

gitudes, a few from cither country may have 

 miirratcd into the other; for the carnivorous 

 teeth, and their appropriate bones, are as 

 abundant in America as the graminivorous or 

 elephantine remains are in Siberia. I am, 

 therefore, of opinion, more from this circum.- 

 stance than any other, that there must have 

 been a communication between the two con- 

 tinents, since it is nov/ a v/ell estabhshed fact, 

 that every country has its peculiar inhabitants. 

 Had the celebrated BufFon attended better to 

 this truth, he wonld have saved himself some 

 needless observations and theoretic fancies, 

 with respect to the old and new world ; but 

 we should likewise have lost the able reply of 

 Jefferson. It is not because the climate and 

 productions of South America are unfavour- 

 able to the production of Elephants, that they 

 are not found there; but it is because the 

 Elephant is not an American, nor the Mam- 

 moth an African, animal : some violence has 

 destroyed one, while the other still lives ; and 

 was even the Megatherium in existence, 

 it would reflect no discredit on A^frica, Asia, 

 or Europe, that neither of them possessed a 

 SLOTH of such stupendous magnitude ! 



