196 EXTINCT MONSTERS. 



In the year 1613 some workmen in a sand-pit near the castle 

 of Chaumont, not far from St. Antoine, found some bones 

 (probably of the Mammoth or Mastodon) of the nature of which 

 they were entirely ignorant, and many of them they broke up. 

 But a certain surgeon named Mazuyer, hearing of the discovery, 

 bought the bones, and announced that he had himself discovered 

 them in a tomb thirty feet long, bearing in Gothic characters 

 the inscription, "Teutobochus Rex." This was a barbarian king 

 who invaded Gaul at the head of the Cimbri, and was defeated 

 near Aix, in Provence, by Marius, who brought him to Rome to 

 grace his triumphal procession. Mazuyer reminded his credulous 

 readers that, according to the testimony of Roman authors, the 

 head of this king was larger than any of the trophies borne upon 

 the lances in triumph, and for a time his marvellous story was 

 accepted. The skeleton of this pretended giant-king was ex- 

 hibited in many cities of France and Germany, and also before 

 Louis XII., who took great interest in it. The imposture was 

 detected and exposed by Riolan, and thus a great controversy 

 arose, and numerous pamphlets were written on both sides. The 

 skeleton remained at Bordeaux till the year 1832, when it was 

 sent to the Museum of Natural History at Paris, where it may 

 still be seen. It is needless to say that, on its arrival there, 

 M. Blainville at once recognised it as being that of an elephant 

 v -- a Mastodon, in fact. 



Another giant-story may be narrated as follows. In the year 

 1577 some large bones were discovered, through the uprooting of 

 an oak by a storm, in the Canton of Lucerne, in Switzerland. 

 These bones were afterwards declared by the celebrated physician 

 and professor at Basle, Felix Plater, to be those of a giant This 

 learned man estimated the height of the giant at nineteen feet ! 

 and made a drawing thereof, which he sent to Lucerne. The 

 bones have since nearly all vanished, but Blumenbach, at the 

 beginning of this century, saw enough of them to prove their 

 elephantine nature. The good people of Lucerne, however, 



