THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



NORTH AMERICA. 



NORTH AMERICA having the rocky mountain portion of 

 the Cordilleras for central watershed, although it is less 

 disturbed by volcanic convulsion, in proportion as the 

 ridge is further removed from the sea, and has not dis- 

 charged a great proportion of the inland lakes that 

 weigh upon the eastern plane of its surface, is never- 

 theless not so free of igneous agency as to escape the 

 West Indian ramification, which passes through the 

 Floridas and South Carolina, to the plain of the 

 Mississippi, where earthquakes left permanent tokens 

 of their force in 1811. Over a considerable part of the 

 eastern side of the great mountain ridge, more parti- 

 cularly where ancient lakes have been converted into 

 morasses, or have been filled by alluvials, organic re- 

 mains of above thirty species of mammals, of the same 

 orders and genera, in some cases of the same species 

 have been discovered, demonstrating their existence 

 in a contemporary era with those of the old continent, 

 and under similar conditions. But their period of du- 

 ration in the New World may have been prolonged to 

 dates of a subsequent time, since the Pachyderms of the 

 United States, as well as those of the Pampas of 

 Brazil are much more perfect; and, in many cases, 

 possess characters ascribed to bones in a recent state. 

 Alligators and crocodiles, moreover, continue to exist 



