418 NATURAL HISTORY. 



From the foregoing it would appear that of the ancient fauna of America, which 

 included representatives of many of our present domestic animals, some species 

 have undoubtedly become extinct ; but I confess I am not yet prepared to admit 

 from any evidence yet adduced, or from my o\vn examinations, that all of the living: 

 species are distinct from those found fossil in the post-pliocene. The teeth and 

 bones of the rabbit, raccoon, opossum, deer, etk, hog, dog, sheep, ox and horse, are 

 often found in these beds, and though associated with those known to be extinct,, 

 such as mastodon, megatherium, hipparion, &c., need not necessarily be referred to 

 extinct races also ; since their remains cannot be distinguished from the bones and 

 teeth of the living species. 



It has been just remarked that about ninety-five per cent., or nearly all of the 

 one hundred and fifty shells of molluscous animals from these beds are specifically 

 identical with the recent or living species of the coast, — two are found only at the 

 south of this, and two are extinct. Of the vertebrates from the same bed, the 

 tapir, peccary, raccoon, opossum, deer, musk-rat, rabbit, beaver, and elk have still 

 their living representatives, generically, if not specifically; and even of the iden- 

 tity of species there seems to be no doubt, as no anatomical differences can be 

 discerned. Two of these species, like the mollusca just alluded to, no longer live 

 in South Carolina ; the tapir and peccary are only found in South America and 

 Mexico; the musk-rat, elk, and beaver, though extinct on the Atlantic coast, are- 

 still living in the interior of the country. And though it has been acknowledged 

 that the mastodon, megatherium, elephant, glyptodon, and two species of Equine 

 genera, &c., are entirely extinct, yet the discoveries made of the remains even of 

 some of these, would indicate that they still existed at a period so recent, that, 

 in the language of Professor Leidy, " it is probable the red man witnessed their 

 declining existence." 



The peccary, or Mexican hog, an animal common in Mexico, is not indigenous 

 to the Atlantic United States ; but his bones have been found associated with 

 human remains in caves used as cemeteries by the Aborigines. " A tomb in the 

 city of Mexico," according to Clavigero, (?) " was found to contain the bones of 

 an entire mammoth, the sepulchre appearing to have been formed expressly for 

 their reception." And " Mr. Latrobe relates that during the prosecution of some 

 excavations, near the city of Tezcuco, one of the ancient roads or causeways was 

 discovered, and on one side, only three feet below the surface, in what may have 

 been the ditch of the road, there lay the entire skeleton of a mastodon. It bore 

 every appearance of having been coeval with the period when the road was used." 



Again says Professor Holmes, I extract from Professor Leidy's letter : 



" The early existence of the genera to which our domestic animals belong, has 

 been adduced as presumptive evidence of the advent of man at a more remote 

 period than is usually assigned. It must be remembered, however, even at the 

 present time, that of some of these genera only a few species are domesticated ; 

 thus of the existing six species of Equus (horse) only two have ever been freely 

 brought Under the dominion of man. 



" The horse did not exist in America at the time of its discovery by Europeans ;. 

 but its remains, consisting chiefly of molar teeth, have now been so frequently 



