BARON CUVIER. 101 



tlie numerous straits between New Holland and 

 tlie continent of Asia : it will open a way for 

 the elephant, the rliinoceros, the buffalo, the 

 horse, the camel, the tiger, and all other Asiatic 

 quadrupeds, who will people a country where 

 they have been hitherto unknown. A naturalist 

 afterwards living among them, and by chance 

 searching into the depths of the soil on which 

 this new nature Hves, will find the remains of 

 oeings wholly different. That which New Hol- 

 land would be in the above case, Europe, Si- 

 beria, and a great part of America are now, and, 

 perhaps, when other countries, and New Hol- 

 land itself, shall be examined, we shall find that 

 they have all undergone similar revolutions. I 

 could almost say, a mutual exchange of produc- 

 tions ; for, carrying the supposition still further, 

 after this transportation of Asiatic animals into 

 New Holland, let us imagine a second revo- 

 lution, which shall destroy Asia, their primitive 

 country ; those who afterwards see them in 

 New Holland, their second country, will be as 

 embarrassed to know whence they came, as we 

 can be now to find the origin of our own." 



I am aware that the extent of the work of 

 which I am speaking can scarcely be recognised 

 in the few extracts I am able to make, and it is 

 H 3 



