e the same peculiar group
of monkeys, of a guanaco-like animal, of many rodents, of the Marsupial
Didelphys, of Armadilloes and other Edentata. This last family is at
present very characteristic of S. America, and in a late Tertiary epoch
it was even more so, as is shown by the numerous enormous animals of the
Megatheroid family, some of which were protected by an osseous armour
like that, but on a gigantic scale, of the recent Armadillo. Lastly,
over Europe the remains of the several deer, oxen, bears, foxes,
beavers, field-mice, show a relation to the present inhabitants of this
region; and the contemporaneous remains of the elephant, rhinoceros,
hippopotamus, hyaena, show a relation with the grand Africo-Asiatic
division of the world. In Asia the fossil mammifers of the Himalaya
(though mingled with forms long extinct in Europe) are equally related
to the existing forms of the Africo-Asiatic division; but especially to
those of India itself. As the gigantic and now extinct quadrupeds of
Europe have naturally excited more attention than the other and smaller
remains, the relation between the past and the present mammiferous
inhabitants of Europe has not been sufficiently attended to. But in fact
the mammifers of Europe are at present nearly as much Africo-Asiatic as
they were formerly when Europe had its elephants and rhinoceroses, etc.;
Europe neither now nor then possessed peculiar groups as does Australia
and S. America. The extinction of certain peculiar forms in one quarter
does not make the remaining mammifers of that quarter less related to
its own great division of the world: though Tierra del Fuego possesses
only a fox, three rodents, and the guanaco, no one (as these all belong
to S. American types, but not to the most characteristic forms) would
doubt for one minute <as to> classifying this district with S. America;
and if fossil Edentata, Marsupials and monkeys were to be found in
Tierra del Fuego, it would not make this district more truly S. American
than it now is. So it is with Europe{390}, and so far as is known with
Asia, for the lately past and present mammifers all belong to the
Africo-Asiatic division of the world. In every case, I may add, the
forms which a country has is of more importance in geographical
arrangement than what it has not.

{389} See _Origin_, Ed. i. p. 339, vi. p. 485.

{390} In the _Origin_, Ed. i. p. 339, vi. p. 485, which corresponds
to this part of the presen