FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 35 



with the larger pachydermata last mentioned. Nay, we are 

 even justified in believing many of them to have been post- 

 diluvian. 



In the osseous breccia of the Mediterranean have been found 

 two species of lagomys, a genus confined to Siberia ; two of 

 rabbit, some campagnols, and rats as small as the water-rat and 

 the mouse ; and hkewise in the English caverns ; also the bones 

 of shrews and lizards. 



In the sandy strata of Tuscany the teeth of a porcupine 

 have been found ; and in Russia heads of a species of beaver, 

 larger than any now known, and called trongothenum. 



The remains of the edentata, above those of all other classes, 

 indicate species of a size far superior to that of their existing 

 congeners, and even of a magnitude altogether gigantic. Such 

 was the megatherium, an animal partaking of the generic 

 characters of the tardigrada and the armadillos, and equalling 

 the rhinoceros in size. It has been found only in the sandy 

 strata of North America. The megalonyx, found in the ca- 

 verns of Virginia, and in a small island on the coast of Georgia, 

 very much resembled the megatherium, but was not so large. 

 Those two edentata were confined to America. But in Europe 

 one appears to have existed, which, from a fragment remaining, 

 has been considered as not less than four-and-twenty feet in 

 length. This fragment was found in a sand-pit, in the district 

 of Darmstadt, not far from the Rhine, among the bones of ele- 

 phants, rhinoceroses, and tapirs. 



In the osseous breccia are found, but very rarely, the bones 

 of camivora, which are, as we have seen, far more abundant in 

 the caverns. Those of Germany are principally characterised 

 by the remains of a very large species of bear, much surpassing 

 any existing one in size, the ursus spelceus. There are two 

 others, ursus arctoideus and ursus priscus. There is the 

 fossil hyaena, differing, in some pecuharities of the teeth and 

 head, from the Cape hyaena ; two tigers, or panthers, a wolf, 

 fox, glutton, genet, and some other small carnivora. 



d2 



