1004 HISTORICAL GEOLOGY. 



is the most astounding in the series. Its monstrous skeleton, as mounted in 

 the museum, is over 11 1 feet long; the canipax, across the back, 10-^- feet 

 wide; the massive club-like terminal tube of the caudal sheath, over 3 feet 

 11 inches long. The plates of the carapax are oblong plates of bone, smooth 

 externally, but perforated by from one to five large circular holes through 

 which quill-like bristles were doubtless protruded during life. The tremen- 

 dous club bears, at its flattened and expanded extremity, a number of 

 roughened, oval, depressed facets, which must have given support to huge 

 horny spines not unlike the horns of a ilhinoceros. The whole animal 

 must have bristled with horns and quills, a little like some giant Porcupine." 



Another Glyptodont, the Panochthus, rivalled the DoRdicurus in bulk. 



The genus Chlamyclotherium included other mailclad species in which the 

 carapax consisted of movable bands ; one, more Armadillo-like, was as large 

 as a Rhinoceros. 



Such were the characteristic animals of Quaternary South America. The 

 largest Edentates of the existing period are but three or four feet in length. 

 The Megatherium probably exceeded more than one hundred fold the bulk of 

 any living Edentate. 



European and Asiatic. 



The Mammals of Quaternary Europe are equally remarkable for their 

 great size. Caverns in Britain and Europe were the dens of gigantic Lions, 

 Bears, and Hyenas, while Herbivores, equally gigantic, compared with modern 

 species, roamed over the continent, from the Mediterranean and India to the 

 Arctic seas. The remains are found in the earthy or stalagmitic floors of 

 caverns ; mired in ancient marshes ; buried in river and lacustrine alluvium, 

 or sea-border deposits ; or frozen and cased in Arctic ice. 



In Great Britain, the Mammals have been found in river border forma- 

 tions, in a large number of localities ; and several of these have afforded 

 also relics of man. The loess of the Rhine and the valley formations of 

 other parts of Europe have afforded similar facts. The European caves 

 were mostly caves of Bears (the great Ursus spelceus), while those of 

 England were occupied by Hyenas (Hymna spelcea), with fewer Bears. The 

 Cave Hyena, although of unusual size, is now regarded as of the same species 

 with the Hycena crocuta, of South Africa ; and the Cave Lion, or Felts 

 spelcea, as a variety of Felis lea, or the Lion of Africa. 



In a cavern at Kirkdale, one of the earliest explored. Hyena bones and 

 teeth belonging to about 300 individuals were mingled with remains of the 

 extinct species of Elephant or Mammoth (Elephas primigenius), Rhinoceros 

 {R. tichorhinus), Hippopotamus {H. major), Ox. three kinds of Deer, along 

 with the Cave Lion, Brown Bear (Ursiis arctos), Wolf, Fox, Horse (Equus 

 caballus), Hare, Rabbit, Water Rat, besides the Pigeon, Lark, Duck, etc. 

 The Hyenas dragged into their caves the dead carcasses they found, and 

 lived on the bones, and also on the bones of fellow Hyenas ; and the bottom 



