204 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



prived, on account of their di fiance from thofe coun- 

 tries, and the want of commerce. 



When count de BufFon affirmed, that the largeft qua- 

 druped of the new world was the tapir, and the next 

 the cabiai, he had entirely loll memory of the morfe, 

 fea-calves, bufflers, rein-deer, alcos, bears, and others. 

 He himfelf confeiTes (n ) that the fea-calf feen by Lord 

 Anion and Rogers in America, and by them called the 

 fea-lion, was incomparably larger than all the fea-calves 

 of the old world. Who would compare the cabiai, which 

 is not larger than a middling hog, with the bufflers and 

 alcos ? The bufflers are equal in general to the common 

 bulls of Europe, and often exceed them in fize. Let us 

 attend to the defcription which Bomare makes of one of 

 thefe quadrupeds tranfported from Louifiana to France, 

 and meafured exactly by that naturalifl at Paris, in the 

 year 1 769 [0). There was an immenfe multitude of thefe 

 large quadrupeds in the temperate zone of North Ame- 

 rica. The alcos of New Mexico are of the fize of a 

 horfe. There was a gentleman in the city of Zacatecas, 

 who made ufe of them for his chariot inftead of horfes, 

 according to the teftimony of Betancourt ; and fome- 

 times they have been fent as prefents to the king of 

 Spain. 



The univerfal pofition of the count de BufFon, that all 

 the quadrupeds common to both continents are fmaller 

 in America without any exception, has been proved falfe 



by 



Hift. Nat. torn, xxvii. 

 (0 Didion. d'Hift. Nat. V. Bifon. Bomare calls that American animal on 

 account of its great fize the coloffal quadruped ; he fays that its length from its 

 fnout to the beginning of its tail meafured by its flanks was nine feet and two 

 inches; its height from the fummit of its back to its hoof, five feet and four 

 inches; its thicknefs meafured over the hunch of its back ten feet in circumference. 

 He adds that he underitood from the owner of that animal, that the females 

 were Hill larger. 



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