horse originated in the Western Hemisphere, for
that is the only part of the world where fossil remains have been
discovered, showing the various intermediate forms which have been
identified as the precursors of the true horse. It would therefore be
difficult to account for the presence of the horse in Europe except on
the hypothesis of continuous land communication between the two
continents, seeing that it is certain that the horse existed in a wild
state in Europe and Asia before his domestication by man, which may be
traced back almost to the stone age. Cattle and sheep as we now know
them have an equally remote ancestry. Darwin finds domesticated cattle
in Europe in the earliest part of the stone age, having long before
developed out of wild forms akin to the buffalo of America. Remains of
the cave-lion of Europe are also found in North America.

Turning now from the animal to the vegetable kingdom it appears that
the greater part of the flora of the Miocene age in Europe--found
chiefly in the fossil beds of Switzerland--exist at the present day in
America, some of them in Africa. But the noteworthy fact about America
is that while the greater proportion are to be found in the Eastern
States, very many are wanting on the Pacific coast. This seems to show
that it was from the Atlantic side that they entered the continent.
Professor Asa Gray says that out of 66 genera and 155 species found in
the forest east of the Rocky Mountains, only 31 genera and 78 species
are found west of these heights.

But the greatest problem of all is the plantain or banana. Professor
Kuntze, an eminent German botanist, asks, "In what way was this plant"
(a native of tropical Asia and Africa) "which cannot stand a voyage
through the temperate zone, carried to America?" As he points out, the
plant is seedless, it cannot be propagated by cuttings, neither has it
a tuber which could be easily transported. Its root is tree-like. To
transport it special care would be required, nor could it stand a long
transit. The only way in which he can account for its appearance in
America is to suppose that it must have been transported by civilized
man at a time when the polar regions had a tropical climate! He adds,
"a cultivated plant which does not possess seeds must have been under
culture for a _very long period_ ... it is perhaps fair to infer that
these plants were cultivated as early as the beginning of the Diluvial
period." Why, it may be aske