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I. The Camels: the Arabian Camel, from the earliest ages to the present day, has formed the chief means of communication between the different countries of the East, and has been, in the sultry regions where it is found, scarcely less important to man, than is the Reindeer amid the snowy wastes of Lapland.

II. The Llamas have been justly termed the "Camels of the New World," and differ from them in being of smaller size, and in the absence of the hump. They belong exclusively to South America; and, unlike their Old World relatives, who inhabit "Araby the blest," and other sunny regions, they are found amid the bleak and rocky precipices bordering on the limit of perpetual snow.

III. The Musk Deer, from which the substance called "musk" is procured. These are natives of Asia, and are entirely without horns.

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Fig. 220.-THE STAG.

IV. The Deer.These animals combine, in the highest degree, the characteristics of elegance of form, grace, and fleetness (Fig. 220) The

Elk or Moose Deer of America, exceeds in size any species now living. It was, however, much surpassed by that extinct

species known as the "Irish Elk," and especially as regards the size of the antlers, which weighed from 60 to 70 lbs. In the Moose, the span of the antlers between the extreme tips is four feet; in the extinct Irish species, it is eight feet.

The three species of Deer now living in these countries are the Fallow Deer, the Red Deer, and the Roebuck. The horns are thrown every

year, as they were in the extinct species, and their place supplied by a new growth. The horns are solid, and in their structure resemble bone.Those of the Ox or the Goat, on the contrary, are hollow, covering the bony portion as a sheath would do, and are formed of that elastic substance to which we give the name of horn. From the difference in

the structure of their

Fig. 221.-GIRAFFE.

horns, therefore, animals of the present order may be grouped as solid or as hollow-horned Ruminants.

V. The Giraffe or Camelopard (Fig. 221) is confined to the continent of Africa. It browses upon the foliage and

tender shoots of trees, and has a tongue so constituted as to serve, like the proboscis of the Elephant, as an instrument for pulling them down. VI. ANTELOPES.-The traveller among the Alps or the Pyrenees, describes one species of this group, the Chamois, and the poets of eastern tale have celebrated the praises of another—the Gazelle (Fig. 222).

Fig. 222-GAZELLE.

"Her eye's dark charm 'twere vain to tell,

But gaze on that of the Gazelle,

It will assist thy fancy well;

As large, as languishingly dark.”—Byron.

The beautiful species represented in the annexed figure (Fig. 222), is common in the North of India. By means of their extreme velocity, and the great length of their bounds, they can distance the fleetest dogs. They are, however, sometimes surprised by the Chetahs, or Hunting Leopards, trained for the purpose, and are also occasionally flown at by hawks, which keep them occupied until the dogs have time to come up with them and seize them.

Moore has noticed, in one harmonious stanza, the graceful movement of the Antelope, and the nature of the localities in which it is found:

"Our hills are bare, but down their slope

The silv'ry-footed Antelope,

As gracefully and gaily springs

As in the marble court of kings."

VII. The Goats constitute the next family; they also are inhabitants of Alpine regions.

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VIII. The eighth family consists of the different species of Sheep, which may be traced originally to Western Asia. In a wild state they herd on mountainous districts.

IX. The remaining group may be represented by our

domestic Oxen, which have ever been associated with the field labours and the domestic comforts of man. Perhaps no species has been more celebrated than the Bisons (Fig. 224), which roam in numerous herds over the trackless prairies of

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America. Lewis and Clarke, who witnessed more than once the grand spectacle presented by an assembly of Bisons, say, on one occasion-"If it be not impossible to calculate the moving multitude which darkened the whole plains, we are convinced that 20,000 would be no exaggerated number."

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