970 Marvels of the Universe 
- pools or tanks of water should 
not be allowed near human 
dwellings in districts where 
these diseases are rife. Fish in 
the tanks are fairly efficacious 
in destroying the Gnat larve, 
and a film of oil on the surface 
of the water wets and clogs the 
openings of their breathing- 
tubes and is absolutely fatal 
to them. It is attention to 
points such as these that has 
done so much of recent years 
in improving the conditions of 
life for the white man in the 
tropics. 
AN ANCIENT 
RELATION OF THE 
RHINOCEROS 
BY W. P. PYCRAFT, F.Z.S., ETC. 
In South Dakota, where the 
temperature in the shade regis- 
ters 106°, American savants, 
for years past, have endured 
torments unflinchingly, that 
they might hunt in one of 
~~  Nature’s ancient graveyards 
Photo by) | SG MO MS CREREUURES entombed 
GNAT’S ANTENNA. there millions of years ago. 
An enlarged photograph of part of the feeler of a male Gnat. The correspond- Their privations and devotion 
ing organ in the female is of much simpler structure. 
have been richly rewarded, 
for there are few spots on the earth’s surface which have yielded beings so strange. 
The giant beast which forms the subject of our illustrations (pages 972 and 973) is one of these. 
This is the Great Titanothere, or Brontops, a creature nearly related to the rhinoceros of to-day, but 
considerably larger, and differing, among other things, in having a pair of huge horns on the snout, 
set side by side instead of one behind the other, as in the African rhinoceros to-day. These fearsome 
weapons were largest in the bulls, and that they were used to exemplify the old adage, “ Might 
is right,” is attested by the signs of broken ribs which these fossil remains sometimes display. 
Big as he was, Brontops was, compared with others of his kind which succeeded him, a slender, 
agile creature. His forbears, however, were smaller and yet more agile, and, as the skull of one of 
these, known as Megacerops, shows, the horns on the snout weie smaller. In course of time, 
Brontops, in turn, disappeared from the face of the earth, and was succeeded by the yet larger 
Symborodon, with larger horns ; and Symborodon, in turn, gave place to the most gigantic of all, 
the ponderous Brontotherium, wherein the horns on the snout attained a huge size. 
The legs of Brontops were intermedia*e in size between those of the rhinoceros and the elephant ‘ 
and the beast stood nearly ten feet high at the withers, and measured nearly fifteen feet in length. 
