456 PETRIFACTIONS AND THEIR TEACHINGS. CHAP. V. 



underlie the peat-bogs, which are apparently, like those of Scotland, the 

 sites of ancient lakes or bays. In Curragh great quantities of these 

 bones were found within a small area ; the skeletons appeared to be 

 entire, the skull was elevated, and the antlers were thrown back on the 

 shoulders, as if a herd of these Elks had sought refuge in the marshes, 

 and been engulfed in the morass. 



This creature far exceeded in magnitude any living Elk or Deer. 

 The skeleton of the largest individual is upwards of ten feet in height 

 to the top of the skull, and the antlers are from nine to fourteen feet 

 from one extremity to the other. The perfect skeleton before us renders 

 a particular description unnecessary. The bones are generally well 

 preserved, of a dark brown colour, with patches of blue phosphate of 

 iron. In some instances they are in so fresh a condition, that the 

 hollows of the long bones contain marrow, having the appearance of 

 fresh suet. 



Bones and antlers occur at Walton, in Essex, associated with skele- 

 tons of Mammoths, or fossil Elephants, 1 and have recently been dis- 

 covered by Mr. Mackie, imbedded with great numbers of the teeth, jaws, 

 and detached bones of Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, Bos, Hyena, &c., in 

 a diluvial deposit at Folkstone. 



Kemains of this majestic animal have been found collocated with 

 ancient sepulchral urns, stone implements, and rude single-trunk canoes, 

 in such manner as to leave no doubt that this now extinct species was 

 coeval with the aborigines of these Islands. 2 



SIVATHERIUM (S. giganteum). Wall-case F. Among the highly 

 interesting mammalian remains from the Sewalik Hills, of which we 

 shall treat more at large in the next chapter, are those of one of the 

 most extraordinary extinct types of the Order Ruminantia hitherto dis- 

 covered, the Sivatherium ; of which there is a fine cranium, lower jaw 

 and teeth, and bones of the extremities in the Case before us. 3 



The skull of this animal approaches in volume that of the Elephant ; 

 the neck was shorter and stronger than in the Giraffe ; the poste- 

 rior region of the skull extending from the orbits is greatly developed, 

 and apparently formed cellular protuberances as in the Elephant. 

 The face is short, and the nasal bones are remarkable for the man- 

 ner in which they are prolonged into a pointed arch above the ex- 

 ternal nostrils, indicating a trunk or proboscis. The very inclined 

 direction of the front of the face, in relation to the triturating sur- 

 face of the teeth, imparts a physiognomy altogether peculiar. Two 

 horns rise from the brow between the orbits, and diverge from each 



1 "Wonders of Geology," p. 134. 



2 See my " Lecture on the Remains of Man and Works of Art im- 

 bedded with remains of extinct animals." Delivered before the Archae- 

 ological Institute of Great Britain, at the Oxford Meeting, June 1850. 

 Archceological Journal, for January, 1851. 



3 The Sivatherium (so named from Siva, an Indian deity), was dis- 

 covered and described by Dr. Falconer and Major Cautley. See a 

 Memoir on the " Sivatherium giganteum, a new fossil ruminant genus, 

 from the valley of the Markanda." Journal of the Asiatic Society. 



