426 Scientific Intelligence — Zoology. 



tions similar to those where a hoat was found. These historical facts 

 have led some authors to believe that this gigantic stag was the same 

 as the stag of Ireland, which disappeared in the twelfth century, and of 

 which ancient authors speak, being the same as the Scg of the ancient 

 Britons, and the Eurycerus of Appianus. A magnificent antler of 

 the gigantic stag of Bohemia, which the author has seen in the Im- 

 perial Museum of Vienna, and on which are engraved a ^qw words 

 in old Slavonian letters, indicate the origin of this animal ; and the 

 exploits of the chase related in ancient heroic poetry, justify the be- 

 lief that the gigantic stag was then known. This animal was pro- 

 bably the schelch which the poems in question inform us was hunted 

 along with elks, aurochs, &c. It is, therefore, very probable, that 

 being an object of chase, the gigantic stag disappeared from Europe 

 two or three centuries ago, as the elk has disappeared from Italy, 

 France, and Germany, and as the Bos primigenius and aurochs have 

 so diminished that they are no longer found, save in the great forest 

 of Bialowesha (in the government of Grodno), where, to prevent their 

 total destruction, immense provision of hay is made for them every 

 winter. 



All these animals which were hunted in Germany probably lived, 

 in former times, along with the mammoth and rhinoceros, since we 

 find their bones intermingled in the same diluvian deposits. These 

 latter appear to have perished first, and the others, especially the 

 Bos primigenius and the gigantic stag, to have long survived them. 

 Ferocious animals, such as hasynas, lions, and bears, may have been 

 destroyed before them, in consequence of the interest man had in 

 preserving himself from their devastations, before they thought of driv- 

 ing away less hurtful animals. The last lion lived in Greece in the 

 time of Aristotle, near the rivers Acheloiis and Nestus. Pliny like- 

 wise mentions this animal as inhabiting Thrace and Macedonia. 



Analogous occurrences appear to have taken place in America, for 

 it is probable that the mastodon lived in historical times ; and, just as 

 the gigantic stag survived the mammoth, it appears that the masto- 

 don survived the latter. This is demonstrated by the discovery of a 

 complete skeleton of the Mastodon or Missourium giganteum in the 

 valley of the Mississippi. The point of an arrow made of flint was still 

 under the right hip of the animal, a circumstance which completes 

 the evidence that these gigantic animals lived at the same time as 

 man. 



It is useless to insist here on the confirmation which these facts 

 furnish to the opinion we have elsewhere advanced {Traite Elem. de 

 Paleontologie, tom. i. note A.) on the connection which exists between 

 the diluvian and the modern epoch. These two epochs ought not 

 perhaps to be distinguished ; and they are certainly not separated by 

 a destruction of species at the end of the first, and by a new appear- 

 ance at the commencement of the second. It is very probable that 

 all the existing species date from the origin of the diluvian epoch ; 



