94 PACHYDERMES. 



order Uhgulata, or II '..ofed animals, of which our 

 present volume, with the two last, will give an 

 idea of the typical forms ; his other two divisions 

 being composed chiefly of the extinct Fachyder- 

 mous animals, and of the Sloths, Ant-eaters, and 

 Ornithorynchus or the Edentates and Monotremes. 

 The Pachydermes, or thick skinned animals, so 

 named from the strength and folded nature of their 

 almost impenetrable hides, contain the largest land 

 animals in creation. The Elephant, Rhinoceros, 

 and Hippopotamus, belong to this group ; the 

 Mastodon, and all those huge wrecks of a former 

 world, which for many years have engaged the 

 speculations of the geologist, range under it ; 

 immense herbivorous quadrupeds, living amidst 

 the stupendous foliage of a vegetation propor- 

 tionate to their bulk. At the present time, we 

 find the members of this group inhabiting the 

 warmer latitudes of Asia, Africa, and America; 

 one individual extending in a wild state to Europe, 

 and two or three, used economically, now nearly 

 universally distributed by domestication. They 

 frequent the retired forests and thick jungle, pre- 

 ferring such as are watered by some noble stream, 

 where they can bathe and wallow during the hotter 

 parts of the day. They are mostly herbivorous, 

 and either feed on the foliage of peculiar trees, or 

 upon the luxuriant herbage, which serves as an 



