476 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



horn was a magnificent affair. But, as sometimes happens with the 

 leading ornament, it was a little awkward in the setting. It was fixed 

 right over the eye ! Still, queer as this was, it had its uses. Hereby 

 was achieved a huge bony arch, or cavern, for the protection of the 

 kingly orb beneath — an important provision in case some sturdy old 

 recalcitrant should stand in the way when his majesty went out on a 

 regulation inspection of the royal domain ; for, unlike some of his 

 post-relations in Africa and Asia, who are content to take one horn 

 at a time with their compeers, he never took less than two at a bout. 

 In fact, the Jihinocerotidce of the Tertiary age had their horns in 

 pairs ; and without doubt they were used in many a pell-mell fight — 

 contests that likely had but little thinking as to the method of the 

 conflict. From this arrangement of the horns in pairs on these 

 creatures, so nearly related to the rhinoceros, the professor with a 

 keen sagacity claims to disprove the statement that horns in pairs 

 show relationship to the ruminants. His own words are: "They pre- 

 sent no special marks of affinity to the artiodactyles, and show that 

 the paired horns of the JEobasileidce have no significance in the same 

 direction." 



A luminous body, if unobstructed, strews its rays in all directions. 

 And a scientific fact or principle, could our eyes follow the emana- 

 tions, would be found illuming many if not all other facts in science. 

 It was but lately that the above generalization was reached, when it 

 came forth full-blown from the working out of the new genus Sym- 

 borodon. Of these very remarkable animals the professor gives us six 

 or seven species. And strange beings, even among their contem- 

 poraries, must the Symborodontes have been. There was Symborodon 

 bucco — the last word meaning "the cheeky" — and the fellow had 

 " plenty of cheek." It was certainly so anatomically, and " we " are 

 not speaking metaphorically now. The cheek-bones were enormously 

 developed, so much so that they formed immense osseous masses on 

 each side of his head. Indeed, a blow on the side of his caput would 

 have been simply a capital joke; for how could so unimpressible a 

 skull ever have seen the point ? And this same individual comported 

 himself with a ludicrously lofty air, for his eyes were set almost verti- 

 cally in his head. Perhaps it was the Miocene fashion in the upper 

 ranks to look for something to come down, unlike our Micawber mode 

 of waiting for something to turn up. And this being was nearly as 

 large as an adult elephant. As to what, and how much was his intel- 

 lectual endowment, we know not. "We don't think he was very sharp. 

 But we had forgotten to add this attribute — he had two horns, and 

 they were flat. 



Perhaps the Caliban of those strange creatures was Symborodon 

 altirostris ; not that he was a dwarf among his compeers, for, though 

 not the largest, he was an individual of great weight in hi«s own day. 

 ISTor was it that he had a " forehead villainously low ; " but because, 



