256 On the discovery of 



and another might he loft, till this whole fyftem of things 

 Ihould evanifh by piece-meal ; a conclufion not warran- 

 ted by the local difappearance of one or two fpecies of 

 animals, and oppofed by the thoufands and thoufands of 

 inftances of the renovating power conftantly exercifed bv 

 nature for the reprodu£lion of all her fubjcfls, animal, 

 vegetable, and mineral. If this animal then has once 

 exiftcd, it is probable on this general view ot the move- 

 ments of nature that he ftill exifts, and rendered ftill 

 more probable by the relations of honeft men applicable 

 to him and to him alone. It would indeed be but con- 

 formable to the ordinary economy of nature to conjec- 

 ture that flie had oppofed fufficient barriers to the too 

 great multiplication of fo powerful a deftroyer. If lions 

 and tygers multiplied as rabbits do, or eagles as pigeons, 

 all other animal nature would have been long ago def- 

 troyed, and themfelves would have ultimately extin- 

 guifhed after eating out their pafture. It is probable 

 then that the great-claw has at all times been the rareft 

 of animals. Hence fo little is known, and fo little re- 

 mains of him. His exiftence however being at length 

 difcovered, enquiiy will be excited, and further infor- 

 mation of him will probably be obtained. 



The Cofmogony of M. de Buflbn fuppofes that the 

 earth and all the other planets primary and fecondaiy, 

 have been mafles of melted matter ftruck off from the 

 fun by the incidence of a comet on it : that thefe have 

 been cooling by degrees, firft at the poles, and after- 

 wards more and more towards their Equators : confe- 

 quently that on our earth there has been a time when 

 the temperature of the poles fuited the conftitution of the 

 elephant, the rhinoceros, and hippopotamus : and in 

 proportion as the remoter zones became fucceffively too 

 cold, thefe animals have retired more and more towards 

 the Equatorial regions, till now that they are reduced to 



the 



