UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 103 



there at the same time. To such industrious 

 hunters and showmen there could have been 

 few species unknown. 



My uncle mentioned a curious circumstance, 

 which, he says, has not been much noticed : 

 that none of the extraordinary animals which 

 inhabit ." New Holland's continental isle" have 

 ever been found among the fossil remains in any 

 other part of the globe ; and of the fossil strata 

 there > very little is yet known. 



I asked him if there was any foundation for 

 the chimsera, and the other imaginary monsters 

 of the ancients. " Those ideal creatures," he 

 replied, " may be partly referred to the mar- 

 vellous traditions that accompany the early 

 records of all nations ; and partly to the habit, 

 which was so prevalent in those times, of de- 

 scribing real objects as well as passions and 

 events by means of metaphor and allegory. It 

 would be childish to expect that we should now 

 find in any part of the globe remains of such 

 animals as the flying pegasus, or as the sphynx 

 of Thebes ; but we must not reject as altogether 

 fabulous those which appear in the hieroglyphics 

 of Egypt and Persepolis. The rude sculpture of 

 those ages has perhaps been the common source 

 of many mistakes ; for the most simple and 

 natural method of drawing any animal is by its 

 profile ; and in this way, the oryx and the uni- 

 com may appear to have had but a single horn- 



