886 Marvels of the Universe 
live in the water. The aquatic habits of the tapirs (more or less allied to elephants) seem to point 
to the conclusion that the Dinotherium inhabited fresh-water lakes and rivers. Some writers have 
pointed out that the tusks might have been useful for grubbing up by the roots large aquatic plants, 
and possibly also to hook on to the bank and assist the creature to drag its body out of the water. 
The present writer is inclined to think that there must have been tusks in the upper jaws. Time alone 
can settle that point ; but should that prophecy be confirmed, he would like to suggest that Nature 
was only folding down the lower tusks because they were no longer wanted! Unfortunately the 
only known skull is in a fragile condition, and partly mixed up with plaster, which prevents such a 
thorough examination as might otherwise be made by the geologists in charge of it. 
Photo bu) (H. J. Shepstone. 
THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 
It is here approaching the horizon, but it will not disappear beneath the sea, for within the Arctic Circle the sun, 
during a certain period, will describe complete circles in the sky above the horizon. 
With regard to the size of Dinotherium, there can be but little doubt that it was a big creature, 
like most of the modern elephants. | The biggest yet known is from the Balkan peninsula. The 
remains found there indicate an animal quite as big as the largest elephant, possibly even bigger. 
Wishis, WUEIDIN UG Ist SW iy 
BY F, W. HENKEL, B.A., F.R.A.S. 
It is well known that on account of the diurnal rotation of the earth on an axis whose extremities 
are the north and south poles respectively, the heavenly bodies (the stars) apparently describe circles 
of greater or less angular magnitude around the north and south celestial poles, those nearer these 
points moving in smaller circles than those further off, but all in the same time, one sidereal 
day. 
