AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 



53 



nents, generally form a part of the stock of animals be- 

 longing to the adjacent main land; "but small islands re- 

 mote from continents are in general altogether destitute of 

 land quadrupeds, except such as appear to have been 

 conveyed to them by men. Kerguelen's Land, Juan Fer- 

 nandez, the Gallapagos, and the Isles de Lobos, are exam- 

 ples of this fact. Among all the groups of fertile islands 

 in the Pacific Ocean, no quadrupeds have been found, ex- 

 cept dogs, hogs, rats, and a few bats. The bats have been 

 found in New Zealand and the more westerly groups; they 

 may probably have made their way along the chain of 

 islands which extend from the shores of New Guinea 

 far into the southern Pacific. The hogs and the dogs 

 appear to have been conveyed by the natives from 

 New Guinea. The Indian Isles, near New Guinea, abound 

 in oxen, buffaloes, goats, deer, hogs, dogs, cats, and rats; 

 but none of them are said to have reached New Guinea, 

 except the hog and the dog. The New Guinea hog is of 

 the Chinese variety, and was probably brought from some 

 of the neighbouring isles, being the animal most in request 

 among savages. It has run wild in New Guinea. Thence 

 it has been conveyed to the New Hebrides, the Tonga 

 and Society Isles, and to the Marquesas; but it is still 

 wanting in the more eastern islands, and, to the southward, 

 in New Caledonia. 



" Dogs may be traced from New Guinea to the New 

 Hebrides and Fijii Isles; but they are wanting in the 

 Tonga Isles, though found among the Society and Sand- 

 wich islanders, by some of whom they are used for food: 

 to the southward they have been conveyed to New Cale- 

 donia and New Zealand. In Easter Island, the most 

 remotely situated in this ocean, there are no domestic ani- 

 mals except fowls and rats, which are eaten by the natives: 

 these animals are found in most of the islands; the fowls 

 are probably from New Guinea. Rats are to be found 

 even on some desert islands, whither they may have been 

 conveyed by canoes which have occasionally approached 

 the shores. It is known, also, that rats occasionally swim 

 in large numbers to considerable distances. 



It is natural to suppose that the geographical range of 

 the different species of cetacea should be less correctly 

 ascertained than that of the terrestrial mammifers. It is, 

 however, well known, that the whales which are obtained 

 by our fishers in the South Seas, are distinct from those of 

 the North; and the same dissimilarity has been found in all 

 the other marine animals of the same class, so far as they 

 have yet been studied by naturalists. 



Let us now inquire what facilities the various land quad- 

 rupeds enjoy of spreading themselves over the surface of 

 the earth. In the first place, as their numbers multiply, 

 all of them, whether they feed on plants, or prey on other 







animals, are disposed to scatter themselves gradually over 

 as wide an area as is accessible to them. But before they 

 have extended their migrations over a large space, they 

 are usually arrested, either by the sea, or a zone of uncon- 

 genial climate, or some lofty and unbroken chain of moun- 

 tains, or a tract already occupied by a hostile and more 

 powerful species. 



Rivers and narrow friths can seldom interfere with their 

 progress, for the greater part of them swim well, and few 

 are without this power when urged by danger and press- 

 ing want. Thus, amongst beasts of prey, the tiger is seen 

 swimming about among the islands and creeks in the delta 

 of the Ganges, and the jaguar traverses with ease the 

 largest streams in South America. The bear, also, and the 

 bison, stem the current of the Mississippi. The popular 

 error, that the common swine cannot escape by swimming 

 when thrown into the water, has been contradicted by 

 several curious and well-authenticated instances during the 

 recent floods in Scotland. One pig, only six months old, 

 after having been carried down from Garmouth to the bar 

 at the mouth of the Spey, a distance of a quarter of a mile, 

 swam four miles eastward to Port Gordon, and landed 

 safe. Three others, of the same age and litter, swam at 

 the same time five miles to the west, and landed at Black- 

 hill. 



In an adult and wild state, these animals would doubtless 

 have been more strong and active, and might, when hard 

 pressed, have performed a much longer voyage. Hence, 

 islands remote from the continent may obtain inhabitants 

 by casualties which, like the late storms in Morayshire, 

 may only occur once in many centuries, or thousands of 

 years, under all the same circumstances. It is obvious that 

 powerful tides, winds, and currents, may sometimes carry 

 along quadrupeds capable, in like manner, of preserving 

 themselves for hours in the sea to very considerable dis- 

 tances, and in this way, perhaps, the tapir, ( Tapir Indicus,) 

 may have become common to Sumatra and the Malayan 

 peninsula. 



To the elephant in particular, the power of crossing 

 rivers is essential in a wild state, for the quantity of food 

 which a herd of these animals consumes renders it neces- 

 sary that they should be constantly moving from place to 

 place. The elephant crosses the stream in two ways. If 

 the bed of the river be hard, and the water not of too 

 great a depth, he fords it. But when he crosses great 

 rivers, such as the Ganges and the Niger, the elephant 

 swims deep, so deep that the end of his trunk only is out of 

 the water; for it is a matter of indifference to him, whether 

 his body be completely immersed, provided he can bring 

 the tip of his trunk to the surface, so as to breathe the 

 external air. 



