contiguous to the tropics, are the home of the
Pachydermata, and they most abound in the hot-
test parts of Africa, and of continental and insular
Asia. The Hog, the Horse, and the Ass, are dispersed in a state of domestication, wherever civi-
lized man has taken up his abode. ‘The largest of
all terrestrial animals are found in this Order; and
they exhibit a massiveness of form and structure,
combined with a strength that is almost irresistible. “‘ Their pace, when they have fairly commenced it, from the length of their stride, and the
great propelling weight of their bodies, is for a
time very rapid, and bears before it all ordinary
obstacles, clearing a way through the thickest and
most matted underwood.”[1] For the most part,
they are peaceful and inoffensive, but, if irritated,
they frequently manifest a furious and vindictive
ferocity. Some of the African Rhinoceri are,
however, of a spontaneously savage and spiteful
disposition.
The Pachydermata present some difficulty in their subdivision, but we may consider them as comprised in five families, Manatide, Elephan- tede, Suide, Rhinocerotide, and Hquide.
Family I. MANATIDZA.
(Manatees.)
We find here a group of aquatic animals, the forms of which differ so greatly from those that we are about to notice, and are so obviously modelled on that of the Whales, that they have ordinarily been ranked under the Order Cetacea.
- ↑ Naturalist’s Library, PacoypERMATA, p. 95.
