398 ixtrodtjCtiox to zoology. 



The theory thus proposed is, as Professor Owen remarks 

 "strictly in accordance with, as it has been suggested by, tlie 

 ascertained anatomy of the very remarkable extinct animals, 

 whose business in a former world it professes to explain ;'' 

 and he sums up his reasoning in the following words : — " All the 

 characteristics which exist in the skeleton of the Mylodon and 

 Megatherium, conduce and concur to the production of the 

 forces requisite for uprooting and prostrating trees, of which 

 characteristics, if any one were wanting the effect would not be 

 produced.^'' 



Oedeu ruminant r a.— EUMINATINa ANIMALS. 



"Mightiest of all the beasts of chase, 

 That roam in woody Caledon, 

 Crashing the forest in his race, 



The mountain Bull comes tliundering on. 



" Fierce on the hunter's quiver'd band, 

 He rolls his eyes of swarthy glow, 

 Spurns with black hoof and horn, the sand, 

 And tosses high his mane of snow." 



Scott's "Cadtow Castle." 



" The order Ruminantia is distinguished from all the otlier 

 orders of mammalia, by the existence of four stomachs, 

 arranged for the act of ruminating or chewing the cud. These 

 animals are essentially herbivorous, and are all possessed of 

 the cloven hoof ; and it is only among them that species are 

 met with whose foreheads are armed with horns. This order, 

 which is one of the most natural and best defined* of all the 

 primary groups into which the mammalia have been divided, 

 is principally represented by the Ox, the Sheep, the Goat, and 

 the Deer ; but it is usual also to classify with them the Giraffe, 

 Camels, Antelopes, Llamas, &c. They are subdivided into nine 

 genera, comprising in all one hundred and forty -eight species, 



so ably abstracted by Sir R. I. Murchison, in his Address as President of the 

 Geological Society-, 1843, that we have, as far as possible, availed ourselves 

 of the language employed by that eminent geologist. 



* This opinion, though expresssd by Cuvier, and generally received, has 

 been called in question by Professor Owen, from evidence principally 

 afforded by his researches iuto the structure of extinct species of Jiumimintia 

 and Pachydermata. 



