244 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MAMMALS 



exception, the opossum, common in southeastern North 

 America. Here are kangaroos, ranging from giants five or 

 six feet in height down to very small animals, like the 

 wombat and others which are very clumsy on the ground 

 and present a strange contrast to the smaller kangaroos, 

 which can leap over a horse and cover extraordinary dis- 

 tances. 



The existence of these strange animals here might well 

 suggest that they originated here and that the familiar 

 opossum with prehensile tail and pouch is merely a wan- 

 derer. In South America are found the peculiar sloths, 

 animals that appear to be degenerate forms, living in trees, 

 incapable of rapid motion, clinging to the under side of 

 trees or limbs, and subsisting upon leaves and buds. They 

 are confined to this region and Central America, and in the 

 rocks of the continent are found the remains of gigantic 

 slothlike animals which were the most ponderous and 

 gigantic of all the true land mammals of any time, and 

 at one period they lived in North America. To-day the 

 elephant is confined to Asia and Africa, two distinct 

 species being recognized: the Asiatic form with small ears, 

 so esteemed as an ally to man ; and the African form, with 

 large ears, valued principally for its ivory tusks. 



These animals to-day have a restricted area, being con- 

 fined in a general way to equatorial Africa and to certain 

 parts of Asia, as India ; but not many thousand years ago 

 elephants had a very wide range and were found almost 

 everywhere, ranging from the hairy mammoths, equipped 

 for life along the Arctic, to the three- or four-tusked masto- 

 don of more temperate regions. There is reason to be- 

 lieve that great herds of these monsters roamed America 



