Clinton's introductory discourse. 57 



the position and peculiarity of their teeth.* This arrangement, which 

 places man in the same order with apes, monkeys, and bats, has been 

 rejected by eminent zoologists. Some have distinguished animals by 

 the hoofs and toes, and others by the structure of the heart. The want 

 of a regular and established system has created confusion in this science, 

 and has added to the difficulties of those Europeans who have attempted 

 to describe our animals. There has not been written, in this country, 

 any professed work on its quadrupeds, and those sketches which have 

 been published are greatly deficient, especially in omitting to notice at 

 large the habitudes and manners of animals, the most interesting part of 

 natural history. A writer, devoting himself to the elucidation of our 

 quadrupeds alone, and confining his view to this state, would have sub- 

 jects of vast interest and moment. He would undoubtedly place, at 

 the head of his list, the mammoth, or elephaa Americanus, skeletons of 

 which have been discovered in Orange and Ulster counties, and one has 

 been put up in Peale's Museum. He would elicit all the information 

 that could be obtained from this source ; he would examine the different 

 hypotheses which have been suggested in relation to this animal, and he 

 would not even overlook the traditions of the Indians ; he would deter- 

 mine whether it was herbivorous, or carnivorous; whether it was the 

 hippopotamus, the rhinoceros, the common elephant, a monster of the 

 ocean, or a distinct race of animals ; and he would avail himself of the 

 knowledge which is to be derived from the Russian discoveries.! 



He would then describe the Avhite brown or grizzly bear, the fero- 

 cious tyrant of the American woods, and would show that it is a non- 

 descript, and a distinct animal from the ursus arctos, or polar bear, with 



See Note M. f See Note N. 



10 



