IN THE LOWER ANIMALS, ETC. 325 



ice melting, he discovered in the following summer 

 that it was the frozen carcass of an enormous 

 animal, which at length became entirely disen- 

 gaged, and fell down from the ice-crag upon a 

 sand-bank. The fisherman carried away and sold 

 the tusks, and more than thirty pounds' weight of 

 the hair and bristles were collected. The head 

 was still covered by the skin ; the pupil of the 

 eye was distinguishable, and the brain remained 

 within the skull ; while a long shaggy mane hung 

 from the neck. But the most striking feature in 

 the accoTmt is the fact, that the fishermen in the 

 neighbourhood carried away large quantities of 

 this elephant's flesh to feed their dogs, probably 

 the only instance on record in which the remains 

 of an animal, extinct long anterior to the creation 

 of man, have been thiis preserved unchanged 

 through so vast a period of time, as to be applied 

 to the sustenance of other animals, contemporary 

 with ourselves. 



The rodents next claim our consideration, — an 

 order of animals remarkable for the great develop- 

 ment of the pair of incisor teeth in each jaw, which 

 are separated from the molars by a wide space, 

 the canines being always absent. (Fig. 50.) 

 These teeth are hardly adapted for cutting through 

 flesh or other aliments, but rather for reducing 

 them by continual labour into fine particles, — in 

 fact, for gnawing; hence the term rodents, or 

 gnawers. With these weapons they attack the 



