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 
0 
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. 
