154 



ST. FE. 



Oct. 1833. 



terrestrial globe.* This elephant must have existed in 

 Mexico ; and Cuvier^t judging from a fragment of a tusk^ 

 thinks it even extended to the neighbourhood of Quito in 

 South America. In the latter country three species of Masto- 

 don have been discovered. One of these^ M, angustidens, is 

 common to Europe. It is singular that its remains^ as yet^ 

 have never been brought from North America ; nevertheless, 

 considering that it was a contemporary of the extinct 

 animals above mentioned, it seems highly probable that it 

 arrived by the same line of communication on the N.W. 

 coast. As its remains have frequently been found at a great 

 elevation in the Cordillera, perhaps its habits led it to 

 follow that chain of mountains from north to south. 



After these facts, it is only in conformity with what we 

 might almost have expected, that the horse, belonging to the 

 same order of Pachydermata, should formerly have inhabited 

 both North and South America. It is interesting thus to dis- 

 cover an epoch anterior to the division, as far at least as two 

 important orders among the mammalia are concerned, of the 

 continent into two separate zoological provinces. The 

 geologist who believes in considerable oscillations of level in 

 the crust of the globe within recent periods, will not fear to 

 speculate either on the elevation of the Mexican platform, 

 as a cause of the distinction, or on the submergence of land 

 in the West Indian seas, — a circumstance which is perhaps 

 indicated by the zoology of those islands. J 



* I may observe that at the present day both species of elephants have 

 wide ranges. The African one is found from the Senegal to the Cape of 

 Good Hope, a distance of about 3000 miles. The Asiatic kind formerly 

 had an equal range, namely, from the banks of the Indus to the East 

 Indian Isles. The hippopotamus is believed to have reached from the 

 Cape to Egypt. 



f Ossemens Fossiles, vol. i., p. 158. Cuvier says he cannot decide 

 positively, not having seen a molar tooth. 



I Dr. Richardson (Report for 1836, to Brit. Assoc., p. 157) says, " the 

 spotted cavy {ccslogenys\ and perhaps a species of cavia, and one dasy- 

 procta, extend from South America to the West Indies and Mexico." 

 Cuvier says the Kinkajou is found in the larger Antilles, but others 



