402 



of 



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feed their dogs ; wild beasts, especially white 

 bears, foxes, &c., had also eaten a great 

 quantity of it. Nevertheless, the skeleton 

 was entire, with the exception of a fore leg ; 

 the other bones being still held together by 

 ligaments and portions of skin. The head 

 was covered with dried skin ; one of the 

 ears was entire, and furnished with a tuft of 

 hairs : the pupil of the eye was still to be 

 distinguished ; the brain was in the skull, 

 but somewhat dried ; the lower lip had been 

 gnawed by animals, the upper one was en- 

 tirely gone, and the teeth consequently ex- 

 posed ; the neck was furnished with a long 

 mane ; the skin was covered with long hair 

 and a reddish wool ; the portion of skin 

 still remaining was so heavy, that ten men 

 could scarcely carry it : according to Mr. 

 Adams, more than thirty pounds weight of 

 hair and wool was collected from the wet 

 sand into which it had been trodden by the 

 white bears while devouring the flesh. Mr. 

 Adams took the greatest pains in collecting 

 what remained of this unique specimen of 

 an ancient creation, and procured the tusks 

 from Jakutsk. The Emperor of Russia pur- 

 chased the skeleton, which is now in the 

 Museum of the Academy of St. Petersburg. 

 The height of the creature is about nine feet, 

 and its extreme length to the tip of the tail 

 about sixteen feet. Portions of the skin and 

 hair were presented to most of the conti- 

 nental museums, as well as to the College 

 of Surgeons in London." 



" The Mammoth seems a link connecting 

 the past and the present worlds a being 

 whose body has outlived its destination. 

 All the arguments which have been used to 

 prove that the earth has undergone some great 

 convulsion since this huge animal was en- 

 dowed with life, appear perfectly untenable. 

 In the first place, it is evident that its life be- 

 came a sacrifice to a sudden snow-storm, by 

 which it was overtaken, overwhelmed, and 

 suffocated. The suddenness of the storm 

 might have been accidental ; the winter 

 might have set in earlier, it might have been 

 more severe than usual : but the animal was 

 well adapted for such winters ; its long, 

 warm, and shaggy coat proclaim it a de- 

 nizen of arctic countries, and is admirably 

 adapted to exclude the severest cold : such 

 a clothing would have been intolerable 

 in tropical regions, where elephants now 

 abound. We learn from Bishop Heber that 

 in some of the colder and mountainous dis- 

 tricts of northern India, hairy elephants 

 still exist, thus showing that this clothing is 

 provided as an especial protection against 

 the climate ; and at the same time leading 

 to the obvious conclusion, that the well-clad 

 Mammoth, like the Polar Bear, was the des- 

 tined denizen of still severer climes. Nature 

 ever adapts her creatures to the circumstances 

 under which she has chosen to place them." 



Dr. Falconer and Major Cautley found 

 numerous species of fossil elephants in the 

 Sewalik Hills, which are described in their 

 beautifully illustrated work, and are now in 

 the British Museum. 



MAN. Linnaeus was the first who ven- 

 tured to class Man in a scientific system with 



the rest of animated nature ; nor did he 

 wholly escape censure for degrading the 

 dignity of the human race by such an ap- 

 proximation : but whether considered as the 

 head of the animal creation, and a part of : 

 it ; or as a sole genus and sole species, dis- ; 

 tinct from others, and lord of all ; it is not ; 

 merely correct, but absolutely necessary, to \ 

 define Man if viewed solely in a physical i 

 light, and setting aside his divine reason, I 

 and his immortal nature as a being pro- ! 

 vided with two hands, designed for prehen- I 

 sion, and having fingers protected by flat 

 nails ; with two feet, destined for walking ; 

 with a single stomach ; and with three kinds 

 of teeth, incisive, canine, and molar. His 

 position is upright, his food both vegetable 

 and animal, his body naked. 



Man is the only animal truly bimanous and 

 biped. His whole body is modified for the 1 

 vertical position. His feet furnish him with 

 a larger base than those of other mamma- 

 lians ; the muscles whicli retain the foot and 

 thigh in the state of extension are more vi- 

 gorous, whence results the swelling of the ' 

 calf and buttock ; the flexors of the leg are 

 attached higher up, which permits of com- i 

 plete extension of the knee, and renders the 

 calf more apparent. The pelvis is larger, 

 which separates the thighs and feet, and i 

 gives to the trunk that pyramidal form fa- j 

 vourable to equilibrium : the necks of the i 

 thigh-bones form an angle with the body of 

 the bone, which increases still more the se- 

 paration of the feet, and augments the basis ' 

 of the body. And the head, in this vertical ; 

 position, is in equilibrium with the trunk, | 

 because its articulation is exactly under the | 

 middle of its mass. Man thus preserves the i 

 entire use of his hands for the arts, while j 

 his organs of sense are most favourably si- | 

 tiiated for observation. His two e3 r es are \ 

 directed forwards ; which produces more 

 unity in the result of his vision, and con- 

 centrates his attention more closely on objects 

 of this kind. He has a particular pre-emi- 

 nence in his organ of voice : of all mamma- 

 lians, he can alone articulate sounds. Hence 

 results his most invaluable mode of com- 

 munication ; for of all the signs which can 

 be conveniently employed for the transmis- 

 sion of ideas, variations of sound are those 

 which can be perceived at the greatest dis- 

 tance, and in the most various directions 

 simultaneously. 



The ordinary produce of the human spe- 

 cies is but one child at a birth ; the period 

 of gestation, nine months. The foetus grows 

 more rapidly as it approaches the time of 

 birth. The infant, on the contrary, increases 

 always more and more slowly. It has reached 

 upwards of a fourth of its height when born ; 

 attains the half of it at two years and a half ; 

 and the three-fourths at nine or ten years. 

 By the eighteenth year the growth almost 

 entirely ceases. Man rarely exceeds six feet, 

 and seldom remains under five. Woman is 

 ordinarily some inches shorter. Scarcely 

 has the body attained its full growth in 

 height, before it commences to increase in 

 bulk ; fat accumulates in the cellular tissue. 

 The different vessels become gradually ob- 

 structed ; the solids become rigid ; decrepi- 



