292 THE MOUNTAIN. 



ent color, and have rougher skins, and the caudal prolonga- 

 tion of the vertebral column has been abraded by an obstinate 

 indulgence in the sitting posture, the animal being given 

 much to contemplation, and quietly beholding the flow of 

 the river of time. The great predominance of the bones 

 and muscles of the face, the protrusion and magnitude of 

 the jaws, constituting the prognathous muzzle, or counte- 

 nance which may be taken hold of, together with the ex- 

 treme minuteness of the brain-box or skull, would point 

 rather to the Hylobates. Its chief characteristics are love 

 of potatoes and whisky, indolence and ease, being proverbi- 

 ally improvident and disposed to let things alone, with the 

 exception of an occasional affectionate surveillance of the 

 neighboring hen-coops and sheep-pens.* 



BATS. 



FAMILY OF CHEIROPTERA, (Bats.) 



This is a peculiar group of animals, and one which would 

 seem, at first sight, to belong to anything but the class of 

 mammals. They are, however, in that class, and have not 

 the organization of the bird. Their leathery wings are ex- 

 pansions of the skin over the enormously elongated bones 

 of the arm and fingers. Although in the order carnivora, 

 some of the family are frugivorous, the others being in- 

 sectivorous. Their habits of whirling through the air at 

 twilight and night in pursuit of their insect prey, their 



description of a specimen lie saw in 1842, who was a slave of an 

 Emir of Mecca, published in the Annual of Scientific Discovery for 

 1850, article Zoology, p. 318. Consult also the Lucubrations of the 

 venerable Banks, of Indiana, on the influences which hold in arrested 

 development the "unlettered" varieties of man. 



* The missionary who attempts to evangelize this "variety" ought 

 to be provided with a goodly number of steel traps of sufficient 

 strength to hold a bear ; also with a quantity of cat-o'-nine-tails, and 

 commence the work of regeneration by a direct address, vigorously 

 applied, to the skin of the back. 



