AGE OF MAMMALS. 293 



worthy of remark in relation to the animals of this pe- 

 riod. 1. Their great size. The elephants, bears, lions, 

 horses, hyenas, etc., were much larger than the species 

 of these animals existing at the present time. Perhaps 

 the difference is greater in the sloths than in any other 

 class of animals, as you will soon see. 2. The division as 

 to the general character of prevalent species in the dif- 

 ferent continents was much the same as now. Thus, in 

 the eastern continent, the Carnivorous animals predom- 

 inated ; in North America, the Herbivorous ; in South 

 America, the Edentates; and in Australia, the Marsu- 

 pials, or pouched animals. 3. Animals that were in 

 character like those which now have their habitat in 

 warm climates lived then in the regions that are now 

 temperate, and in some cases even up to the arctic re- 

 gions, as in the case of the elephant and rhinoceros of 

 Siberia. Owen says of England at this period, "Gigan- 

 tic elephants of nearly twice the bulk of the largest indi- 

 viduals that now exist in Ceylon and Africa roamed 

 here in herds, if we may judge from the abundance of 

 their remains. Two-horned rhinoceroses of at least two 

 species forced their way through the ancient forests, or 

 wallowed in the swamps. The lakes and rivers were 

 tenanted with hippopotamuses as bulky, and with as for- 

 midable tusks as those of Africa." Besides these, there 

 were tigers larger than those of Bengal, and " troops of 

 hyenas larger than the fierce Hyena crocuta of South 

 Africa, which they most resembled, crunched the bones 

 of carcasses relinquished by the nobler beasts of prey, 

 and doubtless themselves often waged a war of exterm- 

 ination on the feebler quadrupeds." 



I will now go on to notice some of the animals that 

 were peculiar to this period. 



405. Post-tertiary Elephants. Elephas primigenus, 

 the great Siberian mammoth, was a third taller than the 

 largest of elephants of the present time, and was twice 

 as heavy. The skeleton of this animal is represented 



