er
sloth, called the megatherium, found near Buenos Ayres; the fossil
elephant, as different from the living elephants of India or Africa, as
the horse is from the ass, and which has been found in Europe, in Asia,
and in America. The mastodon, of which several species have been
discovered on the banks of the Hudson, in Kentucky, in Louisiana, in the
plains of Quito, in France, and finally on the borders of the Irrawaddy.

The bones of rhinoceroses, bears, elephants, and hyaenas, have been found
mixed in confusion in caverns; and it has been shown by Buckland that
the latter animal had inhabited these caverns, and drawn thither the
carcasses of the others as his prey, in one of the most perfect
inductive arguments which has been produced, since Bacon propounded the
rules of that species of reasoning.

"The moveable earths that fill the bottoms of valleys, and
which cover the surface of great plains, have furnished us in
the above two orders, of pachidermata and elephants, the bones
of twelve species, to wit: one rhinoceros, two hippopotami, two
tapirs, an elephant, and six mastodons. All these twelve
species are now absolutely extinct in the climates in which
their bones are found. The mastodons alone may be considered as
forming a separate genus, now unknown, but closely approaching
to the elephant. All the others belong to genera now existing
in the torrid zone. Three of these living genera are now found
only in the ancient continent, to wit: the rhinoceros, the
hippopotami, and the elephant; the fourth, that of the tapirs,
only exist in the new. The distribution of the fossil species
is different; the tapirs have been found only upon the old
continent, while elephants have been discovered in the new."

The fossil species, although belonging to known and existing _genera_,
are essentially different in _species_ from those which now live upon
the earth. The former are not mere varieties, but have marked specific
differences. This at least is beyond all doubt in respect to the
smaller of the hippopotami, and the gigantic tapir, as well as the
fossil rhinoceros, and is extremely probable in respect to the elephant
and the smaller tapir. If there be any question of the fact, it is only
in respect to the greater hippopotamus.

"These different bones are buried in all different places in
beds that resemble each other. They are often mixe