Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/83

Rh not be larger than a middle ſized dog. But a ſubſequent account raiſes his weight to 200lb. Further information, will doubtleſs, produce further corrections. The wonder is, not that there is yet ſomething in this great work to correct, but that there is ſo little. The reſult of this view then is, that of 26 quadrupeds common to both countries, 7 are ſaid to be larger in America, 7 of equal ſize, and 12 not ſufficiently examined. So that the firſt table impeaches the firſt member of the aſſertion, that of the animals common to both countries, the American are ſmalleſt, ‘et cela ſans aucune exception.’ It ſhows it not juſt, in all the latitude in which its author has advanced it, and probably not to ſuch a degree as to found a diſtinction between the two countries.

Proceeding to the ſecond table, which arranges the animals found in one of the two countries only, Mons. de Buffon obſerves, that the tapir, the elephant of America, is but of the ſize of a ſmall cow. To preſerve our compariſon, I will add, that the wild boar, the elephant of Europe, is little more than half that ſize. I have made an elk with round or cylindrical horns an animal of America, and peculiar to it; becauſe I have ſeen many of them myſelf, and more of their horns: and becauſe I can ſay, from the beſt information, that in Virginia, this kind of elk has abounded much, and ſtill exiſts in ſmaller numbers; and I could never learn that the palmated kind had been ſeen here at all. I ſuppoſe this confined to the more northern latitudes. I have made our