and many large ruminating quadrupeds,-of the lion, the tyger, and the hyena. With these remains,

which in their general configuration greatly resemble those of existing quadrupeds, are found the bones of the mastodon, the megatherium, and the megalonyx, now extinct, whose forms and habits have been tolerably well defined by anatomical science. It would be satisfactory to take a general view of the more remarkable of these remains, particularly of those of the extinct genera.

The great mastodon (Mastodon giganteum)* is apparently the largest in size of all the fossil species; not higher, indeed, than the elephant, but of larger limbs and a longer body. As far as we at present know, its remains have only been found in North America, between the Mississippi and Lake Erie. The French naturalists, about the middle of the last century, called it the animal of the Ohio, because a French officer had discovered some of its bones on the bank of that river, and conveyed them to Paris, where they are still preserved. Upon the English conquest of Canada considerable portions of such bones were sent to London; and William Hunter demonstrated, that they essentially differed from those of the elephant. The most satisfactory discovery of these remains was however made in 1801, by Mr. Wilson Peale, founder of the Museum of Natural History at Philadelphia. From the bones which he was able to collect on the river Hudson, he formed two complete skeletons, whose inspection leaves no doubt that in the general form of the body-the nose prolonged into a trunk-the large tusks, of the nature of

*This animal was sometimes called "Mammoth" in the books of Natural History of the last century, and sometimes "Carnivorous Elephant," each name involving an error. Cuvier gave it the present name, from two Greek words signifying mammillary teeth. The animal was also called, by the Indians, Father of Oxen.

ivory, which arm the upper jaw-the absence of all canine and incisive teeth in the upper jaw-and the five toes of each foot,-the mastodon, although differing in many essential particulars, had a great general resemblance to the elephant. The most remarkable peculiarity of the mastodon consists in the monstrous bulk of the molar teeth, whose size, without reference to the small number possessed by the animal, have led to gross exaggerations of his general magnitude. Cuvier considers that he has determined five other fossil species of the mastodon, the most remarkable of which is the mastodon of narrow teeth (Mastodon angustidens), whose teeth have been found in the temperate parts of Europe as well as in South America. The substances known in commerce as turquoises of Simorre, and Oriental turquoises, are portions of the teeth of this mastodon, tinted with iron.

At the same era with the elephant and the mastodon, lived the genera, little inferior in strength and size, of the rhinoceros and hippopotamus. Of the Rhinoceros of great size there were three species, one, (Rh. tichorhinus) found in England, in Germany, and, like the elephant, as far as the borders of the Icy Sea; a second (Rh. incisivus) belonging to the more temperate countries; and a third (Rh. leptorhinus) principally found in Italy. There was a fourth species little bigger than a pig. The large fossil hippopotamus bears a very great resemblance to the existing species in Africa; and of this race, there was also a small one, not larger than a wild boar. Joined with these, was a Tapir, double, if not treble the size of the existing species of America. To these pachydermatous quadrupeds has been added another genus, of which only a lower-jaw has been found, called Elasmotherium.

That the Horse existed at this era there can be no

doubt. The teeth of this quadruped are found in myriads in most of the large deposits of animal. remains.

The numerical proportion of the ruminating animals does not appear to have differed materially from that of the existing races: but it is a remarkable fact, that although species, having a relation with the ox and the deer, were more abundant than at present, some of the quadrupeds, which have multiplied most extensively under the dominion of man, such as the sheep, the goat, and the camel,-and others which we now find in a wild state, such as the antelope, and the cameleopard,—have left no traces of having lived at the period we are describing. Amongst the remains of deer, commonly found with other fossils, the elk, with gigantic antlers, is the most common, particularly in Ireland. Some of the enormous horns belonging to this species measure, it is well known, twelve, and even fifteeen feet from tip to tip. Near Verona, another species has been found whose horns are larger than the stags of Canada. It is a singular fact also, that in the same beds with the bones of the rhinoceros and the elephant, the inhabitants of hot countries, have been found those of a stag so accurately resembling the rein-deer, that it is difficult to assign any distinctive character to the fossil species. In the same manner, the shores of the Mediterranean have furnished the bones of two species of Lagomys, an animal which, at the present day, only exists in Siberia.

But the most extraordinary family of extinct animals whose bones have been discovered, is that of the Megatherium. It consists of two species-the Megatherium, properly so called, and the Megalonyx. They appear to have had something of the formation of the sloth, with the size of the ox. Their stout limbs were terminated by five thick toes; some of which were provided with an enormous claw. Their