318 



THE HAKMONIES OF NATURE. 



existence on earth would be reduced to the low level of -the 

 wretched Fuegian or of the wild Indian hunter. 



As the mammalia bow to the supremacy of man, thus also, 

 with rare exceptions, all other animals are subject to their 

 dominion : swimming, they pursue the fishes of the sea ; flying 



and burrowing, they give chase 

 to insects and worms ; climbing 

 and springing, running and lying 

 in wait, by cunning or by violence, 

 they prey upon the birds that 

 nestle in the trees of the forest or 

 seek concealment in the fields. 



Although their internal parts 

 are very similarly organised, -yet 

 so vast a difference in their mode 

 of life necessarily required cor- 

 responding modifications in the 

 structure of their limbs, which, 

 though formed upon the same fun- 

 damental plan, have in every case 

 been most beautifully adapted to 

 answer a peculiar end. 



The whales and dolphins, to 

 whom the wide ocean has been 

 given as a home, naturally require 

 no fingered hand for climbing, 

 no legs for bounding with elastic 

 spring. A mighty horizontal 

 tail stretching sideways into an 

 enormous fin, and striking up 

 and down, impels the giant body 

 through the waters ; the hind- 

 feet, which here would not only 

 have been useless but a positive 

 incumbrance, are wanting; and 

 the anterior extremities assume 

 the form of large pectoral fins, 

 which, besides performing the offices of oars, serve also to protect 

 and guide the helpless young. The anatomical structure of 

 these members, externally so totally different from the human 



Bones of the Anterior Fin of 

 Whale (Balasna Mysticetus). 



