94 
I'ACHYDERMKS. 
order Ungulata, or Hoofed animals, of which our 
present volume, with the two last, will give an 
idea of the typical forms ; his other two divisions 
being composed chiefly of the extinct Pachyder- 
inous animals, and of the Sloths, Ant-eaters, and 
Ornithorynchus or the Edentates and Monotremes. 
The Pachydermes, or thick skinned animals, so 
named from the strength and folded nature of their 
almost impenetrable hides, contain the largest land 
animals in creation. The Elephant, Rhinoceros, 
and Hippopotamus, belong to this group ; the 
Mastodon, and all those huge wrecks of a former 
world, which for many years have engaged the 
speculations of the geologist, range under it ; — 
immense herbivorous quadrupeds, living amidst 
the stupendous foliage of a vegetation propor- 
tionate to their bulk. At the present time, we 
find the members of this group inhabiting the 
warmer latitudes of Asia, Africa, and America ; 
one individual extending in a wild state to Europe, 
and two or three, used economically, now nearly 
universally distributed by domestication. They 
frequent the retired forests and thick jungle, pre- 
ferring such as are watered by some noble stream, 
where they can bathe and wallow during the hotter 
parts of the day. They are mostly herbivorous, 
and either feed on the foliage of peculiar trees, or 
upon the luxuriant herbage, which serves as an 
