304 HOMEWARD BOUND. 



of it, namely Barbados, Martinique, Dominica, Guada- 

 loupe, Antigua, &c., have, most strangely, the fauna of 

 Guiana. 



If tliis be so, a glance at the map will show the vast 

 destruction of Tropic land during almost the very latest 

 geological epoch ; and show, too, how little, in the present 

 imperfect state of our knowledge, we ought to dare any 

 speculations as to the absence of man, as well as of other 

 creatures, on those great lands now destro3^ed. For, to supply 

 the dry land which Mr. Bland's theory needs, we shall have 

 to conceive a junction, reaching over at least five degrees of 

 latitude, between the north of British Guiana and Barbados ; 

 and may freely indulge in the dream .that the waters of the 

 Oroonoco, when they ran over the lowlands of Trinidad, 

 passed east of Tobago ; then northward between Barbados and 

 St. Lucia ; then turned westward between the latter island 

 and Martinique ; and that the mighty estuary formed for a 

 great part at least of that line the original barrier which 

 kept the land-shells of Venezuela apart from those of 

 Guiana. A " stretch of the imagination," doubtless : but no 

 greater stretch than will be required by any explanation of 

 the facts whatsoever. 



And so, thanking Mr. Bland heartily for his valuable 

 contribution to the infant science of Bio-Geology I take 

 leave, in these pages at least, of the Earthly Paradise. 



