198 EXTINCT MONSTERS. 



Near the city of Constadt, in the year 1700, a great quantity of 

 bones and tusks of elephants were discovered, after excavations 

 had been made by order of the reigning duke, who had been 

 informed by a soldier of Wiirtemberg of the presence of bones in 

 the soil. In this way some sixty tusks were unearthed. The 

 whole ones were preserved, but those which were broken were 

 given to the Court physician, who made use of them for medicinal 

 purposes. After this the " Ebur fossile," or " Unicornu fossile," 

 was freely used by the German doctors, until the discovery of the 

 bone-caves of the Hartz, when it became too abundant to pass 

 for true unicorn, and consequently lost much of its repute. 



In our own country elephantine remains have also given rise to 

 strange tales. The village of Walton, near Harwich, is famous 

 for the abundance of Mammoth remains, which lie along the base 

 of the sea-cliffs, mixed with the bones of horses, oxen, and deer. 

 " The more bulky of these fossils," says Professor Owen, " appear 

 to have early attracted the notice of the curious. Lambard, in 

 his Dictio7iary, says that ' in Queen Elizabeth's time bones were 

 found, at Walton, of a man whose skull would contain five pecks, 

 and one of his teeth as big as a man's fist, and weighed ten 

 ounces. These bones had sometimes bodies, not of beasts, but 

 of men, for the difference is manifest.' " 



According to the same authority, there is reason to believe 

 that instances have occurred in Great Britain in which, with due 

 care and attention, a more or less entire skeleton of the Mammotli 

 might have been secured. He mentions the case of the discovery 

 of a number of Mammoth bones by some workmen in a brick- 

 ground, near the village of Grays, in Essex. But most unfor- 

 tunately, in their ignorance, they broke up these valuable relics, 

 and sold the fragments, for three half-pence a pound, to a dealer 

 in old bones ! This somewhat lucrative traffic went on for over 

 half a year before the matter came to the notice of Mr. R. Ball, 

 F.G.S., who recovered some fine bones from the men, and thus 

 rescued them from the destruction that awaited them. 



