220 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO ]6Q7. 



To give a better view of this enormous head, an excavation of nearly 12 

 cubits, or 24 feet, was made in the mountain ; after which the Prince of Saxe 

 Gotha (among whose attendants was the author of this letter) went to see it. 

 They were all astonished at the prodigious magnitude of the head, but were 

 much vexed to find the greater part of the bones in a very decayed state. 



Two opinions were formed respecting this production ; one of which made 

 it to be the skeleton of an elephant ; the other, a fossil unicorn or a mineral 

 production of sportive nature. Mr. Tentzel adopts the first of these opinions, 

 and shows by the description of the several parts of the skeleton, and the com- 

 parison thereof with Moulin's Anatomy of the Elephant,* and with the descrip- 

 tions given by Ray and other naturalists, that in all respects these bones resemble 

 those of an elephant. 



In consequence of the imperfect and decayed state of the greater part of this 

 skeleton Mr. Tentzel was unable to compare the dimensions of all its parts with 

 the skeleton described by Moulin ; but from a comparison of some of the bones 

 whose measurement he had an opportunity of taking,-|- he infers that the ske- 

 leton of Tonne is twice as large as that described by Moulin; now if to the 

 height (viz. 6 feet) of the bony fabric of the latter 2 feet more be added for the 

 soles of the feet, for the curvature of the back, for the flesh and the skin, the 

 height of that elephant (when alive) would be 8 feet ; consequently (by the 

 same mode of calculation) the height of this must have been about l6 feet; 

 this, however great and surprising it may appear, the author shows from various 

 authorities, to be by no means the utmost possible growth of this stupendous 

 quadruped. 



After refuting the idea of its being a fossil unicorn or mineral production, 

 Mr. Tentzel concludes with an inquiry, how the elephant came to be in the 

 place where it was found imbedded in the sand of the aforesaid mountain to the 

 depth of 24 feet. And, after showing the improbability of its having ever been 

 brought alive into this part of Europe and buried, when dead, at so great a 

 depth in the earth : he concludes that it must have been deposited there at the 

 time of the universal deluge, an opinion which he thinks iscorroborated by the na- 

 ture and disposition of the strata of which the before-mentioned hill is composed, jj^, 



* Published at Dublin in l6'81. 



f The distance be! ween the maxillx of the Tonna skeleton was 3i feet, or 42 inches, while in 

 the Irish elephant the dislnnce between the zygomatic bones was only 21 inches. In like manner the 

 measurement of the cranium fiom one extremity to the other was only 20 J inches in the Irish speci- 

 men ; whereas in this of Tonna, it was 34^ feet, or 42 inches. 



+ The author of this letter has favoured the Royal Society with some pieces of the bones of the 

 skeleton of this elephant, viz. part of the scull, wherein appear its cells, some of the letili bolh of 

 those that grind, and such as are called elephant's teeth or ivory, with some other pieces ol bones. 



