The tide of modern civilized life set but slowly toward those great continent-like islands which lie far to the south of Asia. Thus it happened that the plants, animals, birds, and insects that follow the progress of civilized man across the world were long unknown in these localities, while their own plants repeated themselves seed-time after seed-time, and the helpless, clumsy, old-fashioned fauna kept their race intact, living undisturbed in the methods of their earliest ancestors. The hunter’s dog and gun were unknown: the teeth of hogs turned loose to revert to the manners of wild boars, and the claws of cats relapsing from domestication to the state of savage feline tribes, did not molest the defenceless ancient families of Australian beasts. So it has happened that this country and New Zealand have preserved some marvellous types of life. When travellers first described the curious creatures that they had found living in the Antipodes, their accounts were met by that disbelief which has often waited upon the first proclamation of truths. The facts that the world is round; that, with regard to the earth, the sun is stationary while the earth moves; that far to the north the sun continues for weeks above the horizon in a long day without a night; that one can pass the Straits of Gibraltar--then called the pillars of Hercules--and sailing south can circumnavigate the extremity of Africa,--were long ago received as idle tales unfit for belief. In fact, some of these statements were thought to be so false that the very announcement of them was criminal. The poet tells us that the discoverer of the North Cape, the Norseman Othere, went to the court of King Alfred to relate to him the wonders of the far north and the mighty walrus hunt held there. King Alfred could not believe the tale. “‘Four days I sailed to eastward, Four days without a night: Round in a fiery ring Went the great sun, O King, With red and lurid light.’ “Here Alfred, King of the Saxons Ceased writing for a while; And raised his eyes from his book, With a strange and puzzled look, And an incredulous smile. “‘There were six of us all together, Norsemen of Helgoland; In two days and no more Walrus we killed three score, And dragged them to the strand.’ “Here Alfred the Truth-Teller Suddenly closed his book, And lifted his blue eyes, With doubt and strange surmise Depicted in their look.”[55] Such doubts from honest souls have attended the declaration of new truths, and strangely enough, extraordinary fictions have usually been more willingly received than extraordinary facts.