THEORY OF THE EARTH. 79 



When there afterwards appeared more exact 

 descriptions of an animal having a single horn 

 only, but with several toes, a third species would 

 have heen made out, to which they gave the name 

 of monoceros. These double references applied 

 to the same species, are more frequent among 

 ancient naturalists, because most of their works 

 which have come down to us were mere compila- 

 tions ; even because Aristotle himself has fre- 

 quently mingled facts borrowed from others with 

 those which he had observed himself; and because 

 the habit of critical examination was then as little 

 known among naturalists as among historians. 



From all these reasonings and digressions, it 

 may be fairly concluded, that the large animals of 

 the old continent with which we are now acquaint- 

 ed, were known to the ancients ; and that the ani- 

 mals described by the ancients, and which are 

 now unknown, were fabulous. It also follows, 

 that the large animals of the three principal parts 

 of the then discovered world could not have been 

 long in being known to the nations which fre- 

 quented their coasts. 



It may also be concluded, that no large species 

 remains to be discovered in America. If there 

 were any, there can be no reason why we should 

 not be acquainted with it ; and in fact none has 

 been discovered there during the last hundred 

 and fifty years. The tapir, the jaguar, the puma, 



