THICK-SKINNED ANIMALS, OK PACHYDEEMES.* 



Wi; pass now fi'om tlie Garni voi'a to a group of animals =the DlckluMter of the Germans, the Pachy- 

 dermes of the French interesting from their peculiarities, and some from being remnants of a very 

 extensive tribe, which formerly inhabited the earth, but have now almost entirely disappeared. They 

 feed on grass, but do not ruminate, nor are they clovenfooted. They are, for the most part, huge, 

 unwieldy animals, with thick integuments, rendered tough by a large mass of condensed cellular sub- 

 stance. The greater sensibility of the parts about the face seems to have been bestowed as some com- 

 pensation for the general obtnseness of feeling resulting from the thickness of the hide which covers 

 the rest of the body. 



The first family of Pachydrrmes in this v arrangement consists of those which have a prolwscis 

 and tusks, and which are named Proboscideans. One genus consists of the Mastodons, which is 

 extinct. 



THE MAMMOTH, OR ELEPHANT OF THE LENA. 



THE Tungnsians, who are a wandering' people of Northern Europe, remain but a little time in the 

 same place. Those who live in the forests often take ten years or more to travel over the vast regions 

 between the mountains ; nor, during this time, do they once return to their habitations. In one of his 

 annual trips, Schumachoff, a hunter, who was also a collector of fossil ivory, observed among the icc- 

 lilocks at the mouth of the river Lena a huge, indefinite mass, but could not ascertain what it was. In 

 a subsequent visit he behold the entire side of a gigantic animal, and an enormous tusk, quite free 

 from the ice. 



On his return to the borders of the lake Oncmil, he communicated this extraordinary discovery to 

 his wife and some of his friends, but was grieved by the way in which they considered the matter. 

 The old men related their having heard their fathers say, that a similar monster had been formerly 



* Pachyderaiftta. X'"M thick; 



skin. 



