BARON CUVIER. 87 



tioned by ancient authors, and those of the 

 middle ages." This example was unfailingly 

 followed by more modern writers, for the mar- 

 vellous is delicious food to the minds of most 

 people. The great propagator of the on clits of 

 natural history, Phny, was not, of course, want- 

 ing on this occasion ; and he speaks of the sup- 

 posed body of Orestes as being thirteen feet 

 three inches long. Few countries have been 

 without these fables, and (to continue M. Cu- 

 vier's account) " one of the most celebrated 

 was that of Teutobochus, in the reign of 

 Louis XIIL, which occasioned a number of 

 famous disputes, in which the actors were much 

 more anxious to abuse each other than to estab- 

 lish the truth. One of them, however, named 

 Riolan, for a person who had never seen the 

 skeleton of an elephant, showed, with consider- 

 able skill, that these bones probably belonged to 

 such an animal. It would appear, as far as the 

 fact can be now ascertained, that on the 11th of 

 January, I6l3, some bones were found in a sand 

 pit, near the castle of Chaumont, or Langon, 

 between the towns of Montricaut, Serre, and 

 Antoine. Part of them were broken by the 

 workmen ; but a surgeon of Beaurepaire, named 

 Mazurier, showed those which remained whole 



G 4 



