CERTAIN BONES, Sec. 257 



the torrid zone as the ultimate ftage of their exiftence. 

 To fupport this theory, he * afTumes the tufks of the 

 mammoth to have been thofe of an elephant, fome of his 

 teeth to have belonged to the hippopotamus, and his 

 largeft grinders to an animal much greater than either, 

 and to have been dtpofited on the MilTouri, the Ohio, 

 the Holfton, when thofe latitudes were not yet too cold 

 for the conftitutions of thefe animals. Should the bones 

 of our animal, which may hereafter be found, differ only 

 in fize from thofe of the lion, they may on this hypo- 

 thefis be claimed for the lion, now alfo reduced to the 

 torrid zone, and its vicinities, and may be confidered as 

 an additional proof of this fyftem ; and that there has 

 been a time when our latitudes fuited the lion as well as 

 the other animals of that temperament. This is not the 

 place to difcufs theories of the earth, nor to queftion the 

 gratuitous allotment to different animals of teeth not dif- 

 fering in any circumftance. But let us for a moment 

 grant this with his former poftulata, and afk how they 

 will confift with another theory of his " qu'il y a dans 

 la combinaifon des elemens et des autres caules phyfiques, 

 quelque chofe de contraire a I'aggrandifement de la na- 

 ture vivante da^u ce ?iouveau monde ; qu'il y a des obfl:a- 

 cles au developpement et peutcjre a la formation des 

 grands germes -j-." He fays that the mammoth was an 

 elephant, yet | two or three times as large as the ele- 

 phants of Afia and Africa : that fome of his teeth were 

 thofe of a hippopotamus, yet of a hippopotamus § four 

 times as large as thofe of Africa : that the mammoth 

 himfelf, for he flill confiders him as a diftindl animal, || 

 " was of a fize fuperior to that of the largeft elephants. 

 That he was the primary and grcatefl of all terreflrial 



■ Baffon, Epoq. 2. 233, 234. f BuiFon, xviii. 14J. i 2. Epoq. 223, 



<i I. Epoq. 246. 2. Epoq. 232, II 2. Epoq. 254, 235. 



animnls." 



