I have not inserted in the first table the Phoca,* nor leather winged bat, because the one living half the year in the water, and the other being a winged animal, the individuals of each species may visit both conti

nents.

Of the animals in the first table, Mons. de Buffon himself informs us, [XXVII. 130. XXX. 213.] that the beaver, the otter, and shrew mouse, though of the same species, are larger in America than in Europe. This should therefore have corrected the generality of his expressions, XVIII. 145. and elsewhere, that the animals common to the two countries, are considerably less in America than in Europe, 'et cela sans aucune exception.' He tells us too, [Quadrup. VIII. 344. edit. Paris, 1777] that on examining a bear from America, he remarked no difference, dans la forme de cet ours d'Amerique comparé a celui d'Europe;' but adds from Bartram's journal, that an American bear weighed 400lb. English, equal to 367lb. French: whereas we find the European bear examined by M. D'Aubenton, [XVII. 82.] weighed but 141lb. French. That the palmated elk is larger in America than in Europe, we are informed by Kalm,† a naturalist who visited the former by public appointment, for the express purpose of examining the subjects of natural history. In this fact Pennant concurs with him. [Barrington's Miscellanies.] The same Kalm tells us that the black moose, or renne of America is as high as a tall horse; and Catesby, that it is about the bigness of a middle sized ox. The same account of their size has been given me by many who have seen them. But Mons. D'Aubenton says that the renne of Europe is about

* It is said, that this animal is seldom seen above 30 miles from the shore, or beyond the 56th degree of latitude. The interjacent islands between Asia and America admit his passing from one continent to the other without exceeding these bounds. And in fact, travellers tell us that these islands are places of principal resort for them, and especially in the season of bringing forth their young. + I. 233. Lond. 1772. || XXIV. 162.

I. 233. Lond. 1772.

I. xxvii.

the size of a red deer. The weasel is larger in America than in Europe, as may be seen by comparing its dimensions as reported by Mons. D'Aubenton* and Kalm. The latter tells us, that the lynx, badger, red fox, and flying squirrel, are the same in America as in Europe: by which expression I understand, they are the same in all material circumstances, in size as well as others for if they were smaller they would differ from the European. Our gray fox is, by Catesby's account, little different in size and shape from the European fox. I presume he means the red fox of Europe, as does Kalm, where he says, that in size' they do not quite come up to our foxes.' For proceeding next to the red fox of America, he says 'they are entirely the same with the European sort;' which shows he had in view one European sort only, which was the red. So that the result of their testimony is, that the American gray fox is somewhat less than the European red; which is equally true of the gray fox of Europe, as may be seen by comparing the measures of the Count de Buffon and Mons. D'Aubenton. The white bear of America is as large as that of Europe. The bones of the mammoth which have been found in America, are as large as those found in the old world. It may be asked, why I insert the mammoth, as if it still existed? I ask in return, why I should omit it, as if it did not exist? Such is the economy of nature, that no instance can be produced, of her having permitted any one race of her animals to become extinct; of her having formed any link in her great work so weak as to be broken. To add to this, the traditionary testimony of the Indians, that this animal still exists in the northern and western parts of America, would be adding the light of a taper to that of the meridian sun. Those parts still remain in their aboriginal state, unexplored, and undisturbed by us, or by others for us. He may as well exist there now, as he did formerly where we find his bones. If he be a carnivorous animal, as some

* XV.42. + I. 359. I. 48. 221. 251. II. 52, ‡ II. 78. I. 220. || XXVII. 63. XIV. 119. Harris, II. 387. Buffon. Quad. IX. 1.

anatomists have conjectured, and the Indians affirm, his early retirement may be accounted for from the general destruction of the wild game by the Indians, which commences in the first instant of their connexion with us, for the purpose of purchasing match coats, hatchets, and firelocks with their skins. There remain then the buffaloe, red deer, fallow deer, wolf, roe, glutton, wild cat, monax, vison, hedgehog, marten, and water rat, of the comparative sizes of which we have not sufficient testimony. It does not appear that Messrs. de Buffon and L'Aubenton have measured, weighed, or seen those of America. It is said of some of them, by some travellers, that they are smaller than the European. But who were these travellers? Have they not been men of a very different description from those who have laid open to us the other three quarters of the world? Was natural history the object of their travels? Did they measure or weigh the animals they speak of? or did they not judge of them by sight, or perhaps even from report only? Were they acquainted with the animals of their own country, with which they undertake to compare them? Have they not been so ignorant as often to mistake the species? A true answer to these questions would probably lighten their authority, so as to render it insufficient for the foundation of an hypothesis. How unripe we yet are, for an accurate comparison of the animals of the two countries, will appear from the work of Monsieur de Buffon. The ideas we should have formed of the sizes of some animals, from the information he had received at his first publications concerning them are very different from what his subsequent communications give us. And indeed his candour in this can never be too much praised. One sentence of his book must do him immortal honour. J'aime autante une personne qui me releve d'une erreur, qu'une autre qui m'apprend une verité, parce qu'en effect une erreur corrigée est une verité.'* He seems to have thought the cabiai he

* Quad. IX. 158.

first examined wanted little of its full growth. 'Il n'etoit pas encore tout-a-fait adulte.'* Yet he weighed but 46 1-2lb. and he found afterwards, that these animals, when full grown, weigh 100lb. He had supposed, from the examination of a jugar, ‡ said to be two years old, which weighed but 161b. 12oz, that when he should have acquired his full growth, he would not be larger than a middle sized dog. But a subsequent account § raises his weight to 200lb. Further information will, doubtless, produce further corrections. The wonder is, not that there is yet something in this great work to correct, but that there is so little. The result of this view then is, that of 26 quadrupeds common to both countries, 7 are said to be larger in America, 7 of equal size, and 12 not sufficiently examined. So that the first table impeaches the first meinber of the assertion, that of the animals common to both countries, the American are smallest, et cela sans aucune exception.' It shows it not just, in all the latitude in which its author has advanced it, and probably not to such a degree as to found a distinction between the two countries.

Proceeding to the second table, which arranges the animals found in one of the two countries only, Mons. de Buffon observes, that the tapir, the elephant of America, is but of the size of a small cow. To preserve our comparison, I will add, that the wild boar, the elephant of Europe, is little more than half that size. I have made an elk with round or cylindrical horns an animal of America, and peculiar to it; because I have seen many of them myself, and more of their horns; and because I can say, from the best information, that, in Virginia, this kind of elk has abounded much, and still exists in smaller numbers; and I could never learn that the palmated kind had been seen here at all. I suppose this confined to the more northern latitudes.

* XXV. 184. + Quad. IX. 132. XIX. 2. ! Quad. IX. 41. The descriptions of Theodat, Denys and La Honton, cited by Mons. de Buffon, under the article Elan, authorise the supposition, that the flat horned elk is found in the northern parts