QUADRUPEDS OF THE NEW WORLD. 
in a climate not more rigorous than that which feveral animals might very well 
endure, and yet afterwards proceed gradually to the extreme of heat. 
In fat, every other fyftem of the population of the New World is now over- 
thrown. The conjectures of the learned, refpecting the vicinity of the Old and 
New, are now, by the difcoveries of our great navigator, lof in convi@tion. The 
ftrained fyftems of divines, laudably indeed exerted in elucidating Sacrep 
Writ, appear to have been ill-founded; but, in the place of imaginary hypothe- 
fes, the real place of migration is uncontrovertibly pointed out. Some (from a 
paflage in Plato) have extended over the Atlantic, from the ftreights of Gibraltar to 
the coaft of North and South America, an ifland equal in fize to the continents of 
Ajia and Africa; over which had pafled, as over a bridge, from the Jatter, men 
and animals; wool-headed Negroes, and Lions and Tigers *, none of which 
ever exifted in the New World. A mighty fea arofe, and in one day and night 
engulphed this ftupendous tract, and with it every being which had not com- 
pleted its migration into America. The whole Negro race, and almoft every 
Quadruped, now inhabitants of Africa, perifhed in this critical day. Five only 
are to be found at prefent in America ; and of thefe only one, the Bear +, in South 
America. Not a fingle cuftom, common to the natives of Africa and America, to 
evince a common origin. Of the Quadrupeds, the Bear, Stag, Wolf, Fox, 
and Weefel, are the only animals which we can pronounce with certainty to be 
found on each continent. The Stag {, Fox, and Weefel, have made alfo no 
farther progrefs in 4frica than the north ; but on the fame continent the Wolf is 
{pread over every part, yet is unknown in South America, as are the Fox and Weefel. 
I fufpect, befides, that the Stag hath not advanced farther fouth than Mexico. 
In Africa and South America the Bear is very local, being met with only in the 
north of the firft, and on the Andes in the laft. Some caufe unknown arrefted 
its progrefs in Africa, and impelled the migration of a few into the Chilian Alps, 
and induced them to leave unoccupied the vaft tract from North America to the 
lofty Cordilleras. My promifed Table of Quadrupeds will at once give a view 
of thofe which inhabit North America, and are either peculiar to it, or are met 
* Catcott on the Deluge, edit. 2d. p. 139, 15, Ge. 
+ On the reafoning of Mr. Zimmerman (Zool. Geogr. 476), and the opinion of Mr. Erxleben (Syft. 
Regn. An. 508), I give up my notion of the Panther (Hif. Quad. N° 153), being a native of South 
America. It is moft probable, that the fkin which I faw at a furrier’s fhop, which was faid to have 
been brought from the Bra/ils, had originally been carried there from the weltern coaft of Africa, 
where the Portugue/e have confiderable fettlements, anda great flave-trade for their Avmerican colonies, 
and where thofe animals abound. 
} Shaw's Travels, 243. Quere ? whether exactly the fame with the Ewropean. 
y 2 with 
CLXVII 
