THE MARSUPIALS, OE POUCHED ANIMALS. 109 



Guinea form a part, and which is so poor in Mam- 

 malsbe compared with any other corresponding 

 latitudes, the contrast in the fauna will appear most 

 striking. The eminent German naturalist Carl 

 Bitter, in his lectures on Australia, 1 was, if I am not 

 mistaken, the first to describe this continent not, 

 as is usually done, as the ' latest,' but as the ' sta- 

 tionary ' continent, and as old-fashioned both as 

 regards fauna and flora. This uniformity resulted 

 in an entire absence of the most important outward 

 inducement to the formation of varieties : with a 

 moderate struggle for existence, a consequently 

 smaller progress in the functions of the organisms. 

 No Marsupial has shown itself suitable as a 

 domestic animal ; neither work, nor protection, 

 nor milk has been obtained from them. Their 

 flesh only, which is unpalatable to a refined taste, 

 was made use of by the nomadic primeval 

 inhabitants; the latter were a very low race of 

 men who, in fact, could not advance beyond the 

 threshold of civilisation, because neither the neces- 

 sity for settling in certain localities (which goes 

 hand in hand with the taming and training of 

 animals), nor any inducement to cultivate the land, 

 was ever brought before them. 



1 Which lectures I had the good fortune to attend. 



