the presence of a pouch, where the young are re-
ceived at a very early period, and carried about
for some time after birth, whence the animals are
called marsupials, or pouched animals.* Fossil re-
mains of animals of this kind have been already
alluded to, as occurring in the secondary and older
tertiary beds of our island.
In Australia, the existing marsupials, or pouched
animals, include species having almost every peculi-
arity of structure and habit; and they are so organ-
ized, that, while some are mere vegetable feeders,
others are omnivorous, and others again carnivorous.
There is doubtless some reason why the animals of
this singular continent should be separated by so
* Of this remarkable group some species are found in the Molucca
Islands ; and one genus, containing several species, is peculiar to America ;
and, though chiefly confined to the tropical portions, is met with as far
north as the United States, where, however, only a single species is
found. The number of species in islands north of Australia (New
Guinea, &c.) is probably not inconsiderable. Waterhouse's " Mam-
malia, vol. i. pp. 2, 3.
Q 2
340 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES
broad and distinctive a character from those of the
rest of the world.*
The fossil animals of Australia are also marsupial,
and exhibit forms which, for the most part, are not
very different from those still living. Some, in-
deed, offer peculiarities sufficiently striking, as well
in point of size as structure, and of these we may
mention two genera, the former being a gigantic
wombat, and the latter representing in its propor-
tions the elephantine animals of other continents,
but still retaining the marsupial character. The
bones that occur in a fossil state are sufficient to
indicate many interesting conclusions with regard to
the ancient inhabitants of this singular and now de-
tached continent; and, combined with the knowledge
we possess of the present and former inhabitants of
the existing land in other parts of the world, they
lead us to suppose that different orders of the great
class of mammalian Vertebrata have been fitted to in-
habit, or at least have been chiefly developed in dif-
ferent countries ; and that, while Europe, Asia, and
Africa, with the adjacent islands, form one principal
district, and are also connected with North America ;
the recently elevated continent of South America
forms another, and Australia a third ; but we find
that, in the vast tract of land in the northern hemi-
sphere, there is the greatest variety of types, corre-
sponding, it may be, with a more varied character of the
land, and the differences of climate thence involved.
But Australia is not entirely unconnected zoolo-
gically with the northern continents. It contains,
* I have already alluded to the possibility that this character may
have reference to the physical geography of the districts inhabited by
the group. See ante, p. 207.
OF CREATION. 341
in addition to its numerous marsupial animals, one
species which is considered to be a true Mastodon.
It is thus brought into relation with distant coun-
tries by a genus which forms a link between the
tribes inhabiting Europe, Asia, and Africa, and North
and South America. This fact is the more interest-
ing, since the widely spread and cosmopolitan animal
in question seems to have been amongst the last of
those mighty tenants of the earth that ceased to exist
immediately before man was introduced.
Very few of the islands near Australia, except
Van Diemen's Land, and very few indeed of those
other islands which form the numerous archipelagos
of the eastern and southern seas, are sufficiently
well known, or have such an extent of superficial
detritus, that we could with any reason expect them
to furnish much palseontological evidence. New Zea-
land is, in point of fact, the only island from which
such remains have been obtained ; and the condition
of the bones, and the circumstances under which they
are found, render it impossible to state very decid-
edly in what bed they there occur. It is, however,
something to know that in these islands there existed
formerly, and possibly not very long ago, a consider-
able and important group of wingless birds, of which
one representative, the Apteryx, still remains, al-
though apparently that also will soon be lost. Many
extinct species of these strange animals have been
found in the gravel of the northern island, and they
vary greatly in size, some having been far larger than
the largest ostrich, while others were very small. In
all these the general character is nearly the same, the
animals being much stouter and more powerful in
342 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES
proportion than the ostrich, and absolutely without
any trace of wings. The general outline of one of
the largest of these extraordinary animals, of which
a figure is given in the annexed wood-cut (fig. 144),
will afford some notion of the vast proportions at-
tained ; the figure of a man being drawn to the
Fig. 144
DlNORNIS.
same scale as the bird, to assist the eye in judg-
ing of the dimensions. The various species hitherto
determined have all been referred to a single genus,
under the name Dinornis.* The legs of the Dinornis
were powerful, and were no doubt well adapted for
rapid locomotion; and in the Apteryx similar power-
f Acii/og (deinos), enormously large ; opvig (orm's), a bird.
OF CREATION. 343
fill extremities enable the animal to run swiftly, and
when attacked to defend itself with great vigour.
The Apteryx is nocturnal in its habits, and dwells
in the deepest recesses of the forest, where gigantic
trees are interwoven almost impenetrably with climb-
ing plants, and where, deeply embayed in the moun-
tains, there occur open swampy spots covered with
bulrushes. It feeds on insects and seeds.
The islands of New Zealand, situated to the east
of Australia, are still farther removed than that con-
tinent from the groups of islands in the Indian Ocean ;
but, in spite of their distance, it is in these latter that
we find the nearest analogue to the singular wingless
birds just described. The Dodo, which had been
brought to England and preserved in museums more
than two centuries ago, and figures of which have
been given, appears to have inhabited the Mauritius
and the island of Bourbon at no distant period, al-
though for some centuries it has not been seen in a
living state. Like the extinct wingless birds of New
Zealand, it was nearly allied to the cassowary, also
an inhabitant of the Mauritius, but it was more mas-
sive, and of more clumsy proportions.
The study of the tertiary geology of Asia, Aus-
tralia, and the islands of the Pacific and Indian
Oceans, assisted by broad general views of the phy-
sical geography of those countries, seems to point to
them as among the chief districts which have un-
dergone changes during the latest geological period ;
and there is every reason to conclude that they are
still being greatly modified by undulatory movements
on a grand scale, constantly going on over a large
part of the earth's surface. At the commencement
344 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES
of the tertiary period northern Asia was probably
almost entirely under water, and a broad tract of
shallow sea may have extended, broken only by a few
islands, from the latitude of 50 north to the North
Pole. A chain of islands, nearly continuous, may
then have existed in what is now the North Pacific
Ocean, bringing the islands east and south of the Phi-
lippines into close relation with Australia, and with
the archipelagos extending many hundred miles to
the east of that continent, while Australia may also
have then extended westward and northward be-
tween the tropics. A considerable part of southern
India was no doubt covered by the sea ; but land ex-
tended probably towards the east and west from
central India, perhaps connecting Arabia with the pe-
ninsula of Malacca. Within this broad tract of land
there appears to have been, during a great part of
the tertiary period, a very extensive fresh- water lake,
whose northern shore extended within the temperate
zone ; and on the banks of this lake lived vast herds
of the larger Mammalia of all kinds, with those other
animals characteristic of the old continent and the
tertiaries of India, whose remains are so abundantly
distributed in many distant regions. The disturb-
ances which were then in action breaking up the
chalk in England and elevating the Weald ; those
which, advancing eastward, formed hills in the great
Alpine countries of Europe ; those which also lifted
the Caucasus from the sea-bottom, and partly found
vent in the now extinct volcanoes of Asia Minor,
had not yet disturbed this vast and thickly-peopled
district, which was not greatly modified till very late
in the tertiary epoch.
OF CREATION. 345
The Himalayas, and the mountains which now
connect that chain with Persia, were, however, it is
probable, even then indicated by a chain of islands,
and did not till a much later period become elevated
into a mountain range. The sands and other rocks,
which, by slight undulations of the surface, had been
deposited in great thickness on what are now the
flanks of this range, and which received and buried
vast multitudes of the bones and other remains of the
inhabitants of the land, were then lifted up, and par-
took both of the main elevatory movement which
lifted the plains of India, and of the local disruption
which produced the mountain chain.
The elevation which commenced in the Himalayan
region did not at once disturb the formation of de-
posits a little further to the south. These seem to
have been continued without interruption far into
what may be considered the modern period ; and yet,
after these, there occurred changes in this part of
the world of the most gigantic nature, resulting in the
outpouring of vast quantities of lava, and the eleva-
tion of the singular chain of the western Ghauts of
India. Scarcely any distinctly marine deposits of a
late tertiary period have yet been recognized in this
part of the world.
These movements, described in so few words, were
doubtless going on for many thousands and tens of
thousands of revolutions of our planet. They were
accompanied also by vast but slow changes of other
kinds. The great plains of Tartary, the whole of
Siberia, and many parts of north-western Europe,
were then undergoing elevation. The inhabitants of
a tropical or warm temperate continent extended into
Q5
346 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES
these new countries, becoming acclimatised in high
northern latitudes; and where we now find only the
bear, the wolf, and the fox, the elephant, the rhino-
ceros, the hippopotamus, and a multitude of feline
and other typical carnivorous species, were then fully
represented. As, however, the northern land in-
creased in extent, rose in elevation, and advanced
further towards the pole, the effects of such change
became felt. Intense cold advanced further to the
south, the climate of the central districts from in-
sular became extreme and continental, and at length
the greater number of the animal inhabitants, unable
to exist under such circumstances, gradually, but
completely died out.
Meanwhile we may inquire concerning the fate of
the continent whose position between the tropics has
also been indicated. The expansive force employed
in lifting up, by mighty movements, the northern
part of the continent of Asia, found partial vent, and
from numerous subaqueous fissures there were pour-
ed out the tabular masses of basalt occurring in cen-
tral India, while an extensive area of depression in
the Indian Ocean, marked by the coral islands of
the Laccadives, the Maldives, the great Chagos bank,
and some others, were in course of depression by a
counteracting movement.
A similar area of depression, on a far grander scale,
is also indicated among the western islands of the
North Pacific Ocean, and we see distinct proof of
great change having been effected in all these dis-
tricts; involving, indeed, not only depression, but
partial and occasional elevation, especially in the line
of modern volcanic action extending from Sumatra
to New Zealand.
OP CREATION.
347
The continental area formerly, it would seem, con-
necting the island of New Guinea with parts of Aus-
tralia, and reaching to about 10 N. lat., seems to have
sunk down, contemporaneously with the elevation of
land in the north temperate zone; and the movement
of depression in this case, and of elevation in the other,
is most probably not yet completed. During the
changes thus going on, it is not easy to conjecture
at what rate other and corresponding changes may
have affected the organic world, but one series of facts
seems distinctly made out, and forms the groundwork
on which these conclusions are based. I mean the
former distribution of the larger land animals in
groups not very dissimilar to those now existing over
certain districts, and analogous to those at present
connected by broad physical characters. This ar-
rangement of the groups corresponds also remark-
ably, and in a most interesting manner, with the dif-
ferences observable between the generic forms which
were then common and those that are now met with.
It agrees in the singular fact, that many of the groups
of species formerly represented by gigantic types
were not confined to one district, but extended over
all the known land of the eastern hemisphere. It
agrees also with the arrangement of nearly allied spe-
cies at the present day, many of these being indi-
genous in distant and unconnected spots now, and
having been so formerly. And, lastly, it proves that
there is as little evidence to be derived from this
branch of geological investigation, as there is from re-
cent zoology and botany, in favour of any view of local
or secular development of new typical forms of or-
ganic existence ; since these modifications are rather
348 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES
produced at once in distant spots, which, so far as
we know, were as unconnected formerly as they are
at present.
The distribution of the more characteristic land
animals in groups is the main fact to be observed in
considering this part of the subject ; but we should
not forget that some important set of causes must
also, in all probability, have been in action, tending
to produce that singular development of the larger
quadrupeds, which has not only peopled the conti-
nents and islands of the Old World with gigantic
types, but has also affected America, in the southern
as well as the northern districts. In that part of
the world, as elsewhere, there is a detached and sin-
gular group of animals, now greatly limited in dis-
tribution, but anciently represented by a large num-
ber of individuals as well as species, attaining di-
mensions not less gigantic in proportion than those
of the elephantine monsters or reptiles of India or
western Europe, or even of Australia and New Zea-
land.
OP CREATION. 349
CHAPTER XV.
THE CONDITION OP SOUTH AMERICA DURING THE TERTIARY PERIOD.
I HAVE thought it well to bring to a conclusion the
argument derivable from the geology of the old
continent and its adjacent islands, because, when we
consider the case of South America, to which the
present chapter will be exclusively devoted, we find
ourselves most emphatically in a new world, and sur-
rounded by forms anomalous at first sight, although
strictly analogous to the existing fauna of that coun-
try, and clearly adapted to its conditions.
The tertiary geology of South America is on the
grandest scale, and of the most instructive nature.
Flanked by the great mountain chain of the Andes
which runs parallel to the western coast, this country
is still the seat of disturbances which ought to be
studied as exhibiting the true elements of geological
causation and illustrating almost every great geolo-
gical principle. That part of the continent extending
from the mountains eastward towards the sea is di-
vided into vast plains drained by the river Amazon
and the Rio de la Plata, and separated by a succes-
sion of transverse mountain ridges, comparatively un-
important with reference to the subject we have now
to consider.
Almost the whole tract of plain country has been
affected by strictly tertiary changes, and elevation has
350 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES
taken place at such long intervals and by such slow
degrees as hardly to interfere with the condition of
things obtaining at the time.* A long succession of
animals nearly allied to, but in many cases quite dis-
tinct from, its present inhabitants, dwelt on this rising
continent ; and corresponding groups seem to have
existed ever since the first elevation of the country,
fragments of them being embedded in the gravel and
other deposits at the mouths of the great rivers.
Throughout the whole of Brazil, and in the pro-
vinces of La Plata and Buenos Ay res, remains of the
extinct quadrupeds formerly tenanting these districts
are occasionally met with, and are sometimes not only
abundant, but preserved in the most wonderful state
of perfection. Some of these skeletons exhibit nearly
every bone of the animal ; the strong cuirasses of
others have scarcely a fragment removed from its true
position ; and these are found on the banks of the
rivers, and in the adjacent mud, while numerous
detached bones occur in the caverns in Brazil, and
are distributed as widely and buried as safely as the
bones of elephants or hyaenas in the corresponding
places of deposit in England and Europe. We have
but to examine the fragments, and re-construct the
animals, to learn the zoological condition of the great
South American continent during the tertiary period,
which indeed may there be regarded as rather passing
away, than actually past.
But, first of all, let us consider the nature of the
country itself in which these remains are found ; and,
* An account of these will be found in Mr. Darwin's valuable work on
the " Geology of South America," published while these sheets were pass-
ing through the press.
OF CREATION. 351
since there has probably been but little difference in
this respect, we shall thus learn at the same time the
conditions under which the ancient inhabitants may
have lived.
The almost boundless plains, to which in South
America the name " Pampas " is given, are localities
equally remarkable and interesting to the zoologist,
the botanist, and the geologist. They are not ac-
tually level, but rather gently undulating; yet, at the
same time, the change of level is so gradual and
small, that the undulations more resemble the swell
of a great ocean in a calm, than any smaller or more
visible hills. Over these tracts the traveller may pass
for a hundred miles, without seeing any change either
in the nature or the products of the soil, and without
meeting with a single pebble. They exhibit the
appearance of a sea-bottom which has remained for
a long period undisturbed ; and it is impossible to
conceive anything more monotonous, or in that re-
spect more dreary, than a journey over a desert so
boundless. A succession of broad flat terraces, of dif-
ferent elevation, but in all respects similar, character-
ises also the whole district of Patagonia from the sea
to the mountain chain on the western coast.
But it must not be imagined that the vegetation in
those tracts partakes of the dreary and monotonous
aspect of the country. It is, on the contrary, rich to
a degree scarcely imaginable in a country and cli-
mate like ours. It exhibits occasionally clumps of
well-grown trees, but more commonly the rapid and
rank luxuriance of tropical districts. The whole of
that part of South America, which is spread out in
flat valleys between the branches and trunks of the
352 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES
noblest rivers in the world, is provided throughout
with an unfailing supply of moisture, and, conse-
quently, enjoys perpetual fertility; and, as the rivers
are frequently changing their course, they thus de-
posit the rich alluvial soil in various parts, and with it
also bury the trunks of trees and the carcases of ani-
mals washed away in the occasional floods, or lying
dead on the river banks. There is an abundant and
never-failing supply for the most voracious of vegeta-
ble-feeding animals ; and no amount of destruction
seems to check, even for a short time, the rapid increase
of the grasses and other plants that are indigenous.
At the time when America was first discovered, this
vast district was chiefly tenanted by a small number
of species of animals of very strange habits and struc-
ture, and of which it may, perhaps, be sufficient to
say in general language, that they are represented
by the sloth, the armadillo, and the ant-eater: we
shall presently see what kind of sloths and armadillos
were its inhabitants at a yet earlier period. Besides
these, there also existed, among the animals indi-
genous in this continent, a kind of camel called the
llama, several moderate-sized carnivora, a remarka-
ble group of monkeys, and some interesting forms of
rodent or gnawing animals. The group first men-
tioned (called by naturalists Edentata, or toothless,
from the absence of cutting teeth) includes the most
interesting both of recent arid fossil species; but, be-
fore describing these, it will be better first of all to
consider the structure and habits of those which do
not belong to this group, but exhibit analogies with
the more common types of animal structure in other
parts of the world. Amongst these we find a pa-
OF CREATION. 353
chydermatous species, called the Toxodon,* showing
many curious points of resemblance to the dinothere,
but more nearly approaching the rodents (e. g. beaver,
&c.) in some important respects. There are also the
remains of another interesting and very large species,
called the Macrauchenia, which was a sort of camel,
connecting the pachyderms with the ruminants. These
have been found to possess considerable interest, and
assist in bringing the whole group of fossils more im-
mediately into comparison with those of other parts
of the world.
The Toxodon, like the Dinotherium, is chiefly
known by portions of the skull, and is almost as
remarkable for the position and arrangement of its
gnawing teeth, as the giant of the middle tertiary
period in Enrope seems to have been for its singular
tusks, and their position in the lower jaw. The di-
mensions of the skull show that the Toxodon must
have rivalled the largest quadrupeds in this respect ;
and its general proportions, its peculiarities of form,
and its structure, prove clearly that this extinct genus
differed essentially from any other animal hitherto
described.
The general form of the skull of the Toxodon
seems to present no analogies with that of the ele-
phant, or indeed with any of the larger quadrupeds.
The teeth, of which there are seven grinders on each
side of the upper jaw, and two incisors, one of them
extremely large, and almost like those of a beaver,
sufficiently indicate the peculiarities in this respect ;
and from these the name of the genus has been derived.
One peculiarity in the skull worthy of notice is
* TOOJ> (toxon), a bow ; O^OVQ (odous), a tooth.
.354
PICTURESQUE SKETCHES
seen in the slope of the back part of the head,
which is characteristic of the dinothere, and common
to the Cetacea and some of the rodents. A very
limited capacity is thus indicated, and the indication
is strengthened by the exceedingly small space that
there is for the brain.
The teeth of the Toxodon are very interesting.
All the grinding teeth are long and curved; but un-
like the case of the guinea-pig, whose teeth, also
curved, are directed outwards, the curve is here such,
that each two corresponding teeth of the upper jaw
bend over to meet each other in the palate and form
an arch capable of overcoming immense resistance
to pressure.
The two large incisive teeth, in like manner, bend
backwards in their sockets, and extend in an arched
form as far as the grinding teeth. The whole of the
inside of the upper jaw is thus a vaulted and groined
roof of the strongest possible construction ; and as the
teeth continued to grow and to be pushed forward
during the whole life of the animal, there was a con-
stant and continual compensation to meet the effect
of the wearing away of the crown of the tooth
against opposing teeth of corresponding structure
in the lower jaw. The enamel of the teeth is not
repeated in distinct folds as in the herbivorous ani-