630 A JVew Egyptian Mammal — 



from which Arsinoitherium and Palceomastodon were collected, 

 consist mostly of current-bedded sands of fluviatile or estuarine 

 origin ; in places these include great quantities of silicified tree 

 trunks, which no doubt were brought down by the same stream 

 which bore to their present resting-places the carcases of the animals 

 whose remains are now being found. These deposits probably mark 

 the position of the estuary of a great river, coming from a more or 

 less southerly direction and draining a land area the fauna of which 

 we are only now beginning to know. The first land mammals 

 were collected less than three years ago, but, as mentioned in the 

 following extracts from Professor Lankester's article, the work is still 

 going on : — 



" The officers of the Egyptian Survey have continued their 

 exploration of the region, and in addition Dr. Andrews has also beea 

 sent both last year and again this year in the spring months by the 

 Trustees of the British Museum to dig in the sands of the desert in 

 search of further remains of this marvellous assemblage of strange 

 and long-since vanished animals. The journey into the desert is 

 not a light task, as the best localities discovered are as much as three 

 days' march from any supply of water. Last year Mr. Beadnell, of 

 the Egyptian Geological Survey, discovered what is perhaps the 

 most astonishing of all the monsters unearthed in the Faytim. It is 

 as big as a large rhinoceros, and at first sight the skull suggests an 

 affinity with that animal. It has two enormous horns growing fi'om 

 the nasal bone, but these are not, as in the rhinoceros, horns of 

 a horny, fibrous material ; they are actual bony outgrowths covered 

 in life with blood-vessels and skin, and probably hair, as are the 

 horns of the giraffe. Possibly the tips of these two great horns may 

 have been protected by a sheath of horny matter, like a cow's horn. 

 To this monster Mr. Beadnell has given the name Arsinoitherium, 

 in honour of the Egyptian queen, Arsinoe, who had a palace in the 

 Fayum in a region near the Lake Moeris, which was larger in those 

 days and surrounded by a fertile zone, degenerated into sandy 

 waste since her time. 



"Since Mr, Beadnell's discovery of the first skull of Arsinoitlierium, 

 some six or seven more or less complete skulls have been dug out. 

 The most complete, having the lower jaw actually belonging to it in 

 place, is that shown in the photograph. It was recently brought 

 liome by Dr. Andrews from Egypt, and after cleaning, strengthening, 

 and the restoration of parts deficient on the left side by modelling 

 from the right side, is now exhibited in the central hall of the 

 Natural History Museum in Cromwell Road. 



" It will be seen from our photographs that besides the huge pair 

 of horns projecting forwards above the nostrils, Arsinoitlierium had 

 a smaller pair of horns lying further back upon the skull. 



"The nearest allies, it seems, of the great horned beast of the 

 Fayum are to be found in a set of animals of which the best known 

 has the name Dinoceras, discovered in Wyoming, North America, 

 in sands of the same age as those of the Fayum. These Dinoceras 

 forms have been obtained in some abundance, and were made the 



