38 Mr. Henry Walker's Lecture : 



II. 



THE MAMMOTH AND HIS COMPANIONS AT 



HOME. 



" Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more." 



Macbeth, Act I., Scene iii. 



The curious and heterogeneous assemblage of fossil 

 animals found lying together in one common grave in the 

 Valley of the Eoding at Ilford might well perplex and 

 bewilder the beholder. Here on the slope of a little 

 tributary to the Thames, within sight of tall chimney- 

 stacks and railways, and within sound of the roar of the 

 million-peopled city, lie side by side the strangely-mingled 

 remains of wild, uncouth creatures of other climates and 

 unknown times. Some of them evidently belong to an 

 obsolete world. Year by year the number has been 

 enriched by fresh discoveries, and even now the mysterious 

 collection may be incomplete. 



But it is time we turned our attention to the problems 

 these remains suggest. How shall we begin the enquiries 

 they force upon us ? We shall do well in the first place to 

 look a Httle more closely at the list of the animals them- 

 selves, and see into what groups they may possibly be 

 resolved. The following are the species which have so far 

 been identified and named by our palaeontologists : — 



Mammotli, or Great Hairy Elephant . . Elephas primigenius. 



Soutliem Elephant (straiglit-tusked) . . Elephas antiquus. 



Rliinoceros (fleece-clad, two-horned, 



stout-limbed).. .. .. .. Rhinoceros tichorhinus. 



Rhinoceros (small-nosed, one-horned, 



slender-limbed) . . . . . . Rhinoceros leptorhinus. 



Rhinoceros (big-nosed, two-horned, 



slender-limbed) . . . . . . Rhinoceros megarhinus. 



Great Hippopotamus . . . . . . Hippopotamxis major. 



Wild Horse . . . . . . . . Equus caballus. 



Irish Elk . . . . . . . . . . Megaceros Hibernicus. 



Stag . . . . . . . . . . . . Cervus elaphus. 



Roe . . . . . . . . , , . . Cervus capreolus. 



