OF CREATION. 339 



sent, however, our knowledge of fossils in this respect 

 is limited to the bones of various quadrupeds, partly 

 obtained from caverns in limestone, and partly from 

 rolled and transported material corresponding with 

 our gravel. There is, on the whole, a great poverty 

 in the number of generic and specific forms in this 

 large tract of land, not only of the fossil remains of 

 the larger land animals, but also with regard to 

 the existing fauna, which, as well as that now ex- 

 tinct, is limited to a particular group of animals, 

 all of them exhibiting a peculiar bony apparatus in 

 the pelvis. In the female this is connected with 

 the presence of a pouch, where the young are re- 

 ceived at a very early period, and carried about 

 for some time after birth, whence the animals are 

 called marsupials, or pouched animals.* Fossil re- 

 mains of animals of this kind have been already 

 alluded to, as occurring in the secondary and older 

 tertiary beds of our island. 



In Australia, the existing marsupials, or pouched 

 animals, include species having almost every peculi- 

 arity of structure and habit; and they are so organ- 

 ized, that, while some are mere vegetable feeders, 

 others are omnivorous, and others again carnivorous. 

 There is doubtless some reason why the animals of 

 this singular continent should be separated by so 



* Of this remarkable group some species are found in the Molucca 

 Islands ; and one genus, containing several species, is peculiar to America ; 

 and, though chiefly confined to the tropical portions, is met with as far 

 north as the United States, where, however, only a single species is 

 found. The number of species in islands north of Australia (New 

 Guinea, &c.) is probably not inconsiderable. Waterhouse's " Mam- 

 malia, vol. i. pp. 2, 3. 



Q 2 



