m:^ 



m 



OIASTS AMI) PIGMIES. 



in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society This 

 •shows at least that the views maintained by Sir Charles Lyell 

 in reference to the " Antiquity of Man," are not unquestioned. 

 The character of the deposits, in short, of ** superficial deposits " 

 in general, often renders exact and unquestionable observation 

 very difficult. It was suggested by Dr. Falconer that as the 

 aips and downs, and violent changes in countries, which had 

 complicated superficial geology had not extended to the regions 

 of the Nile and Ganges, we might expect that investigation in 

 the latter may afford more satisfactory data for reliable conclu- 

 sions. In a late number of " Nature " vve find discoveries made 

 •on the Nile very much akin to our own Nova Scotian, 



68. We now come to examine another race af Giants, 

 which has become extinct in comparatively recent times. In 

 the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, "among the remnants of 

 Tradescant's collections still preserved, there are the bill and 

 foot of the Dodo — Didns inept us, Linn., a bird no longer in 

 existence. It was first seen by the Dutch, \vhen they landed 

 on L'isle de France, at that time uninhabited, immediately after 

 the discovery of a passage to the East Indies by the Cape of 

 Good Hope. It was of large size and singular form, its wings 

 short like those of the ostrich, and wholly incapalle of sustain- 

 ing its heavy body, even for a short flight. ^* The death of a 

 species," says Lyell, " is so remarkable an event in Natural 

 History that it deserves commemoration." The remains of the 

 last specimen of Dodo which had been permitted bo rot in the 

 Ashmolean Museum, were cast away by the consent of the 

 vice-chancellor and other curators assembled on the 8th day of 

 January, 1775. A painting now in the British Museum was 

 made from the living, by George Edwards, who lived between 

 1698 and 1773. 



A traveller from Australia brought to England a piece of 

 bone of doubtful character. It might be supposed to have 

 belonged to a mammal of bovine character, It was taken to 

 the celebrated comparative Anatomist of the Museum of the 

 Royal College of Surgeons, Prof. Owen. He recognized it as 

 the bone of a bird of gigantic proportion.s. Bcnes were found 



