[ lOO ] rican g'^ey fox is fomewhat lefs than the European red; which is equally true of the grey fox of Europe, as may be feen by comparing the meafures of the Count de BufFon and Monf. D'Aubenton^\ The white bear of America is as large as that of Europe. The bones of the mammoth which has been found in America, are as large as thofe found in the old worJd. It may be afked, why I infert the mammoth, as if it ftill exifted? I afk in return, why I ihould omit it, as if it did not exift?
Such is the economy of nature, that no inftance can be produced, of her having permitted any one race of her animals to become extinct, of her having formed any link in her great work fo weak as to be broken. To add to this, the traditionary teftimony of the Indians, that this animal ftill exifts in the northern and weftern parts of America, would be adding the light of a taper to that of the meridian fun. Thofe parts ftill remain in their ab- original ftate, unexplored and undifturbed by us, or by others for us. He may as * XXVII. 6s. XIV. 119. Harris, II. 387. EufFon. Quad. IX. i [ loi i well exift there now, as he did formerly where we find his bones. If he be a car- nivorous animal, as fome anatomifts have conjectured, and the Indians affirm, his early retirement may be accounted for from the general deftrudion of the wild game by the Indians, which commences in the firft inftant of their connexion with us, for the purpofe of purchafing match- coats, hatchets, and fire-locks, with their ikuis. There remain then the bufFaloe, red deer, fallow deer, wolf, roe, glutton, wild-cat, monax, vifon, hedgehog, mar- ten, and water rat, of the comparative fizes of which we have not fufficient tefti- mony. It does not appear that Meflrs, de BufFon and D'Aubenton have meafured, weighed, or feen thofe of America. It is faid of fome of them, by fome travel- lers, that they are fmaller than the Euro- pean. But who were thefe travellers?
Have they not been men of a very dif- ferent defcription from thofe who have laid open to us the other three quarters of the worlds Was natural hiftory the ob- ject of their travels? Did they meafure or weigh the