132 MARSUPIAL QUADRUPEDS OF NEW HOLLAND. 



In considering the mammals of New Holland generally, 

 the first circumstance that particularly attracts our attention 

 is that, with a very few exceptions, they all appear to belong 

 to the same natural group, and to possess organs, and exe- 

 cute functions, different from those of the Old World. This 

 is a most important as well as a curious fact, and one from 

 which we may deduce some valuable conclusions, with respect 

 to the origin and distribution of animals. If we were told, 

 for example, that a continent had been discovered, insulated 

 from all other parts of the habitable globe, and differing in its 

 geographical features and natural productions, from all that 

 experience had made familiar to us in the Old World ; — if we 

 were told that its plants were peculiar, and its animals of an 

 anomalous race ; that, — excepting the dog, which follows his 

 master, man, wherever he establishes his dominion, — it had 

 not a single species, and scarcely even a genus, of mammals, 

 in common with other countries ; that it nourished no quad- 

 ruped with which we were already acquainted, and that its 

 own were absolutely confined within the circle of its shores ; 

 — finally, if we were told that the mammals which it did pos- 

 sess, were formed upon a distinct and peculiar model, and en- 

 dowed with organs and modifications different from those of 

 known quadrupeds, — what would be our natural reflection ? 

 Should we not be inclined to ascribe the formation of such an 

 insulated continent to a distinct plan, perhaps to a different 

 period, of creation ? Or rather, should we not consider its 

 animal productions as affording evidence of a separate and 

 peculiar design in their formation ? One conclusion, at least, 

 forces itself upon our belief with irresistible certainty ; viz., 

 that, at whatever period these animals were first called into 

 existence, they must, necessarily, have been created upon the 

 insulated continent which they now inhabit : nor do I think 

 it at all inconsistent with the idea which we entertain of the 

 Great First Cause of all things, or derogatory either to his 

 glory or power, to suppose that their existence may be the 

 result of a subsequent act of creation ; — nay, that new species 

 like new individuals, maybe daily springing into being, to sup- 

 ply the place of those which daily perish, and of which the 

 remains are so abundantly strewed beneath the surface of the 

 earth. 



Whatever degree of probability may attach to these specu- 

 lations, it is a fact no less certain than curious, that the con- 

 tinent of Australia, as far, at least, as regards the mammals 

 hitherto discovered upon its shores, is precisely placed in the 

 circumstances here described. With the exception of the 

 American opossums, and a few species of phalangers, scat- 



