230 THE WHITE, CHINA GOOSE. 



supposing that animals were originally created as we 

 now see them, and that any apparent gaps in the chain 

 or network are caused by the extinction of certain 

 races, not by the uprising of new forms into existence, 

 since the creation of man, at least. Besides, we have 

 records of modern exterminations successively going 

 on, from the Christian era to the present day. No 

 undisputed record, however, is to be found of the sud- 

 den emergency into life of a new tribe of creatures. 

 Foreign introductions there have been, but nothing 

 more, that there is any affirmative evidence to prove. I 

 am conscious that I may be contradicted by such in- 

 stances as the New-Leicester sheep, and the very re- 

 markable rabbits that are now kept in a state of 

 domestication ; but Mr. Bakewell is asserted to have 

 studiously concealed and destroyed every trace of the 

 means by which he established his breed," and the 

 secrets of the " rabbit fancy" are as likely to be made 

 available to the elucidation of natural history, as are 

 the Eleusinian Mysteries. But so long as our com- 

 mercial relations continue as widely extended as they 

 are at present, the sudden and unexplained appear- 

 ance of any living novelty in Europe or in this country, 

 is by no means of necessity its first appearance on any 

 stage. It may be as old as the hills not a sudden 

 drop from the clouds in these latter days, nor recently 

 compounded, like Frankenstein's monster, from the 

 members of defunct creatures, not yet electrified into 

 life in a pickle jar, like Mr. Cross' mites.^ Milton's 

 noble lines, though true at the Creation, are no longer 

 applicable 



" Meanwhile, the tepid caves, and Jens, and shores, 



Bursting with kindly rupture, forth disclosed 



Their callow young ; but feathered soon and fledge, 



They summed their pens ; and, soaring the air sublime, 



With clang despised the ground. * * And straight the earth, 



Opening her fertile womb, teemed at a birth 



Numerous living creatures, perfect forms 



Limbed and full-grown ; out o.f the ground up rose, 



As from his lair, the wild beast where he wons 



In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den." 



If such views be correct, it will follow that those 

 who are searching for the wild originals of many of 



