EXTINCT SPECIES. 143 



mammoths have departed. The time, however, must inevit- 

 ably arrive for that consummation, under the rule of the 

 present course of things. 



Without forests for shade and sustenance, the race of wild 

 elephants cannot exist; and, inasmuch as elephants never 

 breed in captivity, each tame elephant having been once re- 

 claimed from the forests, it follows, from the consideration of 

 inevitable results, that sooner or later (but some day, never- 

 theless), one of two possible issues must be consummated, 

 either that man shall cease to go on subduing the earth, cut- 

 ting down forests and bringing the land into cultivation ; or 

 else elephants must become extinct. Who can entertain a 

 doubt as to the alternative? Man has gone on conquering 

 and to conquer from the time he came upon the scene. Ani- 

 mals, save those he can domesticate, have gone on fleeting 

 and fleeting away. It is most probable, nevertheless, that 

 one proportionate aggregate of vitality has at every period 

 been maintained. 



The most marked examples of the passing away of animal 

 species within periods of time in some cases not very remote, 

 pronounced of even in an historical sense is seen in the record 

 of certain gigantic birds. The largest individuals of the fea- 

 thered tribes now extant are ostriches ; but the time was when 

 these plumed denizens of the Sahara were small indeed by 

 comparison with existing species. Some idea of the bulk of 

 the epiornis an extinct species may be gathered from a 

 comparison of the bulk of one of its eggs with that of other 

 birds. According to M. Isidore Geoffrey who some time 

 since presented one of these eggs to the French Academy of 

 Sciences the capacity of it was no less than eight litres and 

 three-fourths. This would prove it to be about six times the 

 size of the ostrich's egg, 148 times that of an ordinary fowl, 

 and no less than 50,000 times the size of the egg of the hum- 

 ming-bird. The egg exhibited was one of very few that have 

 been discovered; hence nothing tends to the belief that it was 



