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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



imagine. How well fitted they are to 

 the animars size and habits and how 

 dexterously and intelligently he makes 

 use of them is well known. 



The gradual evolution of these struc- 

 tures from small and primitive begin- 

 ings through many successive stages is 

 illustrated in Dr. Kunz's account by 

 the records and pictures of numerous 

 fossil discoveries. Most of these are of 

 recent years, and perhaps one reason 

 why an extended monograph upon the 

 evolution of the Proboscidea has not 

 yet appeared is the rapid succession of 

 these discoveries and the belief of 

 palaeontologists that we are upon the 

 verge of new finds of importance that 

 will settle some of the doubtful problems. 



Bones of fossil elephants, on account 

 of their size, were indeed noticed and 

 mentioned by ancient writers. But 

 they were thought to belong to " giants." 

 This idea was not so absurd as it might 

 seem. Probably very few of the finders 

 had ever heard of an elephant, much 

 less seen one. The long straight limb 

 bones, the short wide vertebrae, espe- 

 cially of the neck, even perhaps the deep 

 rounded jaws and the round high- 

 vaulted skull, if these happened to be 

 noticed, would seem to the mediaeval 

 mind, lacking our modern book knowl- 

 edge but steeped in folk lore and pagan 

 myths, to be exactly what the bones of 

 giants or of ancient heroes of the north 

 would be like. Picture to yourself, if 

 you will, the laborers excavating for the 

 foundations of some ancient castle or 

 cathedral and coming across a buried 

 mammoth skeleton deep beneath the 

 surface. Most of the bones would 

 crumble to dust, but several perhaps 

 would hold together enough to enable 

 them to be uncovered and some could 

 be taken out more or less broken. 

 Among them most probably would be 

 ribs, one or two limb bones, a few centra 



of vertebrae, some pieces of the jaws. 

 The teeth would almost surely go to 

 pieces. The rounded surface of the 

 skull might be exposed, but in attempting 

 to lift it it would surely crumble into 

 small fragments. Parts of the broad 

 basin-like pelvis might be noticed, or of 

 the wide short shoulder blade. All that 

 workmen or interested visitors could 

 see would be quite unlike any skeletons 

 of horses or cattle or of any other 

 quadrupeds that they knew about. 

 Certainly therefore these bones couldn't 

 belong to animals. But giants — every- 

 body knew about giants. They were 

 anywhere between twelve and thirty 

 feet tall and enormously robust and 

 powerful. Naturally their skeleton 

 bones would be massive in proportion. 

 The sexton, who has often dug up bones 

 in the old churchyard, assures us that 

 these are like them save for size and 

 thickness. Father Roger, who has come 

 down from the Abbey to look at the find, 

 is greatly interested, and tells us about 

 the giants of the Bible and how they 

 were destroyed by the flood. Next 

 Sunday he will preach about them. 

 But old Walter, the gleeman, has another 

 theory just as pat, and can recite no end 

 of rhymes and tales about giants who 

 lived right "round hereabouts" and not 

 somewhere off in the Holy Land. 



So we may imagine such a find talked 

 about and disputed, and finally crys- 

 tallizing into a legend current for years 

 among the people roundabout, pre- 

 served perhaps by some casual reference 

 in a book of sermons or a local chronicle, 

 but chiefly serving to revive and con- 

 firm belief in the "giants of aforetime." 

 They were no fools, these folk of the 

 Middle Ages. They had plenty of 

 shrewd native wit and observation. 

 They could tell a hawk from a hern- 

 shawjustas well as you or I. But what 

 else would you expect them to conclude 



