SOME INDIAN MONSTERS. 



169 



from each other> namely, the giraffe and the antelope. Its teeth 

 resemble those of the former animal, while in its four horns it 

 resembles a certain antelope (Antilope quadricornis). The head 

 in certain respects shows resemblances to that of the ox, but the 

 upper lip must have been prolonged into a short proboscis, or 

 trunk, like that of the tapir. The form and proportions of the 

 jaw agree closely with the corresponding parts of a buffalo. But 

 no known ruminant, fossil or existing, has a jaw of such large 



A-^. 



Fig. 47. — Skeleton ol Sivatheriuni giganteum. 



size, the average dimensions being more than double those of a 

 buffalo. The skull is the best known part of the animal, but 

 Captain Cautley came across some of the bones of the limbs. 



The Colossochelys atlas,^ or gigantic fossil tortoise of India, 

 supplies a fit representative of the tortoise which sustained the 

 elephant and the infant world in the fables of the Pythagorean 

 and Hindoo cosmogonies. It is highly interesting to trace back 

 to its probable source a matter of belief like this, so widely con- 



* Greek, Colossos, Colossus, and c/ielus, tortoise. Atlas was supposed to 

 sustain the world on his shoulders. 



