194 AFFINITIES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 



certain terrestrial orders, a cross section, as it were, at the 

 bottom of those orders, and part of the composite chain by 

 which they are connected with the reptiles. 



The first of these terrestrial orders is that of the Carnivora : 

 it starts in the seals (Phocidce). We see in that family genera 

 bearing a positive resemblance to both the ursine and the 

 feline tribes, and respectively called in consequence sea-bears 

 and sea-lions. It is also of importance in the case of the 

 bears, that there are genera (such as the arctic bear) geogra- 

 phically adjacent to the haunts of the phocal tribes, partly 

 similar in their semi-aquatic habits, and also akin in the low 

 (plantigrade) organization of their hind extremities. From 

 the bears startling as it may appear proceed the Canidce 

 (wolf, fox, dog), in which there is at once an improvement in 

 form (digitigrade) and an advance in intelligence. Let not 

 prejudice resist this pedigree. We must remember that the 

 dog is still a carnivorous animal, and, in the wild state, a 

 ferocious one. But the almost identity of teeth, and the 

 fact of the bear and dog having proved fruitful, are the facts 

 on which the genealogy chiefly rests. 



A third carnivorous line, which may be called the Muste- 

 line, is clearly traceable from the seal called the Otaria, 

 through the sea-otter, the river otter, and so on to the shrews 

 and musteline animals in general. One, in which the suc- 

 cession is not so distinctly seen, embraces the Viverrine 

 animals, including the hyaena, procyon, genet, ichneumon, etc. 



The alliance of the Pachydermata to the whales is fully 

 admitted by modern geologists, being seen in the thick and 

 naked skin, the gigantic body, massive bones, and even the 

 variable and irregular teeth, peculiar to the latter animals. 

 Here it is also important to observe that some of the 

 pachyderms nearest to the whales in bulk, as the hippopotamus 

 and rhinoceros, are partly aquatic in their habits. Even the 

 elephants and tapirs are but one step further on to terrestrial 

 habits, seeing that they chiefly haunt the savannahs and 

 jungles adjacent to great rivers. The Equidce (horse, ass, 

 quagga, onager) and the Suidce (pig, babyroussa, peccary) are 

 pachyderms applicable to inland situations, reduced in bulk, 



