Chap. L] 
DEEB. 
37 
is spent on firm ground, has the bones of the foot so 
constructed as to afford the most solid support to an 
animal of its great weight; but in the buffalo, which 
delights in the morasses on the margins of pools and 
rivers, the construction of the foot resembles that of the 
reindeer. The tarsi in front extend almost horizontally 
from the upright bones of the leg, and spread apart 
widely on touching the ground ; the hoofs are flattened 
and broad, with the extremities turned upwards ; and the 
false hoofs behind descend till they make a clattering 
sound as the animal walks. In traversing the marshes, 
this combination of abnormal incidents serves to give 
extraordinary breadth to the foot, and not only prevents 
the buffalo from sinking inconveniently in soft ground l , 
but at the same time presents no obstacle to the with- 
drawal of its foot from the mud. 
The buffalo, like the elk, is sometimes found in 
Ceylon as an albino, with purely White hair and a pink 
iris. 
Beer. — " Deer," says the truthful old chronicler, 
Eobert Knox, " are in great abundance in the woods, 
from the largeness of a cow to the smallness of a hare, 
for here is a creature in this land no bigger than the 
latter, though every part rightly resembleth a deer : it 
is called meminna, of a grey colour, with white spots 
and good meat." 2 The little creature which thus dwelt 
in the recollection of the old man, as one of the memo- 
1 Professor Owen has noticed a in the camel and dromedary, that 
similar fact regarding the rudi- traverse arid deserts. — Owen on 
ments of the second and fifth digits Limbs, p. 34 ; see also Bell on the 
in the instance of the elk and hison, Hand, ch. iii. 
which have them largely expanded Knox's Relation, §c, hook i. 
where they inhabit swampy ground; c. 6. 
whilst they are nearly obliterated 
