INTRODUCTION £ %x 
j are neither so fierce nor so valiant as those of Africa 
and Asia. The tiger of Bengal has been seen to 
measure twelve feet in length, without including 
the tail ; whereas the American tiger seldom ex- 
ceeds three. This difference obtains still more in 
the other animals of that country, so that some have 
been of opinion, though without sufficient reason, 
that all quadrupeds in Southern America are of a 
different species from those most resembling' them 
in the old world ; and that there are none which 
are common to both, but such as have entered 
America by the north ; and which, being able to 
bear the rigours of the frozen pole, have travelled 
from the antient continent, by that passage, into 
the new. 
But, if the quadrupeds of the new continent be 
less, they are found in much greater abundance ; 
for it is a rule that obtains through nature, that 
the smallest animals multiply the fastest. The 
goat imported from Europe to South America, 
soon begins to degenerate ; but as it grows less jt 
becomes more prolific ; and, instead of one kid at 
a time, or two at the most, it generally produces 
five, and sometimes more. What there is in the 
food, or the climate, that produces this change, 
we have not been able to learn ; we might be apt 
t© ascribe it to the heat, but that on the African 
coast, where it is still hotter, this rule does not 
obtain ; for the goat, instead of degenerating 
the re* seems rather to improve. 
a 
