276 THE GREATER KANGAROO. 



we may deduce some valuable conclusions, with respect to the 

 origin and distribution of animals. If we were told, for example, 

 that a continent had been discovered, insulated from all other 

 parts of the habitable globe, and differing in its geographical 

 features and natural productions, from all that experience had 

 made familiar to us in the Old World ; that its plants were 

 peculiar, and its animals of an anomalous race j that, excepting 

 the dog, it had not a single species, and scarcely even a genus, 

 of mammals, in common with other countries -, in short, if we 

 were told that its mammals were formed upon a distinct model, 

 endowed with peculiar organs and modifications, and were abso- 

 lutely confined within the circle of its shores, what would be 

 our natural reflection ? Should we not be inclined to ascribe 

 the formation of such an insulated continent to a distinct 

 plan, perhaps to a different period of creation? Or rather, 

 should we not consider its animal productions as affording 

 evidence of a separate and peculiar design in their formation ? 

 One conclusion, at least, forces itself upon our belief with 

 irresistible certainty ; namely, that, at whatever period these 

 animals were first called into existence, they must, necessarily, 

 have been created upon the insulated continent which they 

 now inhabit. Nor do I think it at all inconsistent with the 

 idea which we entertain of the Creator, or derogatory either 

 to his glory or power, to suppose that their existence may 

 be the result of a subsequent act of creation ; nay, that 

 new species, like new individuals, may be daily springing into 

 being, to supply the place of those which daily perish, and of 

 which the remains are so abundantly strewed beneath the 

 surface of the earth. Whatever degree of probability may 

 attach to these speculations, it is a fact no less certain than 

 curious, that the continent of Australia, as far, at least, as 

 regards the mammals hitherto discovered upon its shores, is 

 precisely placed in the circumstances here described. With 

 the exception of the American opossums (DidelpMs), and a few 

 species of phalangers (Phalangistd), scattered over that long 

 chain of islands which forms an almost uninterrupted com- 



