300 DIVISION I. VKKTEBRAL ANIMALS. —CLASS I. JLVilMALIA. 



known nnytliinj,'' more palatiiljle tlian tlie juicy steaks of wliich we have par- 

 taken in tlic wilds of INIaine. 



Sub-genus Rangifer. — Tlie Rcinilecr. Tliis animal, wliieli is equal 

 to the stag in size, seems to have been designed by Providence to occu- 

 py a supreme place in the economy of human life among the peoples 

 wlicre nature has given it an existence. It is nearly the sole dependence of 

 the Icelanders, La[)landcrs, and other inhabitants of the frozen regions of the 

 north. It seems almost incrcdilile that an animal of this Imlk shonld tJu'ive 

 and grow fat in a region whose rigorous climate will allow no vegetation to 

 api>ear, except a few stunted slirubs and the lichens, which, in spite of cold 

 ice, cover the desolate lields. On this last the reindeer feeds, diiiiiinc; the 

 moss out from under the snow in winter with its sharp hoofs, and on this 

 apparently scanty sustenance attains a roljustness, strength, and power of 

 endurance, which arc truly remarkaljle. Its Hesh and milk furnish the na- 

 tives with a nutritious food, and its skins a clothing that defies the severest 

 cold, while its fleetness and strength enable them to make long journeys with 

 sledges, with extraoixlinary speed. 



The La[)landcrs keep large herds of these animals, a hundred being 

 considered scarcely sutlicient for the supjjort of a family. iSome large owners 

 keep them to let, as farmers with us let their cows, and liverymen horses 

 and carriages. Sometimes several families which do not have over a hundred 

 head each, unite tlieir possessions for mutual advantage. It is difficult for 

 us, more favored iiy nature, to whom all the luxuries of vegetation are cast 

 with an unsnarlnu' hand, and to whose wants the whole animal kiuirdom is 

 subservient, to conceive how whole tribes can be dcjtendcnt for nearly their 

 entire subsistence upon one single animal. 



STVLorEiii:s. — The JNIimtjaks. Although we here, at the termination 

 of the Cervida', have the smallest of the deer family, yet by the freipient 

 absence of horns, and the possession of elevated bony pedicles upon the top 

 of the head, its relationship to the comparatively gigantic giraffe is estab- 

 lished, and it thus becomes the connecting link between the former group and 

 the (ilraffida;. 



Gcmis Ca-MELLEopakdalts. Of this singular animal, only one spe- 

 cies — C. antequofuin — has been discovered, and this was known to 

 Europeans only by rumor, until its existence was vcrlHcd by ^I. Ic ^'alllant, 

 during his travels in South Afriwi. Since then numerous specimens have 

 been obtained, and it is now a common feature In oiu- managcrles. There 

 are ft}.w persons, therefore, who have not had frequent opjiortimlties for 

 personal observation. The giraffe, at matm-ity, is from eighteen to twenty 

 feet high. There appears to be a curious Irregularity in the organization 

 of tills animal, as Professor Owen found a double gall-bladder in one speci- 

 men, while in two others that organ was totally wanting. 



