484 



Errantry of Datura! f& 



branches. They are of a thick and clumsy 

 form, and, when full grown, measure about 

 two feet in length from the tip of the nose to 

 the extremity of the body, and about one 

 foot in height, the hinder limbs being much 

 longer (but considerably bent) than the an- 

 terior ones. The claws are conical, thick 

 and strong, and proper for digging. Their 

 eyes are large, prominent, and of a brownish 

 hue ; their ears are nearly naked, and their 

 whiskers rigid. They swim and dive re- 

 markably well ; and, although heavy and 

 corpulent, they run and jump with activity. 

 Their cry resembles the grunting of a young 

 pig. The food of the Paca consists of fruits 

 and tender plants, which it seeks in the 

 night, seldom quitting its burrow in the day. 

 Its flesh is said to be very savoury, and forms 

 a staple article of food in many parts of 

 South America. The mode of taking these 

 animals is by closing two of the apertures of 

 their burrows, and digging up the third ; 

 and it often happens that they show a very 

 determined resistance, biting their pursuers 

 very severely. When undisturbed, the Paca 

 often sits up and cleans its head and whiskers 

 with its two fore paws, which it moistens 

 with its saliva like a cat. It is readily tamed, 

 very cleanly, and shows a quiet and con- 

 tented disposition in captivity. The fur is 

 composed of silky hairs, very short, thin, 

 and stiff; of a blackish-brown on all the 

 upper parts of the body, excepting four rows 

 of parallel spots, from the shoulders to the 

 rump, which, viewed in some situations, 

 appear to form an almost uninterrupted 

 line. 



PACHYDERMATA. An order of Mam- 

 miferous Quadrupeds distinguished by the 

 thickness of their skins, including various 

 animals that in other respects are by no 

 means closely allied ; as, for instance, the 

 Elephant, the Horse, and the Hog. The 

 order is, however, subdivided into 1. The 

 Proboscidea; or those possessing a prolonged 

 snout or proboscis, and having five toes on 

 each foot, included in a very firm horny 

 skin ; as the Elephant, and certain extinct 

 gigantic species. 2. The Pachydermata 

 ordinaria ; in which the feet have four, 

 three, or two toes on each foot. Among 

 these are the Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, 

 Tapir, Wild Boar, &c. 3. The Solidwngula; 

 or quadrupeds with only one apparent toe 

 and a single hoof to each foot, although be- 

 neath the skin, on each side of their meta- 

 carpus and metatarsus, there are bony points 

 or processes which represent two lateral toes; 

 as the Horse and its congeners. 



Mr. Darwin has many excellent remarks 

 on the extinct Pachydermata, which, he says, 

 appear formerly to have had a range over 

 the world, like that which deer and antelopes 

 now hold. "If Button had known of these gi- 

 gantic Armadillocs, Llamas, great Rodents, 

 and lost Pachydermata, he would have said 

 with a greater semblance of truth, that the 

 creative force in America had lost its vigour, 

 rather than that it had never possessed such 

 powers. It is impossible to reflect without 

 the deepest astonishment, on the changed 

 etate of this continent. Formerly it must 



have swarmed with great monsters, like the 

 southern parts of Africa, but now we find 

 only the tapir, guanaco, armadillo, and ca- 

 pabyra ; mere pigmies compared to the an- 

 tecedent races. The greater number, if not 

 all, of these extinct quadrupeds lived at a 

 very recent period ; and many of them were 

 contemporaries of the existing molluscs. 

 Since their loss, no very great physical 

 changes can have taken place in the nature of 

 the country. What then has exterminated 

 so many living creatures ? In the Pampas, 

 the great sepulchre of such remains, there 

 are no signs of violence, but, on the contrary, 

 of the most quiet and scarcely sensible 

 changes." " That large animals require a 

 luxuriant vegetation, has been a general as- 

 sumption, which has passed from one work 

 to another. I do not hesitate, however, to 

 say that it is completely false ; and that it has 

 vitiated the reasoning of geologists, on some 

 points of great interest in the ancient history 

 of the world. The prejudice has probably 

 been derived from India, and the Indian 

 islands, where troops of elephants, noble 

 forests, and impenetrable jungles are asso- 

 ciated together in every account. If, on the 

 other hand, we refer to any work of travels 

 through the southern parts of Africa, we shall 

 find allusions in almost every page either to 

 the desert character of the country, or to 

 the numbers of large animals inhabiting it. 

 .... Dr. Andrew Snaith, who, at the head of 

 his adventurous party, has so lately succeeded 

 in passing the Tropic of Capricorn, informs 

 me that, taking into consideration the whole 

 of the southern part of Africa, there can be 

 no doubt of its being a sterile country. On 

 the southern and south-eastern coasts there 

 are some fine forests; but with these excep- 

 tions, the traveller may pass, for days to- 

 gether, through open plains, covered by a 

 poor and scanty vegetation. It is difficult to 

 convey any accurate ideas of degrees of com- 

 parative fertility ; but it may be safely said, 

 that the amount of vegetation supported at 

 one time by Great Britain, exceeds, perhaps, 

 even tenfold, the quantity on an equal area, 

 in the interior parts of southern Africa." 

 After remarking on the improbable effects 

 which have been attributed to the variation 

 of climate and food, the introduction of 

 enemies, or the increased numbers of other 

 opecies, to account for the succession of races, 

 he observes, in conclusion, " We see that 

 whole series of animals, which have been 

 created with peculiar kinds of organization, 

 are confined to certain areas ; and we can 

 hardly suppose these structures are only 

 adaptations to peculiarities of climate or 

 country ; for otherwise, animals belonging 

 to a distinct type, and introduced by man, 

 would not succeed so admirably, even to 

 the extermination of aborigines. On such 

 grounds it does not seem a necessary con- 

 clusion, that the extinction of species, more 

 than their creation, should exclusively 

 depend on the nature (altered by physical 

 changes) of their country. All that at pre- 

 sent can be said with certainty, is, that as 

 with the individual, so with the species, 

 the hour of life has run its course, and is 

 spent. 



