240 OX THB FOSSIL BOXES OF THE PACHYDERMATOUS QI'ADRXrEIJ!:. 



and modern times?. It is not then improbable that there were bones 

 of elephants among those alluded to. 



In 1691, skime bones were found within six leagues of Thessalo- 

 nica, one of which admitted a man's arm into its cavity ; a lower 

 jaw was seven inches and a half in breadth, and weighed fifteen 

 pounds. The other teeth weighed from two to three pounds each ; 

 but accordiug to other accounts the heaviest did not exceed fonr pounds 

 six ounces. The knee or shoulder bone was two feet eight inches in 

 circumference. There is a minute description of them in the form of 

 an affidavit, bearing the signatures of several witnesses, in a disser- 

 tation of an Abbe Comrcieis inserted in the Mercury of 1692, and 

 quoted by the Abbe d'Artigny, in his Memoirs of History, Criticism, 

 and Literature, vol. i, p. 136. Don Calmet was mistaken when he fixed 

 the period of this event in 1701* . 



Suidas speaks of the bones of giants found in large quantities be- 

 neath the church of St. Mena at Constantinople, which the Emperor 

 Anastasius caused to be deposited in his palace f. 



Our journals have very recently announced a similar discovery to 

 have been made at Demotica %, near Adrianople, a place rendered 

 famous by its having been the prison of Charles XII, and which is si- 

 tuated at a short distance from the Mariza, the Hebrus of the 

 ancients. 



Fortis mentions a molar tooth, most unquestionably that of an ele- 

 phant, found in the isle of Cerigo, and deposited in the museum of 

 Morosini at Venice §. 



It is more than probable, too, that to the elephant remains we are to 

 refer, if not the giant forty-six arms long, mentioned by Pliny |], 

 which was thrown up in an earthquake at Crete, and which some 

 fancied was Orion, and others Otus, at least the supposed body of 

 Orestes, seven arms or twelve feet three inches in length, discovered at 

 Tegea by the Spartans ^f, as well as that of Astericus, the son of Ajax, 

 found in the isle of Lade, opposite Miletum, and which according to 

 Pausanius, was seven arms in length, and that of Ajax, son of Tela- 

 mon, which the same author tells us was at Salaminum, the knee 

 ball of which equalled in size the quoits used at the Olympic games ** ; 

 and lastly, the great bones of Rhodes, mentioned by Phlegonus of 

 Tralles ff. 



Spain has its legends of the discovery of the bones of giants. Such 

 is the pretended tooth of St. Christopher, shown to Louis Vives, in the 

 church of that name at Valentia, which he tells us was of the thick- 

 ness of his fist ++. 



But a more positive conclusion may be drawn from the fact, that 



* Dictionary of the Bible, ii, 160. 

 •f Suidus, voce ju,nvus. 

 X Journal de Paris, June 9, 1806. 

 § Fortis, Ibidem. 

 [| Pliny, book xvi, chap. xvi. 



% Asilus Gillrus,book xvi, chap, x. Herodian, book i, chap, lxvii. Solin, book i, 

 Pliny, Ibidem. 



*'* Pausanius, Attic, chap. xxxv. 



ft Phlegonus, de Mirabil. chap. xvi. 



%l Vives on the Civitas Dei of Augustin, book xv, chap. ix. 



