66

in almost all instances of fossil remains of quadrupeds, the two out, between the chalk and the gravel. A grinder was brought are more or less blended together, and in a manner to lead to to me, (it is still in the possession of Dawson Turner, Esq. the instant conviction, that sea and land productions had, by of Yarmouth;) but so long after it was discovered, that some means or other, become indiscriminately confused; and scarcely any other part of the animal could be preserved. that they were thus left in a dry state by the retiring waters, The whole had been carried away with the chalk, and burnt the action and circulation of which had been the agent in this for lime, or spread in minute fragments over the fields.* unnatural combination. The Mosaic History is alone capa- Perhaps, I should also tell you, that upon this compact ble of clearing up the obscurity of such phenomena; and it blue clay, so rich in fossils, is generally, but not constantly, does clear away all difficulties in a manner the most satisfac-a stratum of light blue clay, varying in thickness up to four tory to the reason and understanding. feet: this is always delicately laminated; often having the It may almost be considered unnecessary to proceed further appearance of the leaves of a book when pressed on one in the production of proofs of diluvial effects upon animal side. Above this are sand, (frequently stratified,) brown and vegetable productions at this eventful period. But our clay, gravel, and chalk RUBBISH, intermingled, or alternating, own country presents so many examples of the highest inter- and surmounted by a deep rich soil. These upper beds occaest, which are in a great degree unknown to general readers, sionally present FOSSIL SHELLS, probably from the crag strathat some further account of them may be desirable. tum."

All geologists are well acquainted with the rich mine of It is scarcely necessary to make any remark on the interfossil remains along the east coast of England; and especially esting and corroborative evidence of diluvial action, presented in the counties of Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Lincoln. An to us throughout every word of this singular and distinct account of those on the coast of Norfolk has been kindly account.

communicated to me by the Rev. James Layton, of Catfield, We here have every thing that the imagination can require, in that county, now resident at Sandwich, a distinguished in painting the effects of a great DILUVIAL EDDY, collecting collector of such fossil treasures; and as this account will in its vortex an indiscriminate mixture of floating animal, serve to throw a great additional light upon the effects of di- vegetable, and marine productions, from every climate under luvial action now under consideration, I shall proceed to lay heaven. The description of the washed state of the roots of it before my readers. the trees is particularly striking, as every one, who has seen

:

After describing the strata of blue clay, locally called mud a high land flood, bearing along its vegetable booty, must be cliffs, of which an interesting section is presented along that familiar with the appearances which these fossil forests coast, exhibiting, in the clearest manner, the violent effects of exhibit. But instead of single trees, we must endeavour some diluviul eddy, at that particular point, by the action of to present to the mind's eye such floating and matted which the intermixture and contortions of the strata, as they forests, as the wilds of America could still produce, in the were formed, took place; Mr. Layton proceeds as follows: event of a renewal of so awful a calamity; we must enlarge “One remarkable feature in this compact blue clay, is a our views, in considering such vast effects; and imagine this stratum of wood, exhibiting the appearance of a wood over- portion of the diminishing waters of the deluge to be comthrown, or crushed in situ. At Paling, the stumps of trees seem pletely charged with a floating mass of objects, collected by now to be really standing; the roots are strong, spread abroad, the currents from "the four winds." We must endeavour and intermingling with each other were a torrent to sweep to conceive, what mortal eye never saw, nor ever can see; away the mould from the surface of a thick wood, leaving the and we shall then be fully able to elucidate and unravel the roots bare in the ground, the appearances would be exactly the mystery which has so long overshadowed this awfully grand same. This phenomenon occurs again at Hasborough, the subject. The whole scene now presents itself to the imagiline of crushed wood, leaves, grass, &c., frequently forming nation; and we are thus led to a period in the history of our a bed of peat, extends just above low water mark. About native land, when its soft and chalky surface, for the first this stratum are found numerous remains of mammalia: the time, showed itself above the level of the waters; and when horns and bones of at least four kinds of deer; the ox, the all its valleys and its basins first became the depositories of horse, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, and elephant. These fos- what we have so long speculated upon in darkness and in sil remains are found at Hasborough, and its neighbourhood, error, under the guidance of a false and theoretical philosoon the denuded clay shore: at Mundesley they are found in phy. The same level of the waters, which deposited this the cliff. The great mine, however, is in the sea, some miles mingled mass of organic destruction on the coasts of modern from land, where there is an oyster bed, on a stratum of Norfolk, must have been extended over the whole of the gravel, about six fathoms deep. The sea gains rapidly on south of England, and, also, over by far the greater part of this coast; two yards at least every year. We may, there- the north. If we consider, on the great scale, the general fore, conclude, that the land once extended considerably be- structure of this southern portion of England, and follow yond that bed; and that the stratum of fossils was left, be-out the formation of the chalk on which all these animal cause they were hard and heavy, while the mud and sand remains and diluvial strata repose, and below, or in which no have been carried into deeper water. quadruped, or vegetable substance has ever yet been discovered, "How far this bed of fossils extends, I cannot pretend to we shall find, that from that very shore of Norfolk, and of say; but in 1826, some fishermen, while dredging for soles on the neighbouring counties of Suffolk, of Essex, and of Kent, 'the Knowl,' a bank twenty miles off shore, brought up an en- ramifications of chalk, in the form of high bare downs, tire tusk of an elephant, which is now in my possession; it stretch from east to west, across the whole of this part of is nine feet six inches long, one foot nine inches in its great- the kingdom; and in three well defined ridges, are known est circumference, and weighs 97 pounds. It is cornuform, by the names of the Oxfordshire Hills, the Surrey Hills, and exactly resembles the tusks of the mammoth, said to and the Sussex Downs. Between each of these hilly have been found in the ice in Siberia.* The elephants must ridges, on which little or no soil is to be found, excepting in have been abundant. I have at least 70 grinders, of all sizes, the dips or hollows, which are invariably filled with strutifrom four lamine to twenty; and so various in their features, fied diluvial clay and gravel, we find extended plains of the that, at first, I fancied I could distinguish a dozen different richest soils, often of a depth which cannot easily be penespecies; but I now believe that they all belong to the same, trated, and containing abundant animal and vegetable testiand that most resembling the Asiatic. Those which I now monies to their formation having taken place at the same have, are reserved from more than two hundred, which have destructive period when the strata of Norfolk became so been in my possession; and the oyster dredgers reported, that charged with animal debris. To the north of the Oxfordthey had fished up immense quantities, and thrown them into shire hills, (one part of which, called Nettlebed, is considdeep water, as they greatly obstructed their nets. Amongst ered the highest point of England, south of the Trent,) we find, these fossils, that is, from the oyster-bed, are some supposed in the vale of Oxford itself, numerous instances of the to be of a species of the whale. common diluvial strata, in the form of deep soil, gravel, "In 1820, an entire skeleton of the GREAT MASTODON was clay of various kinds, and stratified rocks of a calcareous found at Horstead, near Norwich, lying on its side, stretched description, full of sea shells.

The largest specimen of a fossil tusk that I have seen or heard of,

In one of these strata, the quarries opened up on the rising ground at Shotover, a few miles from Oxford, furnish a rich it in the cabinet of Dr. Buckland, at Oxford, and was found at Rome. treasure of fossil animal remains; and it was from this place Is is but a small portion of what the whole has been, being not more that one of the Saurian, or Crocodile tribe, was lately prothan about two feet long; but, from its great size and straightness, it cured for the cabinet of Professor Buckland, on one of the must have been of prodigious length, and of nearly four hundred bones of which a large OYSTER is seen attached, together with weight. Its diameter is about 10 inches, and in its present decayed state, it much resembles a piece of fossil timber.

VOL. II.-M

* For a further account of this fossil, see Chapter 12.

two fine ummonites, in their natural position. Those speak- It is with the most sincere respect for the well-known ing witnesses of marine action could not have been produced talents of Professor Buckland, that I consider it a duty, in on this fresh water animal, without its having been, for some this place, and while considering this part of my subject, to time, subjected, like the bones of the mammoth mentioned advance any thing in opposition to one whose opinions are by Cuvier, to the waters in which they naturally dwelt. so influential in the geological world. But the whole theory, Now, if we suppose the level of the sea to have gradually, under the impression of which that work is written, is so and in the course of weeks, sunk from the heights at Nettle- directly opposed to what has now been advanced, that I feel bed, drifting off, as it fell, every movable substance, either it due to myself, as well as to my readers, to make some animal, vegetable or mineral, into the lower levels, where observations upon it; not only in the fair support of an opthey were submitted to the lateral action of the tides, and, posite argument, but for the sake of advancing, in at least a consequently, arranged in stratified order, as has been before nearer degree, towards the same great end, to which all such fully explained, and as always must happen in such cases; inquiries ought invariably to point.

we shall have a clear and well defined idea of the effects After describing the remarkable and indiscriminate mixture observed in this and every other vale or plain in the south of of fossil bones, found in a cave at Kirkdale, in Yorkshire, in England, formed almost invariably of the same materials 1821, Dr. Buckland proceeds with the following remarks and structure. By this means, we have a distinct concep- upon the general theory of the fossil remains of quadrupeds. tion of the London basin, situated between these same "It was probable, even before the discovery of this cave, Oxfordshire hills, and the ridge of those of Surrey, to the from the abundance in which the remains of similar species south. By this means, we learn how the rich wealds of occur in superficial gravel beds, which cannot be referred to Kent, and of Sussex, came to be formed of such unfathomable any other than diluvial origin, that such animals were the depth of blue clay, marl, sand-stone, iron-stone, &c.; all antediluvian inhabitants, not only of this country, but genereposing, in alternate strata, upon the chalk, which there rally of all those northern latitudes in which their remains can be no doubt extends below, from the Sussex Downs to are found: the PROOF, however, was imperfect, as it was possithe Surrey hills; and from these latter again, to those of ble they might have been drifted or floated hither by the Oxfordshire.* waters, from the warmer regions of the earth; but the facts By extending this line of reasoning to other parts of our developed in this charnel-house of the antediluvian forests of own native country, and from thence carrying the mind's Yorkshire, demonstrate that there was a long succession of eye over the plains of France, of Germany, of Europe, and years in which the elephant, rhinoceros and hippopotamus, of the rest of the world, there is at once a full conviction had been the prey of the hyænas, which, like themselves, inpresented to the reason, of the manner in which such uniform habited England at the period immediately preceding the effects have been produced by so universal and prevailing a formation of the diluvial gravel; and if they inhabited this cause. The basins of Paris, of London, and of the Isle of country, it follows as a corollary, that they also inhabited all Wight, so long the subjects of blind speculation and of those other regions of the northern hemisphere, in which error, must all have then received their load of fossil trea- similar bones have been found under precisely similar cirsures; and then, also, might be seen the inflated and colossal cumstances, not mineralized, but simply in the state of grave forms of the animal kingdom, bending their gradual but bones, imbedded in loam, or clay, or gravel, over great part certain courses towards their present icy beds in the Polar of northern Europe, as well as North America and Siberia." regions. "It is in the highest degree curious to observe, that four

The work of destruction had at length been consummated; of the genera of animals, whose bones are thus widely difand the new dry lands were now to assume those forms fused over the temperate, and even over the polar regions of and qualities, which experience shows us are so happily the northern hemisphere, should at present exist only in tropisuited to the wants and comforts of postdiluvian generations. cal climates, and chiefly south of the equator; and that the

CHAPTER XI.

only country in which the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus and hyæna, are now associated, is in southern Africa. In the immediate neighbourhood of the Cape, they all live and die together, as they formerly did in Britain; whilst the hippopotamus is now confined exclusively to Africa, and the elephant, rhinoceros and hyæna, are diffused widely over the continent of Asia.

The Cave of Kirkdale.-Dr. Buckland's Theory founded on "To the question which here so naturally presents itself, its Fossil Remains. Contradictory Nature of this Theory. as to what might have been the climate of the northern hem-Fossil Bones from the Hymalaya Glaciers, and from the isphere, when peopled with genera of animals, which are Heights of South America.-Natural mode for accounting now confined to the warmer regions, it is not essential to the for them.-The Habits of the Elephant.-His most perfect point before me to find a solution. My object is, to establish form.-His love of the Water, and of a swampy and woody the fact, that the animals lived and died in the regions where Country.-Habits of the Rhinoceros.-Cuvier's Opinion of their remains are now found, and were not drifted thither by Fossil Remains. Inconsistency of this Opinion.-Evidence the diluvial waters from other latitudes."

of Astronomy.-Evidence from Fossil Trees.-Conclusive In the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, (in 1827,) a letter Nature of this Evidence.-Evidence derived from Peat Moss. was published by Dr. Buckland, which he had received from -Foot-marks of Antediluvian Animals.—Scratches occasioned Colonel Sykes, on the subject of hyænas dens in India; and by the Diluvial Action.-Formation of Valleys.-Scripture the object of this publication was, to show the solidity of the alone capable of explaining these Evidences. foundation on which the professor's theory of the Kirkdale cave was built. This letter from India gives the exact deThere probably never has appeared any geological work, scription which we should naturally expect, of the earth, or that excited so much attention and interest at the time of its hole of a carnivorous animal. A good many bones were found publication, as the Reliquiæ Diluviana of Professor Buck-in it; but not more in proportion to the size of the animal, land; in which that excellent and learned geologist endea- and the prey on which he usually feeds, than we always find vours to account for the fossil remains found in our own in a fox's hole in our own country. I have lately had the island, of quadrupeds which are now confined to much more pleasure of conversing with Colonel Sykes, and of discussing southern latitudes. this, and other subjects of equal interest, connected with a tropical climate, and of the animals natural to it. His de

The form and structure of the weald of Kent and Sussex, are, scription of the hyæna is any thing but favourable to the indeed, truly worthy of our most attentive observation. In out-theory of the cave of Kirkdale, even supposing that we had ward form, there is the greatest variety of hill and dale, without, no stronger ground on which to combat it. He considers however, in almost any instance, being provided with the brooks or that the hyena does not live in a gregarious manner; on the rivers, which, in other circumstances, we should look for as certain

in every hollow. This peculiarity is obviously occasioned by the contrary, he never but once saw three full grown animals in nature and extent of the prevailing clay, which, in many instances, the same hole; and he supposes that one of them was a young is unfathomable. It is not a little singular, that coal has not yet one, not yet expelled from the family, which always happens been discovered in the wealds of Kent; for, as the soils and strata as soon as the young are able to shift for themselves. This are almost every where identical with those of many of our richest is the well known habit of foxes and of wolves, between coal fields, there can be no reason given for its absence from the iron and sand stone strata which so much abound, than that the diluvial which, and the hyæna, there seems to be considerable simiwaters, in this particular locality, were not charged with the same larity of character. Colonel Sykes inclines to think that they floating vegetable masses which they have deposited in such abun-do not live so much in caves of a large size, as in fissures dance in other more favoured places. and burrows similar to fox earths; and that it is probable

that they do not haunt even these, except when they have drifted to their present place from equatorial regions, by the young; but lie out in the open country, or in the woods, as waters that caused that inundation."--Reliq. Diluv. p. 47. wolves are known to do. The most remarkable feature in this part of the work of

In the earth which Colonel Sykes laid open, he chose one, Dr. Buckland, is the very loose, and even contradictory reawhich, from its beaten and used appearance, seemed a well soning, to be found throughout the above quotations. In one established haunt; and in such a country as India, if such a part, le considers it as positively proved, that the animals, haunt be not disturbed, or destroyed, it is probable that it whose bones are now found in Yorkshire, inhabited England may be so tenanted for many successive years. There was," at a period immediately preceding the formation of the dihowever, no unusual quantity of bones; and such as were luvial gravel in which they are embedded;" and that “IF found, were of a very recent character. The abundance of they inhabited England, it followed as a corollary, that they teeth was entirely wanting; nor could I learn that there were also inhabited all the other regions of the north, in which simiany indications of hyænas, who had died of old age, having been lar bones have been found;" and yet he soon after states, that devoured by their own species. he "cannot see how even branches of trees and brushwood

The learned professor then proceeds to state the differences were to be obtained for their support, in climates now proof opinion that exist, on the subject of climate, amongst the ducing nothing but moss and lichens, which are covered with highest authorities, and he mentions the opinion of Cuvier, impenetrable ice during the greater part of the year." that these animals probably had a constitution adapted to The fact is evident, that the contradictory difficulties of endure the rigours of a northern winter, which opinion was such a theory were not concealed from the searching mind of supported (and indeed was probably formed) by the "large the learned professor; who, however, leaves the whole quesquantity of wool" found, with the skeleton of an elephant, tion precisely in the same unstable condition, in which the discovered in 1771, in the frozen gravel of Vilhoui. mind is left bewildered by the theories of first formations by

He proceeds, however, with much candour, to state the secondary causes. He admits the evident and close connexion opposing objections to such an idea, and to destroy both his between the fossil remains of quadrupeds, found in all counown and Cuvier's theory, upon the very natural and unan- tries; but though he sees the utter hopelessness of ever being swerable principle, that food could not have been found in able to provide the necessary food for elephants in the polar those rigorous climates, proper for the sustenance of such regions, he yet casts aside this insuperable difficulty, and large animals: he proceeds as follows; "for though the twice presses the two important facts HE IS MOST CONCERNED elephant and rhinoceros, if clothed in wool, may have fed TO PROVE, regardless of the contradiction in which he must, themselves on branches of trees and brushwood, during the unavoidably, become involved in the attempt. I cannot agree extreme severities of winter, still I see not how even these with the learned professor, that the subject of climate, and, were to be obtained in the frozen regions of Siberia, which, consequently, of food, was of secondary importance in the at present, produce little more than moss and lichens, which, support of his theory; and there surely may be better means during great part of the year, are buried under impenetrable of "establishing the fact, that animals lived in the regions ice and snow; yet it is in those regions of extreme cold, on where their remains are now found," than by showing the the utmost verge of the now habitable world, that the bones impossibility of their finding the necessary food, which the of elephants are found, occasionally crowded together in heaps, professor not only perceived, but very candidly admitted.* along the shores of the icy sea, from Archangel to Behring's But the above reasoning of Dr. Buckland must appear the Straits, FORMING WHOLE ISLANDS, COMPOSED OF BONES AND more remarkable, from his having, in a subsequent part of MUD, at the mouth of the Lena, and ENCASED IN ICE,* from the Reliquiæ Diluvianæ, and in the course of most ably provwhich they are melted out by the solar heat of the short sum-ing the inundation of high levels, fully admitted the principle mer, along the coasts of Tungusia, in sufficient numbers to of transportation, or drifting of animal remains, as the only form an important article of commerce."-Reliq. Diluv. p. 46. possible means of accounting for the fossil bones found in In concluding this fundamental part of his subject, on the high elevations of Asia and America, and in the avalanches which, indeed, Dr. Buckland had before admitted that his from the regions of perpetual snow. "With regard to the whole theory entirely depended, he proceeds: "Between bones of animals," says he, "that perished by this great inthese two conflicting opinions," (viz. either that of Cuvier, undation, although they have not yet been discovered in the that the animals had a constitution fitted to a colder climate; high Alpine gravel beds of Europe, (which is but a negative or that of other philosophers, who supposed the climates, fact,) we have, in America, the bones of the mastodon, at an now so inclement, to have been formerly warm, and the elevation of 7800 feet above the sea, in the Champ des Géants, change to have suddenly taken place by an alteration in the near Santa Fe de Bogota; and another species of the same inclination of the earth's axis, or by the near aproach of a genus in the Cordilleras, found by Humboldt at an elevation comet;†) between these two conflicting opinions, we are of 7200 feet, near the volcano of Imbarbura, in the kingdom compelled," says Dr. Buckland, "to make our choice; there of Quito. If the animal remains of this era have not yet been secms to be no third or intermediate state with which both discovered at such heights as these, in Europe, let it be may be compatible. It is not, however, my purpose to dis-recollected, that we have no elevated mountain plains like cuss the difficulties that will occur on both sides, till the further those in America; that our highest mountains are but narrow progress of geological science shall have afforded us more peaks, and ridges of small extent, when compared with the ample information, as to the structure of our globe; and have low country that surrounds them; and that if it were proved supplied those data, without which all opinions that can be (which it is not) that the animals inhabited these highest advanced on the subject must be premature, and amount to no points, it is more than probable that their carcases would more than plausible conjectures. AT PRESENT, I AM CON- have been drifted off, as the greater mass of their gravel has CERNED ONLY TO ESTABLISH TWO IMPORTANT FACTS; first, that been, into the lower levels of the adjacent country. there has been a recent and general inundation of the globe; "But in central Asia, the bones of horses and of deer have and, secondly, that the animals, found in the wreck of that been found at an elevation of 16,000 feet above the sea, in the inundation, were natives of high northern latitudes, and not Hymalaya mountains. The bones, I am now speaking of,

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In order to trace such islands of bones and mud encased in ice, "Though the soil of the whole of that remote country (Spitzto their true origin, we have only to imagine the same kind of scene bergen) does not produce vegetables suitable or sufficient for the as we have just been contemplating on the coasts of Norfolk. And nourishment of a single human being, yet its coasts and seas have in order to disprove so obvious a cause, or to show that such effects afforded riches and independence to thousands." are produced in the common course of things, as some have sup- "The only plant I met with in Spitzbergen, partaking of the naposed, it must be shown in what part of the world such deposits ever ture of a tree, (a salix, allied to the S. herbacea,) grows but to the now take place, and by what possible event the destruction of so height of three or four inches."-Scoresby's Arctic Regions. prodigious a number of elephants, and other large quadrupeds, + Dr. Buckland has given an interesting note from Gilbert's Ancould, at any one time, have been effected: for it must be evident, nalen, 1821, in which a discovery by Lieutenant Kotzebue is described that, had the mud cliffs of Norfolk been formed in the polar regions, as follows: "On the western part of the gulf, to the north of we must have had the natural addition of ice, wherever they are now Behring's Straits, a mountain was discovered covered with verdure, saturated with water. (moss and grass,) composed interiorly of solid ice. On arriving at a

It was a part of the theory of La Place, in his Systeme du Monde, place where the shore rises almost perpendicularly from the sea to that the stroke of a passing comet was the most probable cause of the height of 100 feet, and continues afterwards to extend with a the Mosaic deluge. But, at the same time, he endeavours to allay gradual inclination, they observed masses of the purest ice 100 feet those fears which were then, as now, so common, of a repetition of high, preserved under the above vegetable carpet. The soil is only so dreadful an accident, upon the principle of the improbability of about half a foot thick, and is composed of a mixture of clay, earth, such a chance, in so wide a space as the heavenly bodies have to move and mould.

in. How strange it is to find so great a mind incapable of appre- The portion of the cliff exposed to the sun was melting, and sendciating the provident wisdom of an Almighty Creator, and conceiving much water into the sea. An undoubted proof of this ice being ing that such supposed events were left to the guidance of chance! primitive (i. e. not formed by any causes now in action) is afforded

are at the Royal College of Surgeons in London, and were travels of that indefatigable sportsman, M. Le Vaillant, in that sent home last year (1822,) to Sir Everard Home, by cap- very part of Africa; but from his silence, and that of other tain W. S. Webb, who procured them from the Chinese naturalists, on this alleged habit of hyænas of amassing, from Tartars of Daba; who assured him that they were found in the age to age, the broken remains of the very food they are said north face of the snowy ridge of Kylas, in latitude 32 degrees, to be most fond of, we have the greatest reason to doubt that at a spot which captain Webb calculates to be not less than such a thing ever occurs. Both the elephant and rhinoceros 16,000 feet high: they are only obtained from masses that are described by that author as swimming well, and being fall with the avalanches, from the regions of perpetual snow, exceedingly fond of the water; rolling themselves in swamps and are, therefore, said by the natives to have fallen from the for the purpose of defending their bodies from the flies by a clouds, and to be the bones of genii."* thick coating of mud; and feeding on branches of trees torn

"The occurrence of these bones, at such an enormous eleva- from a height which no other animal can reach. But it seems tion, in the regions of eternal snow, and, consequently, in a unnecessary to search further into the difficulties and contraspot now unfrequented by such animals as the horse and the dictions in which we become involved by adopting the theory deer, can, I think, be explained only by supposing them to be of Dr. Buckland, on this highly important subject. of antediluvian origin, and that the carcasses of the animals The following observations on the natural history of the were drifted to their present place, and lodged in sand by the Asiatic elephant may be found both amusing and instructive, diluvial waters."t while we are considering the nature and habits of that race of "This appears to me the most probable solution that can animals. They are taken from that most amusing work, "The be suggested; and should it prove the true one, it will add a Wild sports of the East," by Captain Williamson; and still more decisive fact to those of the granite blocks, drifted though the general tenor of that and of similar writings, may, from the heights of Mont Blanc to the Jura, and the bones of by some, be deemed frivolous, and uncongenial to the purdiluvial animals, found by Humboldt, on the elevated plains suits of the man of science and the philosopher, yet it must of South America, to show that all the high hills, and the be kept in mind that, however the information obtained from mountains under the whole heavens, were covered,' at the such sources may be digested in the closet, it is from the time when the last great physical change took place, over the tented field, with the sportsman and the native savage, that surface of the whole earth."-Reliquiæ Diluvianæ, p. 222. our first knowledge of these noble animals of tropical climates Now, it must be considered not a little singular, that this must originally be derived; and it may be, with justice, asdistinguished writer should at once admit the drifting of ani-serted of the beautiful work in question, that if all sportsmen mal remains into the regions of perpetual snow, occasioned by in foreign countries could convey the results of their exhiliraelevation in the atmosphere; and, at the same time, deny the ting pursuits, with the same intelligence and judgment, we same mode of transport to those found in such abundance in should soon have a fund of most instructive information upon the equally unnatural regions of eternal ice, occasioned by many points in natural history, of which we have yet much to their polar elevation. It must be evident, that the two cases learn.

are perfectly similar. For, in order to elevate those fossil Captain Williamson's account of a perfect elephant is as bodies, found in the mountains of Asia, they must have float-follows:

ed on the surface of the waters; and, in order to effect the "An elephant should have an arched back, a broad barrel, transport of such bodies to high latitudes, there was only re- the hind quarters full and square, the hind legs short and quired that power of currents, which may be (and, I trust, firm, the toe nails thick and black; and, to please a native, has been,) proved to exist at all times over the whole surface there should be five on each forefoot, and four on each hind of the ocean. But this is only one of the many difficulties and foot;-odd numbers are considered by them unlucky. I have contradictions which must occur in the course of supporting known some with 15 nails, which no one would purchase; a theory so wide of the truth. One difficulty, for example, and I have heard of one with 20; but never saw one with would be removed, with regard to the cave of Kirkdale, and more than 18. The tail should be long, very thick at the other similar caves, in many parts of Europe, if we could hear, insertion, and tapering well towards the end, where it should from the Cape, of any one instance of a hyæna's den, furnished be well furnished on each side with a row of single hairs, in the same remarkable manner as the cave of Kirkdale in or rather bristles, for about a foot, forming a fork at the end, Yorkshire; and there, surely, could be no great difficulty in and resembling the feathers or wings of an arrow. This doing this in our own colony at the Cape, "in the immediate circumstance respecting the tail is considered by the natives neighbourhood of which the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopota- perfectly indispensable; for a short tail, or a broken one, or mus, and hyæna, are now associated, and live and die together, a want of hair at the termination, are formidable objections. as they formerly did in Antediluvian Yorkshire." We have many anecdotes and amusing accounts of all these animals, in the

No man of consequence would be seen on an elephant whose tail was devoid of hair; and particularly if broken short, as is frequently the case. This latter deficiency is owing to by the tail, with their trunks, and twisting them off somea habit elephants have, in a wild state, of seizing each other times very close to the croup. Even servants of inferior

by the great number of bones and teeth of mammoths, which make their appearance when it is melted."-Reliq. Diluv. p. 46. *I have had much pleasure and the highest interest in the examination of these bones; they appear decidedly to have been embedded degree are averse to ride on an elephant so blemished. in lime-stone rock, of a gray colour; they are much broken, though The chest should be wide and full, the fore legs muscular not taken from a hyæna's den, and the hollows of some are filled and well turned; the forehead broad, and ornamented between with the most beautiful crystals. In others, these crystals have filled the eyes, with a protuberance gracefully harmonizing with up the whole cavity with pure gypsum, of the whitest colour. It the surrounding parts. The top of the head should be seems, then, probable, that the masses of rock in which they were embedded at the deluge, were torn from their lofty situations by the thickly set with hair, carried high and square; the trunk avalanches, as in our European Alpine heights: the bones are not thin, and very elastic; the teeth of males should be exactly easily assigned to their proper species, but one is evidently that of alike, thick and long; they should diverge from each other, so as to be rather more distant at the tips, than at the inser

the horse.

the mastodon,

+ Mr. Temple, in his light and amusing sketches of Peru, de- tion; and with a graceful curve. The ears should be large, scribes some fossil bones found in the province of Tarija. They and free from raggedness at the edges; the cheeks full; and, proved to be those of an animal of the elephant tribe, and probably above all things, the eyes clear of specks and rheum.” He says, "It is a subject of interest to inquire how these monstrous An elephant, having all these rare perfections, and from animals came into the valley of Tarija, surrounded, as it is, by a nine to ten feet high, is worth 8 or 10,000 rupees, or upmountainous rampart, accessible, as I have been credibly informed, wards of £1000.

in only four places, and those with great difficulty, even to mules and "Elephants are generally black; but few of them entirely horses. Over three of those places, the most frequented and most so; many are sprinkled over the ears, trunk, jowl, shoulders, convenient in the whole rocky barrier, I have myself travelled, and and legs, with dun coloured spots, which are far from discertainly I do not think it possible that any elephant could have there passed."-Travels in Peru, vol. ii. pleasing. The Nabob Vizier had one, which was called 295. p. A collection of the fossil bones of quadrupeds has lately been dis- white; but it was really dun. It was unique in Bengal; but covered in a lime-stone cave in Wellington Valley, in New Holland. I have been informed that in Ceylon they are by no means One of the bones was submitted to the inspection of the late Baron rare." Cuvier, who ascertained that it was the thigh bone of a young elephant. We thus find that this new continent forms no exception to near the sea coast, whence they retire into the immense jun"In some years, very few wild elephants can be found that general rule which is applicable to the other great continents of the earth; and that, though elephants have not yet been found there gles which lie between Chittagong, and the Chinese fronin a living state, their fossil remains bear testimony to the same tier. At other times, the coasts are overrun with them, to transporting powers, which are so distinctly traced in our own more the utter ruin of the peasants, whose crops and plantations are often destroyed in the course of one night. This gene

northern latitudes.

rally happens in a dry season, when want of water, and of We may now shortly pass under review the opinions of the succulent herbage, in the interior, causes the herds to descend late Baron Cuvier, on the subject of fossil remains. This to the ever verdant plains bordering the sea, where the diur-able philosopher has long been considered the head of the nal breezes inspire fresh vigour." scientific world on the continent; and his indefatigable re"Nature has wisely proportioned her animal to her vege- search, and wonderful anatomical knowledge, have given him table productions. Thus we find the districts furnishing the highest claims to our esteem and regard in many branches elephants, replenished with immense tracks of high grass, of geological research. We have already found, however, and abounding in lakes and streams; without such ample that his theories of the earth, and of the numerous revolutions stores, such stupendous animals as the elephant must perish. to which he supposed it had been subjected, were not founded For, exclusive of the large quantity of grass, &c. which an on what history teaches, or physical facts bear witness to; elephant daily consumes, his broad feet will destroy immense and, therefore, we cannot be surprised, if we find, on the subqantities. Ás to his thirst, which requires both frequent ject of fossil remains, some portion of that contradiction and and copious libations, the ordinary puddles, such as furnish inconsistency which must always attend a departure, howa supply for cattle, would by no means answer. The elephant, ever well meant and unintentional, from the direct and simple like the buffaloe, DELIGHTS IN WALLOWING, and never thrives path of truth.

so well, as when he is allowed to visit a rapid stream, there On the subject of the fossil elephant, as published in his to exercise himself in swimming, as well as to lie immersed" Ossemens Fossiles," vol. i. p. 199, &c. Cuvier designates it in the water." "The Mammoth of the Russians, (Elephas primigenius, "Chittagong elephants, growing to a much larger size Blum.) or elephant with prolonged cranium, concave forethan those to the North, or Nepaul district, and being of a head, very deep sockets for the tusks; lower jaw obtuse; more substantial form, are peculiarly valuable to those who grinders very large, parallel, and marked with narrow stripes. catch elephants with the slip knot, or phaun. The only ob- "The bones of this animal are only found in a fossil state : jection is, their want of speed. They are more healthy after they are in great numbers in many countries, but better prebeing seasoned to the climate of the Nepaul country, while the served in the north than elsewhere. It resembled the Indian native elephants of that northern climate are extremely defi- rather than the African species. It differed, however, from cient, not only in the three grand points, viz. stature, strength the former in the grinders, in the form of the lower jaw, and and beauty, but in constitution also. Hence they are of in many other bones, but especially in the length of the sockmuch less value than those of Chittagong, Tipperah, and ets for the tusks. This latter character must have modified, Silhet."* in a remarkable manner, the form and organization of the

"The Ceylon breed far exceeds that of the continent; and trunk, and have given him an appearance much more dissimit becomes a curious and interesting question whence Ceylon ilar to the Asiatic elephant, than could be expected from the was first furnished with elephants, there being none on the general resemblance of the rest of the bones. It appears opposite shores, nor to be found in all the great peninsula, that his tusks were generally large, often more or less from the west bank of the Ganges to the Persian Gulf! bent in a spiral form, and pointing outwards. His size was Besides, the generality of the Ceylon elephants are of a not much greater than that which the Asiatic race sometimes brown, or dun colour." attains; and he appears to have had, in general, a more thick We cannot determine what was the size of "Elephants are natives of a wet soil, and, in the wild and solid form. state, feed on very watery aliments. They also take great his ears, nor the colour of his skin, but it is certain, that at delight in ranging among swamps.' least some of the species had two sorts of hair; viz. a reddish They rarely exceed nine feet in height. The tallest ever wool, coarse and bushy, with stiff black hairs, which, upon found in Bengal, was the Paugul, or mad elephant, (about the neck, and along the back, were pretty long, and formed a 1780). It was nearly 12 feet high; but the medium size is sort of mane. from seven to eight feet."

"Thus, there is not only nothing impossible in his having There is no definite mark by which the age of the ele-been able to support a degree of cold, in which the Asiatic phant can be known. We can only judge by his general race would die; but it is even probable, that he was so constituted, as to prefer cold climates. His bones are usually appearance. While we are thus instructed, by this active and intelli- found in the upper alluvial beds of the earth; aud most comgent sportsman, on the subject of the elephant in its wild monly in those which fill the hollows of valleys, or which form state, I shall here also extract the few particulars he was the beds of rivers. enabled to give, on the subject of the haunts of the rhino- "They are scarcely ever alone, but pêlemêle, together with ceros, an animal whose remains are also now found in a fossil the bones of other quadrupeds of known kinds, as rhinoceros, state in the northern and temperate regions, and frequently ox, antelope, horse, and frequently with the remains of main the same situations, though never in the same abundance as rine animals, such as shells, &c., some of which are even those of the elephant. We shall find that this wild and fixed upon them.

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very mischievous and savage animal is equally a native of "The positive testimony of Pallas, of Fortis, and of others, the hottest and most wooded countries; and we, therefore, admits not of a doubt with respect to this latter circumstance, come to the same conclusion with regard to it, that we have although it is not invariable. I have now, myself, under my reached with regard to the various races of elephants, viz. eye, a portion of a jaw, loaded with millepores, and with small that it never could have been the inhabitant of a very cold oysters.* elimate. "The bones of elephants are rarely petrified; and we know "The rhinoceros is an animal whose natural history is of but one or two instances in which they are embedded in very imperfectly known. He resides in impervious jungles shell limestone or other rock." (Such instances are as good and swamps; he is seldom to be found on the west of the as thousands, for the purpose of showing how they become Ganges, though the jungles there are fully competent to thus embedded.)

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afford abundant shelter; nor, indeed, has an elephant ever "Every thing, then, announces, that the cause of their desbeen seen in a wild state, but to the east of that noble stream. truction was one of the most recent of those events which It would seem that these animals are partial to the immense have contributed to change the surface of the globe. It was, That cause was an tracts of the surput, or tassel grass, which skirts the vast however, a physical and general cause. jungles bordering our possessions on that side; and which, aqueous agent. being composed of lofty forests of saul and sissoo trees, "But it was not these waters which transported them to the filled up with various sorts of underwood, offer an asylum to places where they now are. An irruption of the sea, which the ferine species, such as cannot be equalled in any part of would only have brought them from where the Indian eleEurope, and can be compared only with the prodigious phants now inhabit, could not have spread them to such a wilds of the American interior." distance, nor dispersed them so equally."

The rhinoceros is never seen in herds, nor often even in It would appear from this remark of Cuvier, that he had pairs. He may, therefore, be properly termed, like the largest no belief in the general and total immersion of the whole dry wild boars, and the oldest chamois, a solitaire.

*In the splendid collection of fossils of Dr. Buckland, at Oxford,

Here we have it distinctly shown, that, even within the tropics, there is a highly interesting specimen of one of the crocodile tribe, the elephant is in his most natural climate, in the hottest parts; and obtained from the quarry at Shotover, near that city, and several if the constitution of the animal, in its wild state, cannot be fully hundred feet above the level of the sea; on one of the bones of sustained in regions of the most luxuriant vegetation, but subject to which there is a large oyster attached; and also two beautiful and occasional slight frosts, how are we to suppose, for a moment, that perfect specimens of the ammonite, with the shell entire, and seemelephants could have lived in the temperate or frozen regions of the ingly fixed to the bone by suction, as a snail adheres to a stone or earth? plant.