102 BERTHA'S VISIT 'TO HER 



mastodon, entirely extinct. I asked him how 

 he knew that they were extinct, and he told 

 me it was quite impossible that they could still 

 inhabit the interior of America without its being 

 known to the European settlers on the sea 

 coasts; some of them, in the course of time, 

 must have strayed out of the forests, and have 

 been observed by travellers ; or, in our constant 

 intercourse with the natives, who have traversed 

 the country in all directions, some accounts of 

 such large animals must have reached us. In 

 South America the Indians point out these large 

 fossil bones as the remains of gigantic monsters, 

 which would have destroyed the whole human 

 race if they had not been themselves destroyed by 

 the interference of the Great Spirit. Nor is it 

 likely, continued my uncle, that any of the other 

 animals, which we know to be extinct now, 

 should have existed since the deluge : no great 

 catastrophe since that time has happened, which 

 could have been equal to the sweeping away of 

 a whole species ; and almost all those that at 

 present inhabit the three continents of the old 

 world are mentioned in the writings of Aristotle, or 

 of other ancient authors. The Romans had such 

 a passion for collecting wild beasts, that in the 

 time of Commodus twenty lions, twenty African 

 hyenas, and ten tygers, were killed in one day's 

 sport at Rome ; and thirty- two elephants, a hip- 

 popotamus, and ten camelopards were exhibited 



