300 THE UNIVERSE. 



CHAPTER I. 



i 



MIGRATIONS OF MAMMALS. 



Generally speaking, heavy and bulky mammals are not 

 prone to quit their haunts; travelling is difficult to them, 

 and being sufficiently powerful not to fear any enemy, they 

 rest peacefully quartered in spots where suitable food is 

 found. This is the case with the great aquatic herbivorous 

 animals, which require two essential conditions in one and 

 the same place, food and water. Where these exist they 

 found a colony. 



Such are the Hippopotami, which are found living in 

 numerous and peaceful families in the rivers of Central 

 Africa. There, giving themselves up to all the happiness of 

 a tranquil life, some bathe or play amid the tall herbage; 

 whilst the mothers tenderly carry their little ones on their 

 backs at the surface of the water. 



The numerous tribe of kangaroos are equally attached to 

 their native soil. Their disproportionately long hind-legs, 

 it is true, enable them to leap with great agility, but their 

 fore-feet are too small to allow of long journeys. And be- 

 sides this, the virgin soil of Australia always provides them 

 with abundant nourishment in the midst of its lofty herb- 



age. 



The most remarkable thins; is that those mammals which 



\ 



seem endowed with the greatest facilities for moving from 

 place to place are precisely those which lead the most re- 

 stricted life in this respect. We mean the bats, which, al- 



