INTRODUCTION, 



However vast and varied may be the view suggested 

 to the mind by a glance at the animal kingdom, as it 

 exists at the present day, there is still something beyond 

 even this. Geology has revealed to ns the startling fact 

 j| that immense numbers of animals, of species entirely dis- 

 ' tinct from those of which we are to give an account, 

 have once flourished upon the earth ; and, having ful- 

 filled their destiny, have ceased to exist, leaving no trace 

 of their history, except their vestiges in the soils and 

 rocks which constitute the crust of the globe. Of these 

 extinct animals, there were whole races, some of strange 

 and uncouth forms, some of enormous magnitude, some 

 resembling the existing types, and others which have left 

 no living representatives upon the earth. 



In our own country, the bones of an enormous animal, 

 resembling the elephant, have frequently been found, to 

 which the name of mastodon has been given. In the 

 mountains of India have been found the bones of an ani- 

 mal larger than the rhinoceros, having four horns -and a 

 proboscis. On this has been bestowed the name of sivatJu ■ 

 Hum. In the pampas of South America, scattered over an 

 extent oi six hundred miles, have been discovered the remains of an animal of the dimensions of an 

 elephant, yet combining the peculiarities of the sloth and the ant-eater. This extraordinary .-nature 

 has been called the megatherium. The dinotherium, whose bones have been met with in France and 

 Germany, was larger even than the mastodon, and formed a striking resemblance to the tapir. 



