86 



THE TALLEST MAMMAL. 



CHAPTEE IX. 



THE TALLEST 3IAMMAL. 



Compared with their extinct allies of earlier periods of the 

 earth's history, it may be laid down as a general rule that 

 the large animals of the present day are decidedly inferior 

 in point of size. During the later portion of the Tertiary 

 period, for instance, before the incoming of the glacial epoch, 

 when mammals appear to have attained their maximum 

 development, there lived elephants alongside of which 

 ordinary individuals of the existing species would have 

 looked almost dwarfs, while the cave-bear and the cave- 

 hyaana attained considerably larger dimensions than their 

 living representatives, and some of the sabre-toothed tigers 

 must have been decidedly larger than the biggest African 

 lion or Bengal tiger. Again, the remains of red deer, bison, 

 and wild oxen, disinterred from the cavern and other super- 

 tioial deposits of this country, indicate animals far superior 

 in size to their degenerate descendants of the present day ; 

 while some of the extinct pigs from the Siwalik Hills of 

 northern India might be compared in stature to a tapir 

 rather than to an ordinary wild boar. The same story is 

 told by reptiles, the giant tortoise of the Siwalik Hills, in 

 spite of its dimensions having been considerably exaggerated, 

 greatly exceeding in size the largest living giant tortoises 

 of eitiaer the Mascarene or the Galapagos Islands. The 

 Siwalik rocks have also yielded the remains of a long- 

 snouted crocodile, allied to the garial of the Ganges, 

 which probably measured from fifty to sixty feet in length, 

 whereas it is very doubtful if any existing member of the 

 order exceeds half the former of these dimensions. If^ 

 moreover, we took into account totally extinct types, such 

 as the megatheres and mylodons of South America, and 

 contrasted them with their nearest living allies — in this 

 instance the sloths and anteaters — the discrepancy in size 

 would be stUl more marked, but such a comparison would 

 scarcely be analogous to the above. 



