1833.J THE GEEAT DROUGHT. 125 



seems to indicate that this archipelago -was formerly united to the 

 southern continent, and that it has subsequently been an area of 

 subsidence. 



When America, and especially North America, possessed its ele- 

 phants, mastodons, horse, and hollow-horned ruminants, it was 

 much more closely related in its zoological characters to tho 

 temperate parts of Europe and Asia than it now is. As the 

 remains of these genera are found 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 com- 

 munication 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 Beh- 

 ring'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 characteristic 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 

 high road. This was especially the case in the northern part of 

 tho 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 deer f used to come into his courtyard to the well, which he 



* See the admirable Appendix by Dr. Bucldand to Beechey's Voyage ; 

 also tho writings of Ckamisso in Kotzebue's Voyage. 



t In Captain Owen's Surveying Voyage (vol. ii. 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 town, in a body, to possess themselves of the wells, not being 

 able to procure any water in the country. The inhabitants mustered, 

 when a desperate conflict ensued, which terminated in the ultimate discom- 



