MAMMIFEROUS ANIMALS. 337 



His usual range is in the thick forests of 

 swampy grounds, or on the banks of rivers, 

 where he is often to be seen in considerable 

 herds (for he is a gregarious Animal) either feed- 

 ing on the leaves and branches of young trees, 

 or passing through the intermediate streams, in 

 which, with his Proboscis out of the water, he 

 swims with great facility ; but his food is not con- 

 fined to the foliage of trees, for he partakes of 

 any vegetable substance that may fall in his way. 



Upon our first notice of this animal, we are 

 very forcibly struck with, and surprised at, his 

 vast height and magnitude. But an immense and 

 unwieldy body arched in the centre of the back 

 and very scantily covered with hair ; a course 

 and highly wrinkled skin of a dirty hue ; a small 

 disproportioned tail, hanging like that of the hog; 

 thick, and clumsey legs, ungracefully placed on 

 the ground ; and a head which, with broad pen- 

 dulous ears, and diminutive eyes, terminates in 

 a tube, or probo.scis of very considerable exten- 

 sion, are all circumstances by no means calcula- 

 ted to improve upoii the impression ; and it is not 

 Until we have observed the intelligent expression 

 of his eye, and the sagacity of his movements, 

 that his exterior deformities are forgotten in our 

 admiration of an animal, which, with physical 

 powers few competitors could resist, can with 

 facility be rendered as docile and as obedient as 



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