iv INTRODUCTION. 



These animals have no posterior extremities, while the anterior limbs have the form of 

 fins and paddles; and as to their bony structure, we find them provided with separate finders, 

 yet distinct and hand-like, and the whole framework covered witii cartilage, so that each may 

 form a complete and undivided oar. Often are these creatures called /''*//; as a vessel going 

 at certain times to the Arctic Seas is said to bring home, not one or two /////<>, but that 

 number of fish ; and, in accordance with such representations, we frequently hear of the Whale 

 or the Greenland fishery. 



Now, it is not doubted that the contour of the body of these marine animals is fish-like ; no 

 neck is apparent, and there is a tapering from the head to the tail ; yet even this organ 

 strikingly differs from that of other creatures. For though the tail, in figure, is like that of a 

 fish, its position is vertical, not horizontal ; and it is furnished with muscles of enormous 

 volume and force, so that the animal may rise to the surface of the water, or dive beneath it, 

 with the utmost facility. And as all these marine beings have a vertebrated structure, 

 true lungs for respiration, a double heart, circulating warm and red blood ; and, moreover, as 

 they suckle their young, and rear them with the most tender solicitude, they are also properly 

 ranked among the Mammalia, differing as they do from others not in organic formation, but 

 entirely in their dwelling-place, as the tenants of the ocean, instead of the land, or of the land 

 as well as the water. 



The Class thus formed is divided into the nine primal groups, or ORDERS, already 

 specified ; and, for the reasons just adduced, a tenth is added, called Aquatic Mammals, or 

 CETACEA. Every order is divisible into Tribes, families, or Genera ; for, as cats may be 

 separated from dogs, camels from elephants, and sheep from oxen, so another division may 

 take place into species. The common otter may be separated from that which is marine ; the 

 eland from the gazelle ; and the ibex from the goat. 



To simplify, so far as possible, the arrangements indispensable in dealing accurately with 

 animals so numerous and diversified, we have prefixed to each Volume its CONTENTS, first 

 divided into Orders, and then subdivided into the Tribes, Families, or Genera, into which they 

 are distributable, with one or more instances of the Species of which they are respectively 

 composed. Still further : at the close of the present Volume will be found a SCIENTIFIC 

 TABLE, presenting them all with their proper technicalities, as determined by the most eminent 

 Naturalists the basis, as the foot notes on successive pages show, of our popular descriptions ; 

 and also an INDEX to the entire Work, so that a reference may be instantly made to any 

 animal of this extensive and exceedingly varied series of beings, under its ordinary name, as 

 the Baboon, the Fox, the Lion, or the Whale. 



Throughout, our ILLUSTRATIONS are abundant beyond all example. Not only does an animal 

 appear among them in its usual circumstances, but the skeleton, the bruin, the skull, and the 

 twth, are exhibited by accurate ENGRAVINGS, while peculiar organs are also presented to the 

 eye, as the stomachs of the ox and the camel, and the tongue of the giraffe. The unvarying 

 aim has been, as to the Text, to describe every animal as minutely, and yet popularly, as 

 possible ; and also to enliven our delineations by facts exemplifying its instincts, often exceed- 

 ingly interesting, or rendering striking the circumstances attendant on its capture or training. 



It may he affirmed of Natural History, as Professor Sedgwick says of the Newtonian 

 philosophy, " it is a study, as affecting our moral powers and capabilities, which does not termi- 

 11:lt(> '" ""''''' negations. It teaches us to see the linger of <i<.d in all things animate and 



