146 FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 



man can seldom exercise a sufficient control. It is not possible 

 to know and distinguish any species but those which we are 

 able to examine nearly, and compare carefully one with ano- 

 ther. Many of the larger quadrupeds of the earth disdain 

 our sway, and will not submit themselves to our inspection. 

 The wild and fearless tenants of the desert, the mountain, and 

 the forest, are often alike intractable by force or kindness. The 

 puny power of man cannot always cope with their giant strength, 

 or soften their indomitable ferocity ; nor can his flimsy strata- 

 gems escape their penetration, or deceive their vigilance. We 

 find, therefore, in many instances the accidental possession of 

 a single individual sufficient to overturn many of our received 

 notions respecting the habits, and even the conformation, of a 

 species. A nearer view serves to falsify the accounts of care- 

 less, ignorant, or inventive travellers, which may have been 

 long entertained by philosophers as well as fools with easy cre- 

 dulity. A case in point has occurred almost at the very moment 

 I am writing. The presence of a cameleopard in the capital of 

 France has at once dispelled a variety of illusions connected 

 with the structure and habits of this singular quadruped. 

 Animals must be under immediate and constant inspection, and 

 under the inspection of the skilful naturaUst, before almost any 

 thing can be predicated with certainty of their peculiarities. 

 Before such inspection the fine-spun cobwebs of theory, and 

 the fairy fictions of imagination, vanish '^ like the baseless 

 fabric of a vision." The progress of science, while it unfolds 

 to us the real wonders of nature, destroys the marvels and 

 monstrosities of man"'s creation. 



If such observations are applicable to the larger animals of 

 the earth, with how much more force will they not apply to 

 the gigantic inhabitants of the deep ? They more particularly 

 hold good respecting the larger cetacea. These have excited 

 universal astonishment by the enormity of their dimensions, 

 and have given rise for ages to the most unparalleled exertions 

 of activity and courage. Yet, except when, by a felicitous 



