existence of greater skill in the art of navigation; for it seems to be justly concluded, that Atlas was a personification of navigation, or as described by Homer, "one who knows all the depths of the sea.”*

In any event, after a fair and impartial examination of all these circumstances, it seems extremely difficult to regard the account of Plato as a fabrication. Its accordance with the

ancient mythology, and with facts now well ascertained, and its allusion to a western "continent," unknown at that period, oppose such a presumption. If it was the creation of Grecian or Egyptian imagination, surely fancy never formed a truer fiction, nor modern discovery disclosed a more striking coincidence. But, yielding all the credit to these traditions to which they may be entitled, it is yet a question whether they referred to islands still existent in the Atlantic ocean, as the Azores, and the West Indian archipelago, or to land now submerged; as it is possible that, in a fertile mythology, and in the absence of any more accurate means of explanation, their disappearance, may have been attributed to earthquakes and other natural convulsions, rather than to the more probable cause,—the loss of the means of communication arising from a decline in maritime skill. Whatever be the decision upon this point, it will be perceived that if these accounts are to be relied upon, as historical evidence, they afford no proof of a former land connection between Europe and America, Atlantis being invariably described, as an island in the ocean that rolled between the two continents.

It remains to inquire what evidence exists of a similar con

* Anthon's Class. Dic., Atlas.

nection with Asia. It has been supposed, that a vast tract of land, now submerged beneath the waters of the Pacific ocean, once connected Asia and America, and formed a passage-way for the migration of men and animals to this continent. The arguments in favor of this opinion are predicated upon that portion of the Scriptures, relating to the "division" of the earth in the days of Peleg, which is thought to indicate a physical division,-upon the analogies between the Peruvians, Mexicans and Polynesians, which latter are conjectured to have been saved, by a flight to the summits of the mountains, now forming the islands they occupy, and upon the difficulty of accounting in any other manner for the presence of some kinds of animals in America. That part of the Genesis referred to, states that one of the sons of Eber was named Peleg, for in his days “was the earth divided." In the sixth verse of the same chapter, however, in speaking of the descendants of Japheth, it is said, "By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided, in their lands;" and in the seventh succeeding verse, "These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations,-in their nations,and by these were the nations divided in the earth, after the flood." Is it to be determined, then, that a great convulsion, overwhelming multitudes of the human race, destroying nearly one-half of the habitable globe, ten thousand miles in extent, and producing the most important revolutions in the aspect, condition and climate of the earth, was thus incidentally alluded to, under the simple expression, "the earth was divided;" or rather, was not reference made to a political or social division, as described in preceding and subsequent verses, between the families of the sons of Noah, their generations and nations?

That remarkable analogies are to be observed between the

Mexicans, Peruvians, and Polynesians, is unquestionable; but this, in itself, argues nothing in favor of a land connection. Besides, if these resemblances are referrible to such a communication, why is it that similar coincidences do not exist in zoology, and that none of the larger animals, either of Asia or America, have been discovered in these islands, save such domesticated ones, as may easily have been carried in the rudest kind of vessels? and why is it, in particular, that the domestic animals, which are distributed over most of these islands, were not found in the new world? The reply is manifest: because this conjectured terrestrial communication never existed, a conclusion substantiated, in some measure, by geological testimony. Instead of being those portions of the deluged territory, which from their height have escaped submersion, there are no islands, yet examined, in Eastern Oceanica, but such as consist either of volcanic rocks, or coralline limestone, bearing marks of having been upheaved from the bosom of the ocean, by successive volcanic eruptions,—or as have been formed upon the crests of sub-marine volcanoes, that have even the rims and bottoms of their craters overgrown with coral. This is the case even with the largest islands, where coral reefs are sometimes found on the volcanic soil, reaching from the sea-shore far into the interior. And upon the summit of nearly the highest mountain in Tahiti or Otaheite, an island composed almost entirely of volcanic rocks, at an elevation of twelve thousand feet above the level of the sea, there is a distinct stratum of fossil coral, showing that a great part, if not the whole of the island has been raised from the level of the ocean, and has not been formed by supra-marine eruptions. Instead of evincing any evidences, indeed, of the submersion of a large

tract of land, joining America and Asia, the proofs are directly dissentient, and geological examination shows, that the Pacific has been a vast theatre of igneous action, and that its immense archipelagos, instead of being surrounded, before the time of their insular formation, by land, are all composed of coral limestones or volcanic rocks upraised from the sea.*

But notwithstanding these facts in the physical geography of the Oceanic islands, it is still insisted, that this theory affords the only method of accounting for the migration of animals to this continent. This position admits of several answers. 1st. If the hypothesis be conceded as well founded, there are difficulties to encounter in the remarkable difference which exists, between the zoology of Asia and America. Had so easy a communication ever existed, it is obvious that the animal kingdom of this continent should correspond in a great degree with that of the other, whereas on the contrary, there is the widest discrepancy between them. Besides wanting some of the domestic and other animals of the Pacific islands, we have not the horse, the cow, the camel, the dromedary, elephant, lion, rhinoceros, camelopard, hippopotamus, the tiger, and other mammalia of the eastern hemisphere, while at the same time the American sloth, paca, coati, agouti, couguar, peccari, and lama are all unknown in Asia. 2d. It is far from being conceded, that any necessity exists, for explaining the presence of animals in America in the way proposed; for while there is plausibility in the opinion, advanced by many distinguished naturalists, that there have been distinct animal creations, simultaneously, for

* Lyell's Geology, vol. ii. p. 174, etc. Tour through Hawaii, by Rev. W. Ellis, pp. 7, 9, etc.

different portions of the earth-an idea in nowise opposed by the Scriptural accounts contained in the Genesis; and while many learned and pious men have maintained that the Deluge was partial, and of no greater extent than was necessary to accomplish its great end, the destruction of the human race; there are decided indications of the former existence of a warmer climate in the northern regions of both continents, by which the main objection to the migration of our tropical animals by a northern route is removed. By natural, or as they are sometimes unjustly termed, accidental causes; by the instinct of some animals to migrate; by floods, whereby those capable of swimming have been carried vast distances; by sudden scarcity of food, inroads of more powerful genera, or changes in local climate;—by the drifting of ice-floes, and of those floating islands, which covered with trees and animals have been met at sea; and by the direct interposition of man,—the distribution of the brute creation over regions far more widely separated than the opposite shores of Behring's straits, or of the Aleutian islands is easily demonstrated; and at the same time, such partial and occasional causes may explain the absence of many of the species of the old continent. The great difficulty, however, impeding such a solution of this problem is the present inclement climate of this portion of the earth, too severe, doubtless, for the existence of those tropical animals, which must have passed by this route.

Without intending by additional theories, to perplex a subject, already sufficiently, and perhaps unnecessarily embarrassed, by this zoological question, it may be well to allude to the evidences of the former existence of a higher temperature in the temperate and Arctic regions than they now enjoy. Thus in Si