EUTHERIA. 61 



Anteaters, &c.; (ii.) SIRENIA, the only existing species of which 

 are the Manatees and Dugongs ; (iii.) CETACI A, the Baleen and 

 Sperm Whales, Narwhal, Dolphins, &c.; (i\.) INSECTIVORA, the 

 Hedgehogs, Moles, Shrews, &c.; (v.) CHIROPTERA, the Flying- 

 Foxes, Bats, Vampyres, etc.; (vi.) RODENTIA the Porcupines, 

 Rats, Rabbits, <fcc.; (vii.) UNGULATA, the Elepha.its, Swine, Deer, 

 Cattle, Sheep, Horse, c., by far the most import ~nt Order ; (viii.) 

 CARNIVORA, the Lion, Wolf, Weasel, Walrus, Seal, &c. ; (ix.) 

 QUADRUMAXA, the Monkeys, Apes, Lemurs, &c. ; and (x. ) 

 PRIMATES, Man. 



Of these ten Orders only five, the second, third, fifth, sixth, 

 and eighth have to be dealt with here as Australian, four of the 

 others not having as yet been recorded from this Subregion, while 

 Man is relegated to a different the anthropological branch of 

 the science. 



The range of this Subclass is, as may be supposed, cosmopolitan 

 no region having been visited by man, whether the ice-bound 

 wastes of the arctic seas, or the burning sands and miasmatic 

 swamp-forests of the tropics, in. which widely different forms of 

 mammalian life, from the Rein-Deer and Musk-Ox. the White 

 Bear and the Walrus of the inhospitable polar shores on which so 

 many of the bravest and best of the intrepid heroes of our Anglo- 

 Saxon race have left their sad and but surmisable record of im- 

 perishable fame, to the A.ye-Aye and the Armadillo, the Tapir 

 and the Gorilla of lands which teem with so exuberant a life as 

 to be actually more deadly to man than the barren, the shud- 

 dering silences of the. long winter night of the polar seas. 



In point of numbers and importance the Eutherian Mammals 

 greatly exceed the two preceding divisions of the class, except in 

 Australia, this wondrous relic of an older era in our planet's 

 history, the latest and the most marvelous of our discoveries. 

 Leaving the marine mammals which are naturally cosmopolitan 

 for the present out of the question, the truth of this assertion 

 may be seen at a glance by the fact that in Australia and its 

 attendant islands only about seventy species of terrestrial Eu- 

 therian Mammals, one of which, the Dingo, is more than doubt- 

 fully indigenous have been differentiated with any degree of 

 certainty, and, with the exception of the Australian Water-Rats 

 (Hydromys) and the more closely allied genera, none are of any 

 special interest, while not a single species is of any commercial 

 value whatever. As an illustration of the poverty of the Australian 

 fauna in this respect it is only necessary to call the attention of 

 my readers to the obvious fact that all domesticated mammals, 

 one at least of which has placed Australia in the proud position 

 which she now holds, have their origin in far distant lands. As 

 a set-off to this, from a naturalist's point of view, unsatisfactory 

 state of affairs we can of course point with pride to the great 



