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THE ANIMAL WORLD OF BRAZIL 



We call America the "New World," and the word involuntarily 

 evokes the conception that the American continent is younger than 

 Europe, Asia and Africa, and that it must have been still slumbering 

 on the ocean floor when the lands of the eastern hemisphere had a 

 long history behind them. This, of course, is not the case ; America 

 was a "new world" only for the Europeans who discovered the 

 continent some four centuries ago. The history of America is brief 

 only in so far as the white races are concerned. The native races of 

 South America can be traced back almost as far as the races of 

 the Old World; indeed, the Argentine explorer, Ameghino, is even 

 of the opinion that the Argentine may have been the original home 

 of the whole human race. This opinion, however, has not been 

 generally accepted, for in America we find neither the oldest type 

 of man known to us, the so-called primitive man of the pre-glacial 

 period, nor yet another human type, which was equally dissimilar 

 from the Indians of to-day, and which certainly arose in remote 

 antiquity. For these reasons the old opinion still prevails, that the 

 inhabitants of the Americas found their way thither from the Old 

 World, probably from Eastern Asia. But that these groups of Indians 

 could subsequently be split up into so many races, showing funda- 

 mental mental and physical differences, proves beyond a doubt 

 that the time which has elapsed since their migration cannot be 

 measured by our historical standards. 



As for the geological antiquity of the continent as a whole, this 

 is plainly not inferior to that of the other continents. But in this 

 connection the current opinion requires amendment. We speak of 

 America as a continent, but in reality there are two continents, 

 and North America is more closely related to Europe than to South 

 America. This is proved by the vegetation alone. In North America 

 the oak, beech, hazel, fir and pine entirely resemble our European 

 trees, and California, with its cypresses, reminds one of the Mediter- 

 ranean coast. Similarly, the North American lynx, fox, wolf, beaver 

 and elk are hardly to be distinguished from the European species ; 

 and the same thing is true of all animal life. For example, if we 

 turn to the tables of American butterflies in Seitz's great work, we 

 shall find some — such as the Apollo, the Swallow-tails, the Lycenidae 



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