164 FOSSIL ANIMALS. 



and that no animals of the kind now exist in any part of 

 the world. Beside those we have mentioned, there were 

 many others, as tortoises, elephants, tigers, bears, and rhi- 

 noceroses, but of different kinds from those which now 

 exist. 



It appears that there were elephants of many sizes, and 

 some of them had woolly hair. The skeleton of one of the 

 larger kinds was found in Siberia, some years since, pardy 

 imbedded in ice, where it had doubtless been preserved for 

 thousands of years. It was covered with flesh when first 

 seen. After two years, the ice thawed away, and the 

 whole skeleton fell to the ground from the elevated position 

 in which it was found. It was then taken to St. Peters- 

 burgh, where it is now to be seen in the Cabinet of Natural 

 History. Although the skin of this creature was nearly 

 gone when the bones were taken, still about thirty ppunds 

 of hair were obtained from it. 



But we have not yet mentioned the greatest wonder of 

 fossil animals : this is the Iguanedon, whose bones have 

 been found in England. It was a sort of lizard, and its 

 thigh bones were eight inches in diameter. This creature 

 must have been from seventy to a hundred feet long, and 

 one of its thighs must have been as large as the body of 

 an ox. 



The subject of which we are treating increases in interest 

 as we pursue it. Not only does it appear, that, long before 

 man was created, and before the present order of things 

 existed on the earth, strange animals, now unknown, in- 

 habited it, but that they were exceedingly numerous. In 

 certain >c a ves in England, immense quantities of the bones 

 of hyenas, bears, and foxes are found ; and the same is 

 the fact in relation to certain caves in Germany. 



