ORGANS OF LOCOMOTION. 265 



trast to these antics is the " measured step and slow " 

 of the hoofed quadrupeds to whom the faculty of 

 climbing is totally denied ! Yet here again we have 

 numerous modifications of pace, from the slow and 

 stately walk of the elephant and the ox, to the fiery 

 impetuosity of the horse, and the bounding spring 

 of the elegant antelope. Yet these are not the most 

 extraordinary of nature's contrasts. The continent 

 of Australia presents us with two other modes of 

 progression, totally different from those just men- 

 tioned, and almost confined to the quadrupeds of 

 the southern hemisphere. These belong to the 

 phalangers and the kangaroos : the first have their 

 representatives in the New World, in the squirrels. 

 The phalangers, in fact, are flying quadrupeds ; not, 

 indeed, from possessing wings, but from having 

 their feet so united by a thin expansive skin, that 

 they can take prodigious leaps from tree to tree, so 

 as to give them the appearance, to an ordinary 

 observer, of flying. This winglike membrane, in 

 short, acts and folds up like a parachute or umbrella, 

 and supports the animal in the air when it otherwise 

 would fall upon the ground. In the kangaroos, on 

 the other hand, the power of leaping is developed in 

 a most remarkable manner : their fore-feet are so 

 short as to be perfectly useless in running, but 

 their hinder are enormous ; and with these, assisted 

 by their thick and powerful tail, they proceed by a 

 succession of amazing bounds or rather leaps, re- 

 peated so fast, and so wide, that these animals, with 

 two feet only, will generally escape from any other, 

 even a horse, that has four. Two other modifications 

 of foot remain to be mentioned : the first belongs 



