238 THE HISTORY OF GEOLOGY 



claims our author in triumph, " how Elephants should 

 come to be buried in Churches, is a Question not easily 

 answered, except we will run to so groundless a shift, 

 as to say, that possibly the Elephants might be there 

 buried before Christianity nourished in Britain and 

 that these Churches were afterwards casually built over 

 them." 



It is possible that the thigh-bone in which Dr. Plot 

 was so much interested was not that of an elephant, 

 for he says : " But what is instar omnium in this difficult 

 point, there happily came to Oxford while I was writing 

 of this, a living Elephant to be shown publickly at the 

 Act, An. 1676, with whose Bones and Teeth* I com- 

 pared ours : and found those of the Elephant not only 

 a different Shape, but also incomparably bigger than ours, 

 though the Beast were very young and not half grown." 



The conclusion follows that the thigh-bone is human 

 and belonged to a giant : many marvellous accounts of 

 giants are then cited, some clearly fabulous, and not 

 carrying conviction to the author himself, who proceeds 

 as follows : " But to come closer to the Business, and more 

 determinate Statures, the same Pliny tells us of two others 

 living in the time of Augustus, nicknamed Pusio and 

 Secundilla, whose Bodies were preserved for a Wonder in 

 the Sallustian Gardens, that were ten Foot high ; and 

 that in his time, there was one Gabbara, brought out 

 of Arabia in the days of Prince Claudius the Emperor, 

 exactly of the height of Goliath, viz., nine Foot nine 

 Inches high, which being a Size very proportionable to our 

 Bone found at Cornwell, I am rather inclined to believe, 

 that Claudius brought this Gabbara into Britain with 

 him, who might possibly dye and lay his Bones here, 

 than that ever they belonged to any Elephant : except 

 we shall rather say that here also Corinaeus, Cousin to 

 * The teeth were evidently those of a ruminant. 



