Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/875

 K A N K A N 841 4. Ilypsiprymnodon, Pierson-Ramsay. Distinguished from all -other members of the family by possessing a small prehensile hallux or first toe, without nail. It is, therefore, a form of great interest, as showing a structure of foot connecting that of the kangaroos with that of the phalangers. The single known species, H. mos- chatus, Ramsay, has been lately discovered in north-east Australia. It was described almost simultaneously by Owen under the name of Pleopus nudicaudatus. In seeking among the other marsupials for the nearest allies to the kangaroos, using this word in the comprehen sive sense as above, two most striking points in their organization must be borne in mind, the structure of the hind foot and the dentition. Of the former the essential peculiarity is the great predominance of the fourth digit, and the remarkable character of the second and third, which while retaining a considerable length, are of extreme tenuity, and buried up to the claws in a common integu ment. Such a structure of foot is quite unknown out of the marsupial order, but in that order it is found in the Phalangistidse, in a very modified form, associated with a large opposable hallux, and a broad sole of the foot N appropriate for climbing trees ; and again, in almost the same form as in the kangaroos, in the ground-dwelling Peramelidse, which in their dentition and digestive organs are so widely different. The Australian carnivorous marsupials, Dasyuridse, and the American opossums or Didelphidx, show no trace of this singular conformation. It is therefore only with the former families, the Phalan- gistidse and the Peramdidse, that the kangaroos are allied by this character. The chief peculiarity of the dentition consists in the presence of three pairs of incisors in the upper jaw, the first or middle one of which is generally the largest, opposed to a single pair in the lower jaw, strong, sharp, and pro cumbent. These are followed by an interval, in which may be, in the upper jaw only, a canine, but always so small, as to be of little functional importance. The premolars are compressed and cutting, and the true molars ridged or tuberculated. Such a dentition is found among the Phalangistidse alone of existing marsupials. In this respect the Peramelidx are completely separated from the kangaroos, their numerous small incisors, large canines, and cuspidated molars resembling those of the Dasyuridse and Didelphidx. On the whole then, the kangaroos and the phalangers are groups most nearly allied in essential char acters, having both dentition and extremities formed upon the same fundamental type, though with modifications of the latter to suit their respective terrestrial and arboreal habits. Remains of numerous extinct species of true kangaroos, many of them of much larger size than any now existing, are abundant in the Pleistocene deposits of Australia, and have been described and figured by Professor Owen in the Philosophical Transactions. Hitherto they have been found in no other part. of the world. Other animals of gigantic size, the Diprotodon, as large as a rhinoceros, and the Nototherium, but little inferior, with dentition of the same general type, but the structure of whose feet is not yet known, lived with these kangaroos in the same land. An extraordinary modification of the Hypsiprymnus type, with the great premolar characteristic of that genus immensely exaggerated in size, and the true molars equally reduced, misnamed Thylacoleo carnifex, was another con temporary. Beyond these, which all belong to the most recent geological epoch, we have no knowledge, of any extinct animals which can be said to be nearly allied to kangaroos, or to connect them with any other forms of mammals. The only marsupials discovered in European Tertiaries resemble the existing opossums of America, and except in their common marsupial characters have no affinities with the kangaroos. It is, however, a most remarkable fact that in the Pur- beck beds of the newer Oolitic series, not only in England, but also in deposits of corresponding age in America, lower jaws of small mammals (to which Dr Falconer gave the name of Plagiaulax), with a type of dentition showing a considerable resemblance to that described above as peculiar to the kangaroos and their existing allies, have been dis covered. Unfortunately no part of the skull or upper teeth, or of the limbs of any of these is as yet known ; so whether the resemblance was fully carried out, even in the dentition, is uncertain, and it is almost too great a stretch of the imagination to assume that the modern &quot;diprot- odont&quot; marsupials have derived their special type of tooth- structure from such remote ancestry. The evidence of the affinity of the still more ancient Hypsiprymnopsis (Boyd Dawkins), founded upon a single and much worn tooth, having some resemblance to one of the large premolars of Ilypsiprymnus, found in the infra-Liassic beds of Watchet in Somersetshire, is based on still slighter foundation ; but, if it should eventually turn out to be well-grounded, it would carry back the type to an extraordinary antiquity. Literature. G. R. Waterhouse, Nat. Hist, of the Mammalia, vol. i., &quot; Marsupiata,&quot; 1846; J. Gould, Mammals of Australia; R. Owen, article &quot;Marsupialia&quot; in Cyclop, of Anatomy and Physio* logy; various memoirs &quot;On Extinct Mammals of Australia&quot; in Philosophical Transactions; &quot; Mesozoic Mammalia,&quot; Palszonto- graphical Society, 1871 ; H. Falconer, &quot; On Placjiaidax&quot; Quart. Journ. Oeol. Soc., August 1857 and November 1862; W. H. Flower, On the Development and Succession of the Teeth in the Marsupialia,&quot; Phil. Trans., 1867; &quot;On the Affinities and Probable Habits of Thylacoleo,&quot; Quart. Journ. Gcol. Soc., August, 1868; A. H. Garrod, &quot; On Dorcopsis luctuosa and its Affinities,&quot; Proc. Zool. Soc., 1875, p. 48. (W. H. F.) KANGRA, a district in the lieutenant-governorship of the Punjab, India, lying between 31 20 and 33 N&quot;. lat., and between 75 39 and 78 55 E. long., bounded on the N.W. by Gurdaspur district and Chamba state, on the N.R by the Himalaya mountains, on the S.E. by the states of Bashahr, Mandi, and Bilaspur, and on the S.W. by Hoshiarpur district, with an area of 8988 square miles. Kangra district comprises a vast tract, extending east ward from the plain country of the Bari and Jalandhar Doabs, across two distinct Himalayan ranges, far into the heart of Thibet, It naturally falls into three parts the sub-Himalayan country of Kangra proper, the central valleys of Kullu and Bangahal, and the rugged outer region of the Tibetan slope. It consists almost entirely of immense mountain ranges, whose three parallel lines, with a trans verse ridge, form four main basins, in each of which a great river takes its rise the Beas (Bids), Spiti, Chenab, and Ravi. From the great variety of the different tracts included in the district by modern arrangements, it is impossible to assign any general physical peculiarities to the whole beyond their common characteristic as moun tainous regions, intersected by snowy chains and scored by deep river valleys. The western portion, abutting on the Punjab plains, admits of cultivation, and supports a, comparatively dense population ; while the bare and sterile eastern glens are sparsely inhabited by a Tibetan race. The census of 1868 disclosed a population of 743,882 (393,571 males and 350,311 females), 83 to the square mile. The Hindus numbered 693,505; Mahometans, 48,613; Sikhs, 1314 ; Christians, 277; and &quot;others,&quot; 173. The six municipal towns with their population are Nurpur, 7151 ; Kangra, 6344 ; Haripur, 3839 ; Sujanpur Tira, 3393 ; Jawala-mukhi, 2847 ; Dharmsala, 2024. Ths famous Hindu temple 1 of Nagarkot at Kangra town is one of the oldest and most wealthy shrines in India, and twice exposed the district to the plunder of the Mahometans. The cultivated area of the district is returned at 681 square miles, or less than one-thirteenth of the entire surface. The staple crops include wheat and barley for the spring, and rice and maize for the autumn harvest. Rice is the principal crop of the upper valleys, while maize composes the ordinary food of the upland people for six months of the year. Sugar-cane covers a large area, in the neighbourhood of Kangra town. Tea cultivation has taken root as an important industry, both in Kangra proper and in XTIfc 1 06