be, insomuch that there was not the least reason to doubt the certainty of them, yet as the name of America has been so long used by the European nations, it would not be proper, at this time of day, to substitute another in its place.**

Some moderns have devised a new way of solving the riddle of Plato; and, as it seems absurd to suppose, that the early Europeans or Asiatics introduced themselves to America by long voyages, the later authors endeavour to obviate the necessity of any voyage at all. The Hindoos relate a fable concerning the destruction of an island, called Atala: the Irish have a vague tradition about the loss of land by earthquakes: the Giant's Causeway is supposed to have some connexion with the subject; and it is observed, that many of the islands, in the Atlantic and Pacific, either are, or have been, the seats of volcanos. From such data as these, we are called upon to believe, that an extent of territory, from the western coast of Europe to the eastern shore of Asia, has been sunk by a series of earthquakes; that the islands, just mentioned, are merely the tops of its mountains; and that the inhabitants of those islands are the posterity of such as were left on dry land, in the general submersion. As giants may be killed with pebble-stones, a

Anc. Univ. Hist. vol. xx. p. 194-5.

One of our own countrymen has thrown together many new facts in support of this theory. See Researches in America, &c. By JAMES

theory too monstrous is easily subverted by a single fact. Does an earthquake give men time to fly to the tops of mountains? Or were men, at that period, so different from what they are now, as to settle upon the hills, instead of the vales?

By far the most numerous class of writers are of opinion, that America was peopled by wanderers from Asia, across Behring's Strait. The shortest distance between the two continents, at this place, is only forty miles: the strait is entirely frozen over in winter; and, as there are known to be inhabitants upon the two opposite shores, it seems easy to conclude, that they once belonged to the same people. The objection, that the Tchutchi, on the Asiatic, and the Esquimaux, on the American side, are very different from the other tribes of the respective continents, is by no means conclusive; for it still remains to be determined, whether peculiarities of climate, and different modes of life, are not sufficient to account for all these diversities of feature, form, and habit. Perhaps, indeed, the only insurmountable objection to this hypothesis, is, that, to account for the emigration of men, will unveil but half of the mystery:―our animals, too, must have come from Noah's ark; and the misfortune of the theory, is, that it supposes beasts

H. M'CULLOCH, M. D. Balt. 1817. American authors have not yet the leisure to write with method, or with elegance; and this book seems to have been composed and printed in the same spirit of haste and carelessness.

and birds, which cannot exist beyond the tropical parallels, to have crossed over at a place, where spirits of wine are almost congealed.

The only remaining explanation, which will be likely to find supporters, is, that the aboriginal men and animals of America were not destroyed in the flood, and have been the progenitors of its present native inhabitants. Something may be urged, with plausibility, at least, to reconcile this hypothesis with scriptural history. As Moses was only acquainted with the Old World, he may be supposed to have spoken only of that: it was the sins of the Old World which required purification; and, though the flood might have covered every mountain, on the other continent, it would not have reached the top of many, in this.* Some of the Indian tribes are said to have a tradition, that their first parents were saved from an universal deluge, by flying to the summits of mountains; and it is acknowledged, that there are many genera of animals in America, which have no prototype in the other hemisphere.

We have not noticed the fact, that animal remains are found upon the summits of mountains. No person has yet surmounted the tops of the Andes. Similar remains are found in mines. Those who adduce the circumstance, to prove the absolute universality of the deluge, suppose, that the earth was then reduced to chaos; but the globe could hardly be dissolved by an immersion in water for only forty days; and, if the appearance of these remains may be accounted for, from a chaos at all, it is much more rational to refer them to the original chaos.

To all this, it may be answered, that the supposition of Moses' ignorance is entirely gratuitous; that the words of our English Bible-it repented the Lord, that he had made man'-can hardly be reconciled with the idea of restricting his vengeance to the Old World; that the Indian traditions, besides being imperfectly ascertained, are obscure and contradictory; and that the topic of a difference in the kind of animals, while it is not founded upon absolute facts, would equally prove, that some parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, escaped the waters of the flood. What should induce the sukotyro to keep within the bounds of Asia? Whence is it, that the hippopotamus and hyrax are only found in Africa? Why will the dodo inhabit no other islands than those of France, Bourbon, and Roderegues in the Indian Ocean? Or what reason can be found, for the attachment of the condor to the peaks of the Andes? This is taking it for granted, that the differences in question are undoubtedly real; but the progress of discovery is daily proving animals to be common to both hemispheres, which were formerly supposed to be peculiar to one; and it is not for the present generation to say, that half a century will not establish the universality of them all.

It may, also, be urged against the latter theory, that, unless the nature of the globe has undergone some surprising change, it will be as difficult to con

ceive how the antediluvian men and animals came hither, as to account for their emigration since the flood. It must be remembered, however, that the difficulty is not so much to ascertain the mode, in which the human race peopled this continent, as to explain that, in which beasts and birds effected their transit. There is a remarkable difference, not only in the scriptural history,-but in the specific qualities, of the two races. We are not told, that no more than one pair of each bird and beast was, at first, created; nor that they were only created in the vicinity of Paradise. The Lord commands the 'earth' to produce animals, in nearly the same language as he commands the water to move with fish; and, while it is almost certain, that the various fish of the ocean,—— particularly the whale,-could not have lived in the rivers of Paradise, it is hardly possible, that animals, which can only exist in particular temperatures, should have been all produced in the Garden of Eden. Man, on the contrary, is capable of enduring any climate; and a nation is said to have been found as high as the sixty-sixth parallel; who suppose, that they own the whole earth, and are its sole inhabitants. It was not necessary, therefore, to create different pairs of the human race for the different portions of the globe. But, without such a provision in the case of animals, it will forever remain a mystery, how they ascertained