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all there are four toes, with a rudiment of a thumb ; 

 but there are five toes on the hind feet, and all the 

 toes are armed with very strong crooked claws. 

 Besides the fallen fruits which they find under the 

 trees, they are understood to feed, in the dry season 

 especially, upon bulbous and tuberous roots, of which 

 there is an immense number in the countries which 

 they inhabit. South America is the grand country 

 fur tuberous roots, especially those of the Amary/lidece, 

 of which so many have been introduced with such 

 beneficial effect into the gardens of Europe. The 

 stems of all these plants die down during the dry 

 season, and the plants are in a complete state of 

 inaction, or ripen at the same time that there is no 

 herbaceous vegetables, or even shrub upon the dry 

 plains, upon which a vegetable feeding animal can 

 subsist. But during this period of the absence of all 

 vegetable food from the surface, the bulbs treasure up 

 a store of the most nourishing and wholesome food, 

 even for human beings ; and the consequence is, 

 that when the breadth of the country appears to be 

 in a state of utter desolation and want, the small 

 rodent animals, which exist in the country in num- 

 bers, have a most abundant supply. If the time shall 

 ever come, when we shall be able to see the proper 

 coincidence between the vegetation and the animal 

 life of this part of the world, it will be found to be 

 one of the most interesting volumes in the book of 

 nature ; and even now, imperfect and disjointed as 

 our information must be admitted to be, there is no 

 part of the world in which the student of nature is 

 more highly gratified and rewarded than in South 

 America. 



And when we duly consider this highly interesting 

 part of the world in all the departments of its natural 

 history, and in all their bearings and relations to each 

 other, we cannot fail to be deeply impressed with the 

 idea of a systematic and harmonious plan running 

 through the whole works of nature, and proclaiming 

 in language not to be neglected or mistaken, that 

 things have all been formed for working in concert with 

 each other, in furtherance of one grand plan and pur- 

 pose. We have here the most stupendous mountains 

 and the most ample valleys, watered by rivers which 

 have no rivals upon the face of the earth. We have 

 the most powerful volcanic action, and upon the more 

 lofty summits of the mountains, we have, perhaps, the 

 most terrible action of the atmosphere to be found 

 over the whole surface of our globe. Thus, those 

 mountains on that side of the country where they 

 are given up to the intensity of volcanic action and the 

 utmost fury of the storms, are rich beyond all know- 

 ledge in other parts of the world, in the most valuable 

 metallic stores ; while, in the regions which are more 

 tranquil in their heights, the accumulation of the 

 most precious gems is without a parallel in any other 

 land. Then, the timber of the trees, the medicinal 

 gums, balsams, barks, and other substances, the dye- 

 ing woods, the insect dyes, the fruits, the esculent 

 roots, and, in short, all that can grow out of the 

 earth, where shall we find a parallel to what is met 

 with, furnished by all prolific nature, without labour 

 and without price, in South America ? Nor can 

 we overlook the navigable rivers, which may be 

 ascended in barks of large burden, to the distance 

 of not less than two thousand miles, while the 

 navigable branches tempt commercial enterprise to 

 nearly the same measure in the cross direction. 

 All this is so temptingly wonderful, whether we seek 



for information or for profit, that no thinking mind 

 can pass it over with indifference. Nor are the animals 

 less wonderful. It is true that we have not in a state 

 of nature the grazing animals of any other part of the 

 world the bisons, of which a remnant still lingers in 

 a few spots of Europe, the antelopes of Southern Asia 

 or of Africa, or even any animal that can he compared 

 to the large kangaroo of Australia, to say nothing of 

 the vast herds of roving animals that were once found 

 upon the central savannahs of North America. But 

 what of all this ? We find originally in the luxurious 

 forests which have no rivals in grandeur or in the life 

 which they support, the sloths playing the part of 

 grazing animals against the sky, a sort of vegetable 

 feeders that spend all their time with their backs to 

 the ground, as if the very air in South America were 

 able to yield that nourishment to animal life which 

 requires the whole strength of the solid earth in our 

 less propitious portion of the globe. Nor must we 

 forget that while in every other part of the world 

 those animals which are most valuable to man in a 

 state of domestication, the horse and the ox for in- 

 stance, have, as in wild nature, always faded away in 

 proportion as the human race has multiplied, the case 

 of these very animals in South America has been quite 

 the reverse. The extent to which both wild cattle 

 and wild horses have multiplied, in the more southerly 

 and champaign parts of the country, and that too 

 while the population has been rapidly on the increase, 

 is really something new and eminently striking in the 

 study of our earth. It is impossible to turn one's 

 attention, even in the most casual and cursory man- 

 ner, to this part of the world without being impressed 

 with the conviction that there is in it every thing that 

 can stimulate the very highest powers of man, and 

 reward his most powerful exertions. But it is a field 

 only for the great of mankind, for those who can un- 

 derstand and appreciate its greatness ; and it is doubt- 

 ful whether it has yet been owned by a people who 

 are worthy of it. Enticing as it is, however, we must 

 withdraw our attention from the general consideration 

 of it, in order to notice the species of that genus of its 

 indigenous mammalia, by which these few desultory 

 remarks have been suggested. 



E. cristata the crested spinous rat. This species 

 is the golden-tailed rat of Buffon. In its size and the 

 form of its tail, it bears no inconsiderable resemblance 

 to the common rat ; but it differs much in the colour 

 of its covering and the form of its ears. Its colour is 

 maroon with a purple ground, very deep on the back, 

 the sides, and sides of the head, but higher on the 

 under part. This colour extends along the tail for a 

 short distance from its base ; but the principal part of 

 that organ is of a rich orange, and there is a spot of 

 the same colour on the face. There is a portion of 

 the tail between the maroon and the orange of a black, 

 colour, and the hair upon the whole of the tail is 

 short and fine. The head is large in proportion to 

 the size of the animal ; the muzzle and facial line are 

 straight ; the eyes are very small ; and though the 

 ears have large openings, they do not rise much, if at 

 all, above the level of the head. At the corners of 

 the upper jaw, there are tufts of brown hair forming a 

 sort of whiskers, which are longer than the breadth of 

 the head. The hair on the back of the animal is coarse 

 and strong, flattened in the section, and more than an 

 inch in length, and bears some resemblance to shining 

 pins. It continues on the sides and flanks, but is wanting 

 on the lower part of the body, which is covered with 



