156 



ZOOLOGY. 



[PART IT. 



they are capable of being applied to the ground, thus 

 adding to the circumference and sustaining power of 

 the foot. It has been usually suggested as the probable 

 design of this structure, that it is to enable the reindeer to 

 shovel away the snow in order to reach the lichens be- 

 neath it ; but I apprehend that another use of it has been 

 overlooked, that of facilitating its movements in search 

 of food by increasing the difficulty of its sinking. 



A formation precisely analogous in the buffalo seems 

 to point to a corresponding design. The ox, whose 

 life is spent on firm ground, has the bones of the foot 

 so constructed as to afford the most solid support to 

 an animal of its great weight ; but in the buffalo, 

 which delights in the morasses on the margins of 

 pools and rivers, the formation of the foot resembles 

 that of the reindeer. The tarsi in front extend almost 

 horizontally from the upright bones of the leg, and 

 spread widely on touching the ground; the hoofs are 

 flattened and broad, with the extremities turned up- 

 wards ; and the false hoofs behind descend till they make 

 a clattering sound as the animal walks. In traversing the 

 marshes, this combination of abnormal incidents serves to 

 give extraordinary breadth to the foot, and not only pre- 

 vents the buffalo from sinking inconveniently in soft 

 ground 1 , but at the same time presents no obstacle to 

 the withdrawal of its foot from the mud. 



Deer, " Deer," says the truthful old chronicler, 

 Eobert Knox, " are in great abundance in the woods, 

 from the largeness of a cow to the smallness of a hare, 

 for here is a creature in this land no bigger than the 

 latter, though every part rightly resembleth a deer : it 

 is called meminna, of a grey colour, with white spots 

 and good meat." 2 The little creature which thus dwelt 



1 PROFESSOR OWEN has noticed a 

 similar fact regarding the rudiments 

 of the second and fifth digits in the 

 instance of the elk and bison, which 

 have them largely expanded where 

 they inhabit swampy ground ; whilst 



they are nearly obliterated in the 

 camel and dromedary, that traverse 

 arid deserts. OWEN on Limbs, p. 34 ; 

 see also BELL on the Hand, eh. iii. 



2 KNOX'S Relation, fyc, } book i. 

 c. G. 



