OF CREATION. 



299 



Fig. 1.33 



sent obtaining in northern Europe, is closely allied 

 to, though not identical with, that which formerly 

 characterised the great plains of Siberia, and corre- 

 sponding tracts of North America. 



At this period the most gigantic of the existing 

 groups of vegetable-feeding quadrupeds seem to have 

 been represented by very nearly allied species, roam- 

 ing at will from the latitude of Italy to the North 

 Pole, and over the whole of the land in the northern 

 hemisphere. These animals were apparently organ- 

 ized so as to be in some measure sheltered from cold, 

 the elephants, for example, having been covered with 

 hair. The species include a multitude of animals 

 bearing a greater or less resemblance to the present 

 inhabitants of the respective districts, but most of 

 them not now met 

 with in a living state. 

 Among the animals 

 of this kind now cer- 

 tainly extinct must be 

 ranked several species 

 of elephants, and the 

 Mastodon. 



This latter animal, 

 whose mammillated 

 teeth have long been 

 known, grew to about 

 the same size as the 

 elephant, being even 

 perhaps occasionally 

 somewhat larger, but its body was longer in propor- 

 tion, its limbs thicker and shorter, its mouth broader, 

 and it appears to have formed a link in the chain 



MASTODON. 

 (Grinding Tooth.) 



