STRANGE ANIMALS AND THEIR WAYS. 377 



observed orycteropi at the Cape, has told me of how, hav- 

 ing once seized by the tail one of them when it had got 

 but half of its body under ground, he could not get the ani- 

 mal out except by having the ground dug to a considerable 

 depth. In eastern Africa the negroes, approaching cau- 

 tiously, kill the orycteropus by a sudden thrust of a lance 

 before it has time to disappear. In Senegal, on the other 

 hand, the animal is caught in iron traps, or hunted with 

 dogs by night. The skin of the animal is thick, and makes 

 good, strong leather. The flesh is by some travelers de- 

 scribed as juicy, with a taste like that of pork ; according 

 to others it is disgusting, being strongly impregnated with 

 ant-odor. From the French y 0u aala. 



THE ORNITHORHYNCHUS. 



1. The discoverers of Australia and New Zealand, and 

 the early voyagers who visited those regions, brought back 

 marvelous accounts of the curious plants, animals, and 

 birds which they found there. The objects described so 

 differed from those known in the northern hemisphere 

 that the stories were usually regarded as of the Munchausen 

 order, resulting from an imperfect observation united with 

 a very lively imagination, or from a deliberate effort to de- 

 ceive. As these regions have become better known, the 

 veracity of the old navigators has been completely vindi- 

 cated, and it has been found that the half was not told. 

 Most of living organisms, both vegetable and animal, seem 

 constructed upon a different plan from those we are accus- 

 tomed to see, and science shows that they are more nearly 

 akin to the extinct forms of the old geological ages than 

 to the present flora and fauna of the great continents. 



2. In some specimens of animal life there is such a 



