eden, in Asia, 

 did the same in America ; and there, by the self- 

 same power, created all kinds of vegetables, flow- 

 ers, trees, seeds, roots, and animals, endowing 

 them with the same blessing, and bidding them 

 to increase and multiply." 



Thus does our independent expounder of the 

 Mosaic tradition declare in favor of many central 

 points of creation. Nor does the express state- 

 ment of the Bible that all the animals were 

 brought to Adam, so that he might name each, 

 shake his conviction that the animals of America 

 are native to American soil, and that the inhabi- 

 tants of the oceanic islands are at home on those 

 " large and small isles of the sea." This convic- 

 tion, he exclaims, in the language of Virgil, is as 

 immovable — 



" Quam si dura silex aut stet Marpesia cautes." 



• 



From all this we see how deep was the impres- 

 sion made by the inexhaustible variety of the, plant 

 and animal kingdoms of the New World. The 

 error of the earlier zoologists and botanists in 

 supposing plants and animals to be the same the 

 world over, so that they sought on the Rhine 

 and in Belgium for the plants described by Theo- 

 phrastus and Dioscorides, was at last exploded, 

 after it had given rise to a voluminous literature, 

 and to no end of confusion in nomenclature. 



As for the human inhabitants of America, 

 Milius — just as science does in the present day — 

 makes them an exception. He does not believe 

 that they are, " as the ancient Egyptians and 

 Athenians boasted themselves to be, autochthones 

 and aborigines, sprung like mushroms and grass- 

 hoppers from mud and ordure." Unfortunately, 

 we cannot affirm that this keen-sighted mau 

 reached this conclusion by way of ethnological 

 and anatomical argument. He rather bases his 

 doctrine on curious theological premises, which 

 quiet his scruples of conscience, and enable him 

 to consider man as something apart " from all 

 other animals." Like most scholars of his day, 

 Milius could not imagine that to Moses and the 

 other prophets of the Old and New Testament 

 the existence of one-half of the world was all un- 

 known. Accordingly, they sought in the Bible 

 for passages that might have reference to the New 

 World, and they found them in abundance, as is 

 ever the case under like circumstances. But 

 none of these references is anterior to the flood ; 

 and, therefore, it was supposed that, prior to that 

 event, the Old World was not so over-populated as 

 to necessitate a migration to the New. But now, 

 since before the flood there were no human 



beings in America and the islands of the sea, it 

 of course follows that there were no sinners 

 there. " Hence we must firmly hold that the 

 deluge did not extend to all places on the globe ; 

 and, in particular, that it did not extend to 

 America, Magellanica, and certain other islands." 

 This conclusion is also reached from the consid- 

 eration that the fauna and flora of those coun- 

 tries, differing as they do essentially from the 

 fauna and flora of the Old World, could, in case 

 the deluge extended thither, never have been re- 

 newed, inasmuch as the Creator has rested ever 

 since the end of the sixth day. This argument 

 is so contradictory of the views previously ex- 

 pressed by Milius regarding the origin of plants 

 and animals, that we are inclined to think that 

 here we have an interpolation by the translator. 



It is not uninteresting to notice that even in 

 those times men thought of the route to America 

 via Japan — a route that must still be esteemed 

 the most probable one, though ever since 1728 

 it has been known, thanks to Behring's discovery, 

 that Asia and America are separated by a pretty 

 wide strait, whereas earlier it was supposed that 

 they were united. Even Joseph a Costa, one of 

 the earliest historians of America, gave free play 

 to his imagination in tracking the migration by 

 this route. According to this writer, the first 

 human inhabitants of America emigrated from the 

 Indus and the Ganges, passing by way of China 

 and Japan, and so reaching the shores of the 

 Western Continent. On reaching land they trav- 

 eled southward as far as the Andes, and there 

 first rested from their weary journeyings. " Mon- 

 tanus," says Milius, "affirms that there still ex- 

 ists in Peru, near the mountains called by the 

 Spaniards the Andes, a very ancient city, Juck- 

 tam, so called after Jucktam or Jecktam, third 

 son of Eber, whose descendants settled in Peru, 

 and there built the first city." 



Of Eber, great-grandson of Noah, we read in 

 the Bible (Genesis x. 25-30) : " Unto Eber were 

 born two sons ; the name of one was Peleg ; for 

 in his days was the earth divided ; and his 

 brother's name was Joktan. . . . And their " (the 

 sons of Joktan's) " dwelling was from Mesha, as 

 thou goest unto Sephar, a mount of the east." 

 Further geographical determination being disre- 

 garded, it was concluded that by the " mount 

 of the east " the Andes alone could be under- 

 stood, for that range alone, on account of its 

 height and extent, is worthy of being called par 

 excellence the " mount of the east." And the 

 inhabitants of Babylon, from which the migra- 

 tion set out, might well call America the Land 



