CHAPTER XI. 
RUMINANTIA.— DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCESS OF CHEWING THE 
CUD— USEFULNESS OF THE ORDER— THE DEER FAMILY— THE ELK 
OR WAPITI— HABITS AND DESCRIPTION— EXTRACT FROM LONG’S 
EXPEDITION. 
The order Ruminantia, Pecora, or Cud-chewers, next fol- 
lows, peculiarly distinguished by having no incisive teeth in 
the upper jaw ; their feet are all two-toed, covered with two 
hoofs, having the appearance of a single one, cleft in the 
middle. They are altogether herbiverous, and have the 
power of returning the food to the mouth after it is once 
swallowed, for a second mastication ; and as the process of 
chewing the cud is not generally known, we may as well give 
an explanation of it here. These animals are possessed of 
four stomachs, the first called the rumea or paunch, being of 
such capacity as to receive the large bulk of vegetable matter 
coarsely bruised by the first mastication. Passing into the 
second stomach, the reticulum or honeycomb (so called from 
having a beautiful internal membrane of polygonal acute 
angled cells), the food is here moistened and formed into little 
pellets, which are then thrown up into the mouth to be again 
chewed. It is then swallowed the second time in a fine pulpy 
state, and passes into the third, the omasum , and finally into 
the fourth, the abomasum , or reed, which is of a pear-shape, 
and wrinkled, corresponding to the human stomach. Here it 
is digested by the action of the gastric juice, and its nourish- 
ing parts absorbed and thrown into the circulation for the 
growth and renovation of the living system. This gastric or 
stomach juice, is a colorless liquid, secreted or prepared by 
the stomach, and by which the process of digestion is 
carried on. 
