ear: it lived tor dmen race sie, th We learn from Fr this molt i was a true gee? Bot an Kinfts and 1 lake bed all pa& Oi 1 ין Severn silt, was disinterred at the The cariest known ram dil 11's mon, riund in Micene deposi in Irance. Try vid's from any living for; and it is a ceale fet, tet Professor (won his determined the Anoplotherium, a atural of the Pawn 5 (the Locenc), resembled in several particulars eabryo Lalainant, but that the true ruminant cloven feet and rumiratin; stomach did not ar until a later period in the fertiary series. gigantic "Irish elk" (Megaceros Hibernicus), which was formerly very abundant in Ireland and the Isle of Man. Its remains have also been found in England. The remains of this great Irish deer (Megaceros) are first found in the Red crag; it lived through the long Glacial epoch, was the contemporary of the mammoth and the long-haired rhinoceros, while it is not improbable that a pre-historic human race slew the last of these noble deer. We learn from Professor Owen that this animal was a true deer, not an "elk," and "intermediate between the fallow and reindeer." The Earl of Enniskillen possesses some magnificent heads and one entire skeleton of this animal. Portions of antlers of different species of deer are abundant in the drifts and old lake beds of all parts of England. I possess a fine antler of the existing red deer (C. Elaphus) which, overlaid by thirty-seven feet of alluvial Severn silt, was disinterred at the great dock works of the Severn Navigation Company at Tewkesbury. The earliest known ruminant animals have been found in Miocene deposits in France. They differ widely from any living form; and it is a remarkable fact, that Professor Owen has determined that the Anoplotherium, an animal of the Dawn epoch (the Eocene), resembled in several particulars the embryo ruminant, but that the true ruminant with cloven feet and ruminating (stomach did not appear until a later period in the tertiary series. Order 5. PERISSODACTYLA. Odd-toed animals (one or three). This order is divided into two families : 1. SOLIPEDIA (solid-hoofed)—horse. : 2. PACHYDERMATA (thick-skinned) rhinoceros, tapir, hyrax. 1. SOLIPEDIA. The ancient appellation "soliped," means whole-hoofed, and applies to the equine genus, a family of quadrupeds so useful to man, that it was formerly supposed horses and asses were created especially for man's purposes. We now know that there were antetypes and representatives, in bygone epochs, of the common horse. When the Spaniards discovered America, no horse was in existence throughout the length and breadth of that vast continent; but, being introduced, it has run wild, and in South America abounds in large herds. Yet America had formerly a horse which became extinct before the days of the Incas and Indians, and the remains of which are imbedded with enormous American sloths, armadillos, and other animals, which are also themselves extinct, although the shells that were their contemporaries are still living. A representative of the horse (Architherium) lived in the Dawn period, and there were some extraordinary forms,-one called Hipparion, a three-hoofed horse, and another a beast between the horse and rhinoceros (Elasmotherium), which lived in the days of those Miocene tertiaries, when volcanic action was rife in the north of Ireland and west of Scotland, and in the plains of central France. 2. PACHYDERMATA.-Cuvier ranked the pachyderms, or thick-skinned animals, and the ruminants as the two most distinct orders of animals. The later researches of the geologist and palæontologist furnish us with striking illustrations on the affinities of extinct species to living forms of animals. Mr. Darwin says, and truly, that "the more ancient any form is, the more, as a general rule, it differs from living forms," and "that the extinct forms of life help to fill up the wide intervals between existing genera, families, and orders." Professor Owen's discoveries obliged him to alter Baron Cuvier's classification of the ruminants and pachyderms. Cuvier ranked the pig as a pachyderm ; but Owen discovered so many fossil links, so many intermediate animals, that he was enabled to fill up, as it were, by fine gradations, the apparently wide interval between the pig and the camel, and he tells us that a vast assemblage of species of beasts, nearly all of which have passed away, filled the interval between the ruminants and pachyderms, and coexisted in Europe with the now exotic genera of elephant, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus. The rhinoceros is a pachyderm, as also is the tapir. A living specimen of the rhinoceros (R. unicornis) may be seen in Regent's Park. The antetype of the rhinoceros was the Palæotherium, a genus which lived during the Eocene epoch, and whose remains are abundant in France. It also inhabited England, and has been found in the Binstead quarries of the Isle of Wight. Like the rhinoceros, the Palæothere frequented the borders of lakes and marshes. Some extinct species of the rhinoceros lived in the Pliocene period, and an extraordinary form of this quadruped inhabited England during the Glacial epoch. Like the mammoth, it was furnished with a twofold covering of wool and shaggy hair. An entire fossil carcase of this rhinoceros was found by Pallas in frozen soil near Yakutsk, in Siberia; and its remains have also been disinterred in large quantities near London. This |