366 Memorial of George Broivii Goode. 



special creations or whether they came out of the ark. He evidently 

 prefers the first alternative, although so trammeled by the prevalent 

 opinions of his day and sect that he is unable to bring himself quite to 

 its avowal. He approaches so close to the limits of heterodoxy, how- 

 ever, that Purchas, in His Pilgrimmes, feels obliged to print a footnote, 

 pronouncing it ' ' un-Christian to say that America was not drowned with 

 the flood." 



Acosta thoroughly appreciated the peculiar character of the American 

 fauna, and remarked that "if the kinds of beasts are to be judged by 

 their properties, it would be as reasonable to call an ^^-g a chestnut as 

 to seeke to reduce to the known kinds of Europe the divers kinds of the 

 Indies. ' ' He was even willing to admit that it may not be necessary to 

 say that the creation of the world was finished in six days, and that 

 beasts of a more perfect character may have been made subsequently ; 

 and in his anxiety to escape the alternative of a Noah's ark almost com- 

 mitted himself to a theory of evolution. ' ' We may consider well upon 

 this subject," he wrote, "whether the.se beasts differ in kindeand essen- 

 tially from all others, or if this difference be accidentall, which might 

 grow by divers accidents, as we see in the Images of men, some are 

 white, others black, some Giants, others Dwarfes ; and in Apes, some 

 have no taile, others have ; and in Sheepe, some *are bare, others have 

 fleeces, some great and strong with a long necke, as those of Peru, others 

 weake and little, having a short necke, as those of Castile. But to 

 speak directly, who so would preserve the propagation of beasts at the 

 Indies and reduce them to those of Europe, hee shall undertake a 

 charge he will hardly discharge with his honour. ' ' 



Francesco Hernandez, a representative physician and man of science, 

 was sent by Philip II of vSpain to Mexico, with unlimited facilities for explo- 

 ration, and remained in that country from 1593 to 1600. His notes and 

 collections seem to have been very extensive, and it is said that over i ,200 

 drawings of plants and animals were prepared under his direction. Edi- 

 tions of his works were published in Mexico in 1604 and 1615. I am 

 assured by Mexican naturalists that his work was careful and valuable, 

 the only defect being that he trusted too implicitly in what he was told 

 by the native Mexicans. 



Among the animals not met with in previous writings are the coyote 

 (Aztec, Coyotl), the buffalo, theaxolotl, the porcupine {Hoitztlacuatzm) , 

 the prong-buck {Mazame), the horned lizard i^Tapayaxhi) , the bison, 

 the peccary {Qiiapizotl) , and the toucan. 



Among those of which figures are for the first time published are the 

 ocelot {Occloti), the rattlesnake ( Teuhtlacot zaiihqin), the manatee {Ma)i- 

 ati), the alligator i^Aquetzpalin) , the armadillo {Ayotochtli) , the pelican 

 {AyoMl). 



The figures of plants are numerous, and in most instances, I should 

 judge, recognizable. 



