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mineral kingdoms, wherein he described and 

 i named every natural object which had been 

 discovered up to his time, and introduced 

 into his writings a language fitted to supply 

 all the wants of the age : and not long after 

 his death, Gmelin edited a new edition of 

 the " Systema Naturae," with additions up 

 to that date (1788). Various scientific men 

 subsequently attempted to improve the 

 arrangement of Linnaeus ; and at length 

 appeared the "Regne Animal," by Cuvier, 

 who, having shown that there are "immu- 

 table laws prescribed to living beings," di- 

 vides his class Mammalia into the following 

 orders: !. BIMANA ; with two hands, of 

 which Man is the only species. He has 

 three kinds of teeth. 2. QUADRUMAXA ; 

 animals with four hands, and having three 

 kinds of teeth : Monkeys, &c. 3. CARXA- 

 KIA. These have three kinds of teeth, 

 which are more or less of a carnivorous cha- 

 racter. Thumb of the anterior extremities 

 never opposable to the other fingers or toes. 

 It is divided into three families : Cheirop- 

 tera, or bats ; Insectivora, or such animals 

 as feed much on insects, as the Hedgehog, &c. ; 

 Carnivora, animals which subsist on flesh ; 

 Cats, &c. 4. MARSUPIALIA ; animals pro- 

 vided with a pouch for the protection of 

 their young after birth, as the Kangaroo, &c. 

 5. RODENTIA, or Gnawers ; animals with 

 two large incisors in each jaw, separated 

 from the molars by a void space. The 

 molars in most genera with flat or riggled 

 crowns, and in others blunt tubercles: Hares, 

 Squirrels, &c 6. EDENTATA; generally 

 destitute of teeth, some genera with molars 

 only ; their toes varying in number, and 

 provided with large hoof-like nails : Ant- 

 eaters, &c. 7. PACHVDERMATA, or thick- 

 skinned animals ; it includes all the hoofed 

 quadrupeds, except the ruminants : Horses, 

 &c. 8. RUMINANTIA ; animals which ru- 

 minate or chew the cud, with cloven feet, 

 and provided with four stomachs : Deer, &c. 

 9. CETACEA ; Whales and their conge- 

 ners. 



The essential characters of the Mammalia 

 are taken from the number and structure of 

 their teeth, and the construction of their 

 hands and feet : on the perfection of the 

 organs of touch the expertness of the animal 

 depends ; and from their dental formula 

 may, in a great measure, be deduced the 

 nature of their food and digestive functions. 

 Living for the most part on the earth's s\ir- 

 face, the Mammalia are exposed to the 

 transitions of heat and cold : hence the 

 bodies of most of them are covered with a 

 coating of hair, varying in thickness. As 

 their habitation approaches the northern 

 regions, it is more dense, and thinner to- 

 wards the equator. And it is to be observed, 

 that the cetaceous animals which inhabit 

 the sea are totally divested of hair. 



The Mammalia are, of all animals, those 

 which approach the nearest to Man, in re- 

 gard to their intellectual powers ; yet in this 

 respect they present the greatest differences 

 amongst themselves. This the reader will 

 observe, as he turns to the various articles 

 in this volume, where the instincts and 

 habits of each species are described. 



MAMMOTH. (Elephcus primogcnhts.) A 

 term employed to designate an extinct spe- 

 cies of elephant, the fos_sil remains of which 

 have been at various times discovered em- 

 bedded in the newer tertiary deposits both 

 in Europe and Asia. A great quantity of 

 fossil ivory is obtained from Siberia ; and 

 even whole carcasses, covered with flesh and 

 skin, preserved by the eternal frost of those 

 regions, have been found in the northern 

 parts of that country. It is not to be con- 

 founded with the J/asfcx/on, a gigantic fossil 

 animal of North America. 



Some authors derive the name " Mam- 

 moth" from the word Behemoth, used in the 

 book of Job to designate an immensely large 

 animal, or from Mehemoth, an Arab term 

 applied to elephants of extraordinary size ; 

 while others are of opinion that it is merely 

 an adoption of the word Mammouth, given 

 by the Siberians to a huge animal, which 

 they (in order to account for the quantity of 

 Mammoth-horns, or fossil ivory) pretend 

 lived underground in the manner of moles, 

 and could not bear the light of day. This 

 story is in a manner corroborated by the 

 Chinese account of a subterranean animal, 

 which in their great work on Natural His- 

 tory is thus described : " The animal called 

 tien-schu, tyn-schu, or yn-schu (signifying 

 the mouse that conceals itself), lives entirely 

 in subterranean caverns ; in form it re 

 sembles a mouse, but is equal to an ox or a 

 buifalo in size. It has no tail, and is of a 

 dark colour ; it is exceedingly strong, and 

 digs caverns in which it lives, in rocky and 

 woody places." It is the universal opinion 

 throughout Siberia, that Mammoths have 

 been found with the flesh quite fresh and 

 filled with blood ; this, although an ex- 

 aggeration, is founded on the fact that entire 

 bodies have been discovered, preserved in 

 ice, with the flesh comparatively in a state 

 of freshness. The best authenticated in- 

 stance of this was that of the Mammoth 

 brought to St. Petersburg by Mr. Adams, and 

 first recorded in Oct. 1807 in the 'Journal 

 du Nord.' The account is related in ' The 

 Zoologist ' as follows : 



" In 1799 a Tungusian fisherman observed, 

 in a bank on the shore of the Frozen Ocean, 

 at the mouth of the river Lena, a shapeless 

 mass, almost enveloped in ice, and he was 

 quite unable to make out what it could be. 

 The year following, a larger portion of this 

 mass became visible, but the fisherman was 

 still unable to ascertain its nature. Towards 

 the end of the following summer one of the 

 tusks and an entire side of the animal were 

 exposed. It was not, however, until the 

 fifth year from its discovery, when the ice 

 having melted sooner than usual, that the 

 enormous animal became entirely detached 

 from the bank or cliff in which it was first 

 observed, and came thundering down on to 

 a sand- bank below. In the month of March, 

 1804, the fisherman extracted the tusks, 

 which were 9 feet 6 inches long, and together 

 weighed 360 Ibs., and sold them at Jakutsk 

 for fifty rubles. Two years afterwards Mr. 

 Adams visited the animal, and found it 

 much mutilated. The Jakoutes residing in 

 the neighbourhood had cut away the flesh to 



