1534 THE STORY OF THE UNIVERSE 



I have received evidences of elephantine species 

 from China and Australia, proving the proboscidian 

 pachyderms to have been the most cosmopolitan of 

 hoofed herbivorous quadrupeds. Geology extends 

 the geographical range of the sloths and arma- 

 dillos from South to North America; but the de- 

 ductions from recent rich discoveries of huge ter- 

 restrial forms of sloth, of gigantic armadillos, and 

 large anteaters go to establish the fact that these 

 peculiar features of the order Bruta have ever been, 

 as they are now, peculiar to America; that several 

 genera, including the larger species, have perished; 

 and that the range of their still existing diminutive 

 representatives has been reduced to the southern di- 

 vision of the New World. 



Australia, which in extent of dry land merits to 

 be regarded as a fifth continent, has a more restricted 

 and peculiar character of aboriginal mammalian 

 population than South America. It is emphatically 

 the "province" of those quadrupeds the females of 

 which are provided with a pouch for the transport 

 and protection of their prematurely formed young. 



One genus of Marsupialia (Didelphys or opos- 

 sums, properly so called) is peculiar to America, and 

 is there the sole representative of the order. A small 

 kangaroo, and a few phalangers, exist in islands that 

 link the Malayan Archipelago with the Australian 

 world. All the other marsupial genera are found 

 in Australasia, comprising New Guinea, Australia, 

 and Tasmania. The largest and most destructive of 

 carnivorous marsupials are peculiar to Tasmania. 



The sum of all the evidence from the fossil world 



