Islands of a moderate size, as he remarks, and which are at the same time far separated front continents, pos sess very few quadrupeds, while these are also very small. If they contain any of a larger size, these must have been carried to them from other countries. Cook and Bougain ville, he observes, found none but hogs and dogs in the South Sea islands; and even in the West India islands, the largest animal that was found when they were first dis covered was the Agouti, a species of the genus Cavia, which includes the Guinea pig, and a creature interme diate between a rat and a rabbit. The great continents, he admits, such as Asia, Africa, America, and New Hol land, contain some species peculiar to each. Hence, when the two latter had been discovered, it was found that they were inhabited by many animals quite unknown to the an cient continents. Thus, in South America, the Spaniards, at their first arrival, found the Jaguar, the Puma, the Ta pir, the Capybara, the Vicuna, the Lama, and others, but not one animal that they had ever seen before. The same happened at the discovery of New Holland, when there Weto found the Kangaroo, of more species than one, the flying Opossum, the Dasyurus, the Phascoloma, and the Peramela; together with the Ornithorhynchus and Echid na, animals of a conformation so singular as to have con founded all the former systems of naturalists.
Our author proceeds to remark, that, if there were still any great continents to be discovered, we might yet ex pect to find new quadrupeds; we might possibly even find those very species which are now supposed to be only known in a fossil state. But he considers that the journies of travellers, numerous and extensive as they now have been, are sufficient to preclude any expectations of this nature; not only from the sea coasts and larger islands, the most easily explored, but even from the unexamined recesses of the larger continents. He considers, also, that although travellers cannot penetrate into such regions as the interior of Africa, for example, that the animals themselves may wander down to the coasts and to the regions of man. Not even chains of mountains, he thinks, could prevent such a free communication ; because wild animals naturally follow the courses of rivers, and because all such chains give passage somewhere to these. IIe also thinks, that the inhabitants of the sea coasts them selves penetrate by the same roads into the interior coun tries, and must thus become acquainted with all the wild animals.
Hence, therefore, he imagines that our voyagers and travellers never could have frequented the coasts of the great continents, without at the same time acquiring a knowledge of all the animals which they contained; if at least there was any thing remarkable in these, either relating to their sizes or their forms. In this way, al though the ancients never passed the Hirmlla range, or even crossed the Ganges, nor ever penetrated far to the south of the Atlas in Africa, they were acquainted with all the larger animals of these countries, however they may, in some instances, have misapprehended their cha racters. The elephant was perfectly known to Aristotle ;
as were both the kinds of rhinoceros, that with one, namely, and that with two horns, to the Romans. In the same manner, the Hippopotamus was exhibited in the Circus at Rome on many different occasions. The camel, both the Bactrian and Arabian, were also well known, even to the Greeks, far less active in this department of natural history than the Romans, and they have been de scribed by Aristotle.
The Camelopardal was also shown in the Circus on different occasions, by the emperor Gordian, even to the number of ten at one time ; and Cuvier is also of opinion that they were acquainted with the Gnu of South Africa. Thus also the Ethiopian hog was known to them, together with five species of Antelope, the Bubalus, the Nag-or, the Gazella, the Oryx, and the Axis. The Bos grunniens, an inhabitant of the Himala, among other places, is de scribed by )Elian, as is the Bos Indicus, and the others of this tribe that belong to India and to Africa. So also they were acquainted with the varieties of the sheep peculiar to those countries, including those with the broad tails. With the tirus and the elk they were also acquaint ed, though imperfectly ; and further, a white bear was known to them.
Lions and panthers were so common at Rome as to be exhibited, even by hundreds, in the games of the amphi theatre. So they also had exhibited the tigers of India and the crocodile of the Nile; and the figure of the striped hyaena is represented in some ancient Mosaic paintings. The zebra was killed in the amphitheatre by the emperor Caracalla; and Cuvier thinks that they were acquainted with all the remarkable baboons and monkeys of the old world. as well as with many of the glires.
Hence he concludes, that if we recollect their know ledge and their facilities, together with the length of time that has since elapsed without adding any thing to their discoveries, it is not likely that any thing is now left on these subjects for us to discover.
Cuvier proceeds to remark, that some persons may even be inclined to imagine that the ancients were acquainted with some animals that are unknown to us, and that, where their descriptions have been doubted, we have no right to consider them as fabblous; and that we perhaps even discover, among those which we have been accustom ed to consider as such, the very animals which are now supposed to be lost. Among these, however, he properly observes, that a great number are of a poetical or my thological nature; or occasionally mere hieroglyphics. Such are the centaurs of the Greeks, the sphinx of the Egyptians, and the numerous imaginary beings that are carved on the temples of the Indians, and on the remains of Persepolis and Egypt. Such, also are those of China and Japan, and even of Mexico.