ny smaller animals, which were probably unknown Greeks and Romans, have still failed to discover any upeds of considerable size, with the exception of of America and New Holland.

s quite improbable, therefore, that any of the larger upeds or amphibious animals, now considered exare still anywhere in existence; and since it has shown that they are chiefly distinct species, and not es of those now known, there is no doubt but these races have been destroyed by some violent catas

ven, and by what means did these races perish? At period of the world these extinct species perished, hose bones are found in many parts of the earth, and at means a destruction so universal was occasioned, portant questions in geology.

om the comparative ages in the formations in which Dones are found, it would appear that a great proporf the large quadrupeds were destroyed at the same their remains being found contiguous to each other, a strata, or diluvial deposites apparently of the same The most probable cause of this general destruction hat universal deluge, the marks of which we have till remain in all parts of the earth. It is true, that tain proof of this can be adduced, but such a hypothill account for most of the phenomena observed with t to these remains, and which are unaccountable by ther supposition. See Deluge.

s proper, however, to state here, that there exists xample of the extinction of a species in modern and this in a gradual manner, or without the intern of any general catastrophe. This is the Dodo, e bird, figured and described by many former natu-It appears that during the early voyages of Euronavigators to the East Indies, the Dodo existed in s places, and especially on the island of Mauritius. eus described it under the genus Didus. Brooks Hist. London, 1783) describes it as a large bird, with legs, great black eyes, large head, covered with a rane resembling a hood, or cowl, bill bluish white, at length, sharp and hooked at the end, body covered

FOSSIL QUADRUPEDS.

is easily taken. ee or four are I. ii. p. 66.

Its flesh is good and wholesome, and enough to dine one hundred sailors.

Cuvier (Animal Kingdom) says that the species Didus tus, a description of which was first drawn up by the tch navigators, has completely disappeared, nothing rening of it at the present day, but a foot in the British seum, and a head at the Asmolean Museum at Oxford. s, it is believed, is the only instance in which any speknown to naturalists has disappeared.

PARTICULAR FOSSILS.

t is incompatible with the design of this work, to give assification of those animals whose remains have been overed and described by different authors. A mere meration of their species and varieties, including the ls, would indeed fill a volume much larger than this. shall, therefore, select such as are most interesting instructive only, without reference to scientific argement.

QUADRUPEDS.

rder Pachydermata, or thick skinned. This is the order of fossil quadrupeds, examined by Cuvier. It ains thirteen genera of non-ruminant, hoofed animals, Elephant, Mastodon, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, TaHog, Horse, Daman, Pecaris, Phacocheres, Anoploium, Palæotherium, and Elasmotherium.

enus Elephant. Of this genus there are three disspecies, two of which, the Indian and the African, exist, the third having been found only in the fossil

The Indian elephant is found on both sides of the ges, and in Borneo, Java, Sumatra, and other Indian ds. This species has an oblong scull, concave front, 11 ears, with grinding teeth, marked by ribands, or e lines, which are waved.

The African species are found at the Cape of Good

, Senegal, and Guinea. It has a rounded scull, ears, and grinders, with lozenge-shaped lines on

crowns.

Fossil or primeval elephant (Elephas primigenius.) is the mammoth of the Russians. It has an oblong concave front, very long bony sockets for its tusks; r jaw bone obtuse, grinders parallel, and marked with y parallel, and little waved ribands on the crown. e bones of the last species are found in the fossil state the species being extinct.

e fossil elephant more nearly resembled the Indian the African species, but differed from both in the of its grinders, the great size of its tusks, and espe7 in the projection of its tusk sockets, (see fig. 50.) peculiarity last mentioned, must have very much fied the figure and organization of the proboscis, and to this elephant a physiognomy, differing much from the other species than might be inferred from resemblance of the other bones. Its size, was about of the Indian elephant, viz. from ten to thirteen, or sixteen feet in height.

all animals of the same species, and ages, the teeth precisely alike, in form and number, and therefore never we find merely a similarity, and not an identity is respect, we may know that the species are different, gh the genera may be the same. The form of the also differs with those of the teeth.

he annexed cuts show the difference between the ders of the living, and the fossil elephant. That on

left hand fire 10 rongonts the under iew of the li..

Indian species; that on the right, the corresponding of the fossil elephant. The sides of that of the living ies, converge nearly together at the lower part, and it a projecting point at A, furrowed with a long, narrow 1. The teeth also converge, and the inequalities, or nds on the crowns, are waving lines, running obliquerosswise. The teeth in the fossil jaw stand parallel to other, and the canal in front is much shorter and er, and without the projecting point. The ribands also hese are not oblique, as in the living, but run transely across the crowns.

the two living species, the tusk sockets (alveoli,) do extend further down than the end of the lower jaw, so the chin has room to protrude between the tusks in a ted projection. But in the fossil heads, on account e great length of the tusk sockets, the lower jaw has appearance of having been truncated, or blunted at its er end, so as to admit of its being closed on the upper by means of which the lips come together in the act mastication, contrary from what takes place in the livspecies.

hese, with other differences, in the osteology of the 1 and living elephants, which need not here be ded, make it certain that the fossil species belonged to a of animals not now in existence.

hey resembled the mastodons, in many respects, but e more nearly allied to the elephants, especially in the of the grinders.

he grinders of the fossil elephant are often ten or ve inches long, and have twenty-four ribands, or raislates of enamel, crossing their crowns.

ossil elephant bones have been found in a great numof places, and in many different countries. In nearly y part of Siberia, as high as latitude 65°, wherever a r happens to undermine its banks, the bones of these als are dislodged. In some places, they have been d in such abundance, that large quantities have been sported to other countries, as a valuable article of merce. Indeed, it is said, that a considerable proion of the ivory employed in the arts, is of the fossil

ieut. Kotzebue, in his late voyage of discovery, found ones and teeth of elephants, preserved in an iceberg, Bhering straits.

Elepha bones of ice; that one instar

served in

near the had unde ing been discovery in 1798, but so far its nature mass was

the man than a hu

proach,

man, but after the of the A The fi ed the t roubles. In 18 examine beach w

the valley of the Arno, near Florence, so great was ccumulation of these fossil bones, that it is said the itants formerly used them for making fences between fields. These bones are also found in many parts of ce, in Germany, in almost every part of Italy, the erlands, Holland, Russia, Bohemia, in many parts of and, and in the northern regions of North America. narkable locality of them was discovered at Thiede, Wolfenbuttel, where eleven tusks and thirty grinders disinterred within a short distance of each other. of the tusks was fourteen feet eight inches long, and into a perfect semi-circle. In nearly every gravel round London, the bones of this species are found. have also been discovered in Brentford, Kew, Walord, Dorchester, Abingdon, Oxford, and many other s in England.

is species must therefore have been exceedingly nuus, and widely spread over different parts of the globe.

ephant preserved in ice. In several instances, the s of the fossil elephant have been found imbedded in that of Lieut. Kotzebue has just been mentioned. In nstance, the entire body of one of these animals preed in this manner, has been discovered. It occurred the mouth of the river Lena, in Siberia. The flesh undergone no decomposition, the whole animal havbeen entirely surrounded by the frozen mass. This very was originally made by a Tungusian fisherman, 98, who saw a large mass projecting from the ice, o far above his reach that he was unable to ascertain ature. The next year, going to the same place, the was found partly disengaged from its bed, but still man was uncertain what it might be, as it was more a hundred feet above him, and inaccessible to his apch. The next year it was again seen, by the same but it was not until the summer of 1803, five years the first discovery, that it fell down on a sand beach e Arctic ocean so as to be examined.

he fisherman now obtained a prize, for having detachhe two tusks, he removed and sold them for fifty les.

11806, Professor Adams, of St. Petersburg, went to mine this animal, which still remained on the sand