JANUARY 11 



as the Mastodon, Deinotheriuin, and Deinoceras, the last- 

 named being a beast described by Marsh as of the size 

 of an elephant, with the habits of a rhinoceros, and carry- 

 ing two horns on the forehead, two on the snout, and one 

 on each cheek. 



On the whole, therefore, we may conclude that, although 

 the absence of destructive man permitted the existence 

 of a larger proportion of gigantic creatures in past geo- 

 logical ages than may be found at the present time upon 

 our crowded globe, the general scale of creation has not 

 altered with the lapse of ages. 



Closely allied to the extinct Deinoceras and to the 

 existing tapirs of South America was a huge elephantoid 

 creature of the Miocene age, ticketed by geologists as the 

 Titanothere. In general appearance it must have borne 

 some resemblance to a rhinoceros, standing seven feet 

 high at the shoulder, four-toed, and carrying on the 

 snout a pair of enormous transverse horns. Professor 

 R. S. Lull has recently communicated to the American 

 Naturalist some interesting conclusions to which a study 

 of these horns has brought him. Hitherto, zoologists 

 have recognised four different types of horn structure 

 namely (1) the rhinoceros type, formed by hairs aggluti- 

 nated into a solid cone resting upon a rugosity of the 

 skull bones ; (2) the ox and antelope type, consisting of 

 a bony core covered with a hollow sheath of true horn ; 

 (3) the giraffe type, consisting of a bony core covered 

 with skin and hair; and (4) the deer type, consisting 

 of antlers which grow upon the frontal bone, and are 

 shed and renewed annually. An intermediate type is 

 furnished by the prongbuck, which carries a permanent 

 bony core like the ox, and a temporary sheath of horn, 



