138 A FATAL DROUGHT. [chap? 



to indicate that thi^ archipelago was formerly united to the 

 southern continer^t, and that it has subsequently been an 

 area of subsidenj^g. 



When America, ^and especially North America, possessed 

 its elephanjts, mastodons, horse, and hollow - horned 

 ruminant5ij' {^ ^^s much more closely related in its 

 zoologij}^! characters to the temperate parts of Europe and 

 Asia than it now is. As the remains of these genera are 

 feund on both sides of Behring's Straits * and on the plains 

 of Siberia, we are led to look to the north-western side of 

 North America as the former point of communication 

 between the Old and so-called New World. And as so 

 many species, both living and extinct, of these same 

 genera inhabit, and have inhabited, the Old World, it 

 seems most probable that the North American elephants, 

 mastodons, horse, and hollow-horned ruminants migrated, 

 on land since submerged near Behring's Straits, from 

 Siberia into North America, and thence, on land since 

 submerged in the West Indies, into South America, 

 where for a time they mingled with the forms character- 

 istic of that southern continent, and have since become 

 extinct. 



While travelling through the country, I received several 

 vivid descriptions of the effects of a late great drought ; 

 and the account of this may throw some light on the cases 

 where vast numbers of animals of all kinds have been 

 embedded together. The period included between the 

 years 1827 and 1830 is called the "gran seco," or the 

 great drought. During this time so little rain fell, that 

 the vegetation, even to the thistles, failed ; the brooks were 

 dried up, and the whole country assumed the appearance 

 of a dusty highroad. This was especially the case In the 

 northern part of the province of Buenos Ayres and the 

 southern part of St. Fe. Very great numbers of birds, 

 wild animals, cattle, and horses perished from the want 

 of food and water. A man told me that the deert used 



M. Gervais states that the Didelphis crancrivora is found there. It is certain 

 that the West Indies possess some mammifers peculiar to themselves. A 

 tooth of a mastodon has been brought from Bahama: Edin. New Phil. 

 Jou-m. 1826, p. 395. 



* Seethe admirable Appendix by Dr. Buckland to " Beechy's Voyage ;" also 

 the writings of Chamisso in " Kotzebue's Voyage." 



+ In Capt. Owen's "Surveying Voyage" (vol. 2, p. 274) there is a curious 

 account of the effects of a drought on the elephants, at Benguela (west coast 

 of Africa). "A number of these animals had some time since entered the 



