54 COMPARISONS OF STRUCTUKE EN ANIMALS. 



quently there is no spring*— no yielding and 

 rebound. 



The bones of the fore limb in the elephant 

 consist of the broad scapula or blade-bone, the 

 upper-arm bone or humerus, which bears 

 perpendicularly upon the two bones (radius 

 and ulna) of the fore-arm. To these succeed 

 the wrist or carpal bones, well knit together ; 

 and next follow a row of short, stout, meta- 

 carpal bones, five in number, succeeded by the 

 phalangal bones of the toes. When clothed 

 with muscles and dense, coarse skin, no part of 

 the toes, except the hoofed tips, are visible; 

 the whole leg and foot resembles the rugged 

 trunk of a tree, formed into a rude pillar. On 

 the same principle exactly, are the hinder limbs 

 modelled. In the huge extinct mastodon, of 

 which a noble skeleton adorns the British 

 Museum, the general structure of the Hmbs 

 resembles what we see in the elephant. Little 

 less clumsy are the limbs of the rhinoceros, 

 hippopotamus, and tapir. The carpus or vrvist 

 consists of short, thick, solid bones ; the meta- 

 carpal bones, however, are longer than in the 

 elephant, and the toes (four in the tapir and 

 hippopotamus) are somewhat more apparent, 

 in the Uving animals. In the ^log, the meta- 

 carpal bones are still longer, they are four in 



