-16 VAiUKTIES OF THE HUMAN Sl'ECIES. 



peds are found in both continents, except such as dwell north 

 of the Baltic in the Old, and of Canada in the New World ; 

 such, in short, as are capable of bearing tlie cold of those re- 

 gions where the two continents approximate to each other. 

 Here, indeed, we must guard against the mistakes 

 which the inconsiderate application of the same names to 

 animals really different, though more or less analogous to 

 each other, might occasion. We read of American lions; 

 but the creature so called (the puma), although a carnivo- 

 rous animal, is widely different from the lion of Africa ; 

 the American monkeys again form a very distinct family, 

 without any specific affinity to those of the Old World, 



A similar phenomenon was again experienced in our 

 own times, on first exploring the coasts of New Holland 

 and the adjacent isles. A dog was indeed found here, 

 whether of the same species with those we are acquainted 

 with, and introduced from the neighbouring islands, is not 

 perhaps yet clearly ascertained. This great southern con- 

 tinent contained no other mammlferous animals previously 

 known to naturalists : but, on the contrary, it has furnished 

 about forty species, altogether new : of which the kanga- 

 roos, the phascolomys *, the dasyuri, the perameles, the 

 flying phalangers f, the ornithorhynchi, and the echidnse, 

 have astonished zoologists by the novelty and singularity 

 of their conformation, contrary to all the rules hitherto 

 established, and at variance with all their systems J. Even 

 the island called Van Diemen's Land, although situated so 

 near to new Holland, and in some degree connected to it 

 by intervening islands, has its own peculiar species §. 



The orang-utang is found only on the island of 13orneo ; 



* Wombat, Dldelphis ursina of Shaw. 



+ Petaurus, Shaw. 



+ CuviER Regne Animal; on the order mrtrsupiaux ; t. i. p. 169, ct suiv, 



§ " En effet, tons les animaux, que nous avons recueillis sur la terre do 

 Diemen, et qu'on puet regarder comma plus particuli^rcmcnt propres au sol, 

 tels -que les mammiferei, Ics reptiles, &c. sont sp^cifiquemcnt diffdr^is des 

 animaux de la Nouvelle Hollande ; la plupart m^me des espfeces, qui peu. 

 plent ce continent, n'existcnt pas sur la grandc ilc qui ravoisine." Peron, 

 Voyage de Dccouvcrles aiix Tenes Australcs ; v. ii. p. 165. 



