THE AGE OF MAMMALS 



giraffes, and the beginning of the sloth-like animals, 

 whose appearance we must, however, deal with in another 

 chapter. 



The whales whose remains are found in the Pliocene 

 rocks differ little from those now living ; but the observa- 

 tions geologists have been able to make upon these gigantic 

 remains of the ancient world are too few to allow of any 

 very precise conclusion. It is certain, however, that the 

 fossil differs from the existing whale in certain character- 

 istics perceptible in the bones of the skull. The discovery 

 of an enormous fragment of a fossil whale, made at Paris 

 in 1779, in the cellar of a wine merchant in the Rue 

 Dauphine, created a great sensation. Science pronounced, 

 without much hesitation, on the true origin of these 

 remains ; but the public had some difficulty in compre- 

 hending the existence of a whale in the Rue Dauphine. 

 It was in digging some holes in his cellars that the wine 

 merchant made this interesting discovery. His workmen 

 found, under the pick, an enormous piece of bone buried 

 in a yellow clay. Its complete extraction caused him a 

 great deal of labour, and presented many difficulties. 

 Little interested in making further discoveries, our wine 

 merchant contented himself with raising, with the help of 

 a chisel, a portion of the monstrous bone. The piece 

 thus detached weighed 227 Ibs. It was exhibited in the 

 wine-shop, where large numbers of the curious went to 

 see it. Lamanon, a naturalist of that day, who examined 

 it, conjectured that the bone belonged to the head of a 

 whale. As to the bone itself, it was purchased for the 

 Teyler Museum, at Haarlem. 



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