On some Quadrupeds supposed to be extinct. 355 



leacht wag erected, and on his tomb was inscribed his name in 

 the Ogham character*." 



We here find that the native sovereign of the northern part 

 of Ireland resided in Meath, the borders of which county are 

 not many miles from the place where the elephant was found. 

 It was at about the year of the battle of Caonry that Maxi- 

 mus, the emperor in Britain, aspired to be master of the 

 Roman empire. Finding the union of the Scots and Picts 

 prevented his peaceable possession of Britain, which was a 

 great obstacle to the execution of his project, he persuaded 

 the Picts to join their forces to his, on the promise of giving 

 them the lands of the Scots. The Scots were thus over- 

 powered, and were forced to fly to Ireland and the adjacent isles. 

 The Scots, being assisted by the Irish, invaded the north, and 

 were driven back to Ireland by Maximus, at the head of his 

 troops. The emperor threatened to invade Ireland, and punish 

 the Irish ; but the dread they had of the presence of a Roman 

 army, induced them to grant Maximus his own terms, which, 

 in order to conciliate all parties, were moderate f . Now it is 

 by no means impossible that the British emperor, on this con- 

 ciliating occasion, sent this very elephant to his Irish majesty. 

 Tacitus observes, that Agricola (three centuries before Maxi- 

 mus) received an expelled petty king of Ireland into his pro- 

 tection ; that in manners the natives vary little from the 

 Britons ; and that the ports and landings of Ireland are better 

 known, through the frequency of commerce and merchants, 

 than those of Britain J. 



The Mastodon. 



This quadruped is now known not to differ from the elephant, 

 except in the form of the grinders, and has probably been 

 called by the name of elephant by the Romans. Remains of 

 the mastodon have been found mixed with those of the ele- 

 phant, in Europe, Siberia, and America ; and for the following 



* Essay on the Antiquity of the Irish Language, by Lieut. Col. Val- 

 lancey, 8vo., London, 1818, p. 12. 



t See Gibbon, ch. xxvii., Zosimus, b. iv., Rapin, b. i., Wars and 

 Sports, ch. xiii. 



:p Life of Agricol£^, 



