3G 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PRIMEVAL WORLD. 



coal-measure peiioil, because it ia of too recent dato, 

 and because it lias not undergone tlie same pressure of 

 pii]ierincumbent beds and the same force of internal 

 heat. 



The auimals re]iresented in our landscape are — the 

 dinotherium, basking in the rank, luarshy grass; the 

 gigantic mastodon; the rliinoceros; and an ape of great 

 stature, tlie Dri/ojiitherus, swinging from the branches 

 of a tree. The river winds far awaj' through the leafy 

 valley, almost arrested in its course, and broken up 

 into still lakelets and sleepy ponds, by dams and weirs 

 of aquatic plants; and against the horizon towers the 

 huge bulk of a lofty mountain range. The earth is 

 losing its air of mystery and strangeness, and the land- 

 scapes are gradually assuming a flimilinr character. On 

 every hand we see the signs of a coming change which 

 shall fit the earth for its lord and master — Man ! 



The next sub-period, belonging to the npjjer Ter- 

 tiaries, has been named by Sir Cliarles Lyell 



Tilt; PLEIOCr.NE, 



or " more recent," because the organic remains trea- 

 sured up within its strata number between sixty and 

 seventy per cent, of living species ; that is, more than we 

 find in the older Miocene, and less than we find in the 

 next and last sub-period, the Pleistocene. 



In Great Britain Ihe Pleiocene strata are only found 

 in Suffolk, where they are superimposed on the upper 

 beds of the London clay. Locally, they are known 

 as "crag." Consisting of shelly sand, tlit-y have been 

 advantageously employed in manuring soils which are 

 deficient in calcareous matter, and they are subdivided 

 into the red crag and the coralline crag, each with an 

 average depth or thickness of fifty feet. 



The former con,sists of beds of quartzose sands and 

 gravel, mixed with shells, generally rolled and com- 

 minuted into sand, the whole of an ochreous or deep 

 ferruginous colour. The fossils are chiefly molluscous, 

 but the bones and teeth of skates, sharks, and other 

 fish, have been discovered, and the ear-bones of one 

 or more true whales. 



The coralline crag is generally calcareous and marly, 

 and composed of numerous shells and Polyzoa, sepa- 

 rated in many places by thin strata of hard limestone, 

 and coralline masses in the position in which they 

 formerly lived. It is white in colour, and would 

 seem to have been deposited in deeper and less dis- 

 turbed water than the red crag. From the character 

 of its fossils it may be inferred that the temperature 

 of the ocean was still high. The calcareous Polyzoa 

 are abundant and beautiful. 



About three hundred and forty-five species of Tes- 

 tacea have been procured from the coralline, and two 

 hundred and thirty from the red crag, of which abont 

 one hundred and fifty are common to both. About 

 seventy per cent, of the newer division, and about 

 sixty per cent, of the older, are also recent. 



The terrestrial animals of the Pleiocene period in- 

 clude .several species remarkable from their propoitions 

 and from their structure. Both the mammals and the 

 batrachian reptiles are worthy of our attention. 



Among the former we refer, in the fir.st place, to 

 the Mastodon, whicli would seem to have very nearly 



resembled our present elephant, both in size and form, 

 except that the body was somewhat longer and the lej;s 

 a little thicker. lie had tusks, and probably a trunk, 

 but was characterized by the peouliar structure of his 

 molar teeth. Tltese are nearly rectangular, and in their 

 upper surface exhibit a number of great conical tuber- 

 osities, with rounded points disposed in pairs to the 

 number of four or five, according to Ihe species. Their 

 form, says Figuier, is very distinct, and may easily be 

 recognized. They bear no resemblance to those of the 

 Carnivora, but are like those of herbivorous animals, 

 and particularly those of the hippopotamus. The molar 

 teeth are at first sharp and jiolished, but the conical 

 points are worn down by the constant process of 

 mastication. 



The Mastodon first attracted the attention of Euro- 

 pean men of science towards the middle of the last 

 century. Some bones had been previously discovered 

 at Albany, in the United States, but without receiving 

 much consideration. In 1739 M. de Longueil, while 

 exploring the immense forests on the river Ohio, in 

 order to reach the Mississippi, came upon a deposit of 

 bones, some of which, on his return to France, he pre- 

 sented to the great naturalists, Daubcnton and Bnfl'on : 

 they consisted of a gigantic femur, one extremity of a 

 tusk, and three molar teeth. Buflbn, after a careful 

 examination of them, declared them to be the bones of 

 a pirimeval quadruped, from six to eight times the size 

 of our existing eli-iihant. He named it the Animal or 

 Elephant of the Ohio. 



In 1801 were first discovered the remains of the 

 perfect skeletcm ; and at a later period it was ascertained, 

 from the exhumation of a mass of vegetable matter 

 in the stomach of the aidmal, that its habits were 

 imqtiestionably herbivorous. 



The North American Indians called the Mastodon 

 " the father of the ox." In one of their most popular 

 traditional songs occurs the following passage : " When 

 the great Manitou descended to the earth in order to 

 assure himself of the happiness of the beings he had 

 created, he questioned all the animals upon their wants 

 and desires. The bison, in his turn, replied that he 

 should be quite contented with his lot in the grassy 

 j.astures, where the rich herbage reached his belly, if 

 he were not compelled to keep his eyes constantly 

 turned towards the mountains to descry the a)iproach 

 of the Father of oxen, as he descended with fury to 

 devour him and bis companions." 



Among the Chavanais Indians a tradition lingered 

 that these huge animals lived long ages ago, contem- 

 poraneously with a race of gigantic men, and that both 

 were destroyed by the Great Being with his annihilating 

 thunders. The native Indians of Virginia had a some- 

 what similar legend. As these huge elephants preyed 

 upon all the other animals created to supply the wants of 

 the Indians, God the Thunderer destroyed them, only 

 one succeeding in escaping the terrible bolts. This was 

 the "great male, which presented its head to the thun- 

 derbolts, and shook them otf as they fell ; but being at 

 length woiuided in the side, he fled towards the great 

 lakes, wdiere he remains concealed unto this day." 



From these simple fictions we may, at all events, 

 infer that the Mastodon has flourished upon earth at no 



