2 so On the discovery of 



dule cf tlicir meaf^.ire, it would give us a being out of 

 the limits of nature. It is fortunate therefore that we 

 have fonie of the larger bones of the limbs which may 

 lurnifli a more certain eftimate of his llature. Let us 

 fuppofe then that his dimenfions of height, length and 

 thicknefs, and of the principal members compofmg thefe, 

 were ot the fame proportions with thole of the lion. In 

 the table of M. Daubenton an ulna of 13.78 inches be- 

 longed to a lion 4.2-i inches high over the fhouldei-s : then 

 an ulna of 20.1 inches befpeaks a megalonyx of 5 feet 

 1.75 inches height, and as animals who have the fan:e 

 proportions of height, length, and thicknefs have their 

 bulk or w^eights proportioned to the cubes* of any one 

 of their dimenfions, the cube of 4^.5 inches is to 262 lb. 

 the height and weight of M. Daubenton's lion as the 

 cube of 61.75 inches to 803 lb. the height and weight of 

 the magalonyx ; which would prove him a little more 

 than three times the fize of the lion. I fuppofe that we 

 Ihould be fafe in conlidering, on the authority of M. 

 Daubenton, his lion as a large one. But let it pafs as 

 one only of the ordinary fize, and that the meo^alonyx 

 whofe bones happen to have been found was alio of the 

 ordinary iize. It does f appear that there was diffedted 

 for the academy of fciences at Paris, a lion of 4 feet 

 9|- inches height. This individual would weigh 644 lb. 

 and would be in his fpecies, what a man of eight feet 

 height would be in ours. Such men have exifted. A 

 megalonyx equally monflrous would be 7 feet high, and 

 would weigh 2000 lb. but the ordinary race, and not the 

 monfters of it, are the objedl of our prefent enquiry. 



I have ufed the height alone of this animal to deduce 

 his bulk, on the fuppolition that he might have been 

 formed in the proportions of the lion. But thcfe were 



* BulTon xxii. 121. f BufFon xvlii. 15. 



not 



