THE HYRAXES 25 



so-called " Rock Rabbit " is the best known in South 

 Africa. They are vegetable feeders and said to be good 

 eating. In captivity they become very tame and are 

 quite intelligent. The forests of East Africa, at 7000 feet 

 and over, are full of Tree Dassies, and at night their 

 squalling cries ring all round the camp. 



It is difficult to credit that the nearest living relatives 

 of the little Dassies, as they are called sometimes, are 

 the huge elephants and rhinoceroses. Such is the case, 

 however, and a word may be said in explanation. In 

 the dim dark ages of the world, when huge reptiles were 

 predominant everywhere, mammals probably were mostly 

 small tree-living creatures, of the gnawing or squirrel- 

 like type. At a later date most species as they developed 

 in size took to a ground life, and developed hoofs or paws 

 suitable to such an existence. 



Among the former appear to have been the ancestors 

 of the hyraxes, and in the course of time the squirrel-like 

 claws which had been useful to them among the trees, 

 began gradually to spread out into nails, which would 

 perhaps ultimately have in their turn solidified into 

 hoofs. Before the transformation was complete, however, 

 some cause drove the hyraxes either up the trees again, 

 or under the ground, and therefore the hoofs being 

 useless to them, the progress of development was arrested 

 in that direction, and we probably see them now in the 

 process of getting their claws back again ; but Nature 

 is leisurely in her methods, and a few score thousand 

 years would not be too big a margin to allow for the 

 completion of the process, even if were unhindered. 



