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PREFACE. 



the same Almighty Mind presided over Creation in aires so remote as to seem on the 

 verge of a past eternity, as in thai Adamic Creation which peopled a new and regen-< 

 crated world. The study of the relics of these lost races often throws great light ou 

 the present animal kingdom, and therefore the Natural History of to-day necessarily 

 includes a reference to them. We have therefore, in these pages, given some general 

 notices on this subject, which, with the curious engravings illustrating them, we hope 

 may prove interesting and instructive. 



One thing more. In consideration of the frequent use of the French, German, and 

 Italian languages in this country — owing alike to the great number of foreigners among 

 us. the general enlargement of our literature, and the involving of whole territories 

 within our bounds, to many of the people of which one or other of these is a native 

 tongue — we have given the popular names of prominent species of animals in these 

 several languages. 



Finally, in view of the whole subject, considering its vast extent, its amazing reve- 

 lations, its boundless details — curious, strange, wonderful, and all immediately and 

 inevitably traceable to that God whom we worship, in whom Ave believe, hope, and 

 trust — I cannot but feel that it is well worthy the earnest study of the wise and the 

 simple, the learned and the unlearned. If I have placed it within the reach of an 

 enlarged circle of readers, and if 1 have succeeded in commending it effectively to 

 their attention, I shall feel that this, my patient labor of some years, has not been 

 in vain. 





