MONSTERS OF A BURIED WORLD. 161 



flesh and instinct with life. It towers before us a huge, un- 

 gainly beast, eighteen feet in length and eight feet high, hav- 

 ing a tapir-like head, an elephantine body, and hind feet and 

 tail which find no match in geologic or historic time. Such 

 super-mammoth haunches, nearly six feet across ; such singular, 

 half-hoofed, half-clawed extremities; so slow and awkward in 

 his movements ; so stupid in look he seems the lord of the 

 Pampas. His thick and callous hide is scantily clothed with 

 coarse, stiff hair. He seeks his food from the leaves of the 

 forest. Other leaf-eaters possess various provision for securing 

 their food. The elephant is furnished with an elongated pro- 

 boscis. The giraffe is uplifted on fore-legs of extraordinary 

 length, supplemented by a neck of length equally extraordi- 

 nary, and lips and tongue co-ordinated with other parts of his 

 outfit. The sloth ascends the tree and places himself in the 

 midst of the foliage on which he must subsist. Our Megath- 

 erium has none of the provisions of the elephant or giraffe, 

 and is too ponderous to be borne by the branches of a tree. 

 He raises himself in a semi-erect attitude, supported by that 

 tripod formed of tail and hind feet, and reaches with his fore- 

 limbs to the foliage and gathers it in. When the supply falls 

 short, he employs his powerful effodient feet to hurl the earth 

 from the roots of the tree, and bring it down by his colossal 

 strength. Then he stretches himself alongside of the prostrate 

 tree and gathers its foliage at his leisure. 



These are samples of the relics of the Quaternary Age. 

 Those who become interested will find further information in 

 works on geology. In North America are found remains of 

 a pig-like creature, a gigantic beaver and some Edentates. 

 They are found imbedded in sand and fluviatile deposits, ac- 

 cumulated, like the elephant-bearing peats, after the Drift. 

 The boulder Drift is mostly destitute of organic remains. 

 Probably the severity of the temperature and the prevalence 

 of ice rendered animal life impossible. What the facts were, 

 it will be our business to ascertain ; and by and by we shall 

 be in a position to reconstruct the story of the times. 



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