Quadrupeds: or, outlines of a popular history of the class mammalia; with a particular notice of those mentioned in Scripture.

  • Religious Tract Society
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Quadrupeds: or, outlines of a popular history of the class mammalia; with a particular notice of those mentioned in Scripture. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    163/176 page 149
    THE MUSK OS. 115 RCTMIN ANTIA.] upon so slight a foundation. This singular ani¬ mal is confined to the arctic regions of America, inhabiting the barren lands lying to the north¬ wards of the 60th parallel of latitude, hut some¬ times appearing a few degree lower; westwards, it occurs as low as 57°. Dr. Richardson says, that the “ districts inha¬ bited by the Musk Ox are the proper lands of the Esquimaux; and neither the northern In¬ dians nor the Crees have an original name for it, both terming it dison, with an additional epithet. The country frequented by the Musk Ox is mostly rocky and destitute of wood, except on the banks of the larger rivers, which are generally more or less thickly clothed with spruce-trees. Their food is similar to that of the caribou, (reindeer,) grass at one season, lichens at an¬ other.” I'he Musk Ox is generally found in small herds of twenty or thirty head, which are ha¬ rassed by the hunters as often as they approach the habitations of man ; yet the chase is not with¬ out danger, as the males are apt, when irritated and wounded, to turn with vindictive fury upon the hunter. The flesh of the animal when fat is tolerably good ; but when lean, as it is at certain seasons, is not only coarse, but is both scented and flavoured strongly with musk, whence the animal’s distinguishing title. The senses of sight, smell, and hearing, are very acute; and it is difficult for the hunter to approach a herd with¬ out discovery. In size, the Musk Ox is small, the carcass, exclusive of the offal, weighing about three hun¬ dred weight; the limbs are short and stout; the hoofs being somewhat narrower, but not longer, than those of the caribou, so that it requires an experienced hunter to know the difference of the impressions they leave in the soil or the snow. It runs with great swiftness, and climbs rocky paths, and the abrupt sides of the hills, with great agility. “ One, pursued on the banks of the Coppermine, scaled a lofty sand cliff having so great a declivity, that we were obliged to crawl on hands and knees to follow it.” Like the bison, the Musk Ox is clothed with long shaggy hair, curled and matted on the neck and shoulders, but lying more smoothly on the hips and hinder quarters, though still of extraordi¬ nary length and very fine. The general colour is brown, except a saddle-like mark in the centre of the back, of a dirty grey. Beneath the hair, there is a large quantity of brown or ash-co¬ loured wool, forming an admirable under-coat; the tail is short, and concealed among the hair. The head is large and square, with a convex fore¬ head ; the horns are very thick and broad at their origin, where they rise in contact with each other from a flattened base ; as they proceed they be¬ come rounder and tapering, sweeping downwards between the eyes and ears till they reach the angle of the mouth, when they abruptly turn upwards, ending in a sharp point about the level of the eyes. The nostrils are oblong slits in close approximation at their lowest points, and gradually diverging outwards. The eyes are moderately large ; the ears short, and iiot^very conspicuous. There is a beautiful specimen of this singular animal in the British Museum. We have thus concluded the present genus, and with it the great order Ruminantia; an order characterized by features too simple and true to be ever mistaken. We have found the different genera composing it to be such as include the useful, the graceful, and the interesting — the camel, the reindeer, the antelope, and the cattle of our farms. We have often, in our examina¬ tion of it, had occasion to admire the wisdom and the goodness of God; and in looking back upon it, as we take our leave, may we not say, “ How excellent are thy works! in wisdom thou hast made them all ?” -— — ORDER IX.—CETACEA. Bodj' constructed for inhabiting the water: limbs consist¬ ing of an anterior pair only, forming paddles or oars; teeth variable—in some cases there are only horny laminae instead. We have hitherto been contemplating races of mammalia furnished with four extremities, adapt¬ ing them to traverse the earth, to roam the woods, the vales, and the mountains, which diversify the solid surface of our planet. Some few, it is true, as the seal and walrus, have had the limbs formed expressly for swimming, and for habits more or less aquatic; but even here, it will be remem¬ bered that the limbs were four, and that the water was by no means their constant abode; they came on shore to bask in the sun, climbed rocks or masses of ice, upon which they would repose for days, or sport and gambol; and that they entered deep caves or fissures of the cliffs along the coast for the purpose of bringing forth and rearing their young, swimming out to sea only for the sake of food. We have also seen that in every order the head was separated from the body by a distinct neck, and the skin more or less covered with hair or fur. But we are now about to contem¬ plate a race of mammalia possessing very differ¬ ent characters; a race adapted exclusively for the ocean, where they roll and plunge and sport among the waves, or seek the deep sea-caves, or wander among coral groves of stately and luxu¬ riant growth. If we look at these monsters of the deep, we find the whole of their organization modified so as to fit them for their “ ocean-home.” The first modification of parts is in the limbs. We have traced the changes of the hand from man to the soUdungulous animal; we have marked the opposable thumb, so perfect in the human hand, beginning to shorten in the quadrumana; in some of which indeed it dwindled to a mere rudiment; after this we saw it lose its character as a thumb altogether, remaining as a claw in the carnivora and the rodentia, in some of the orders of which it was lost. In the sloth, and also in the other edentafa, we found a diminution in the number of the fingers ; these fingers, which remained, having lost their flexibility. In the pachydermata and in the ruminating animals, we could no longer recognize fingers at all, and the limbs were accordingly modified, losing the last faint relics of the power of rotation, and becom¬ ing simple props or pillars for the body. In all these changes, in every grade of difference, we saw a reference to habits and modes of life: the
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