Bertha's Visit to Her Uncle in England; vol. 3 [of 3]

by Mrs. Marcet

The same laws and the same modes of reasoning, of course, equally apply to petrified bones; and in this manner seventy-eight different fossil quadrupeds have been ascertained and classed, of which forty-nine are of extinct species. It is remarkable, that oviparous quadrupeds are generally found in more ancient strata than the viviparous tribes. A few bones of marine animals, such as seals, are found in the shell limestone which immediately covers the chalk strata, but no bones of land quadrupeds have been discovered in that formation; they generally occupy the ancient alluvial beds composed of sand and pebbles which lie over the limestone.

Some species, which though now extinct, belonged to families that still exist, have been found among the remains of the more ancient and unknown genera; but none of the animals which at present inhabit the earth are ever found, except on the sides of rivers, or at the bottom of marshes, or in the superficial formations; and though their deposition has been comparatively recent, their remains are always the worst preserved.

10th.—The plants which I placed in baskets in the pond have flourished so greatly, that I want to try the same plan with other plants of the same nature: my uncle laughs at me, and says I would put the whole contents of the conservatory into my pond; but indeed I only want to try a crinum, a pancratium, and one or two others. However, I shall confine my wishes now to an agapanthus, or African lily, because my aunt thinks that we shall be in Ireland at the flowering time of the others, and that I should not witness the success of my experiment. I have re-potted the agapanthus in a rich sandy compost, but I have only put the fibrous part into the earth: the whole of the tuber remains above ground. This is to be plunged to the rim in the pond, and the gardener has directions to watch its progress, if I should not be here.

Mary has had some plants of the lobelia fulgens in the conservatory for some time; they were planted in good strong loam, and the pots stand in saucers continually supplied with water; they have already grown amazingly, and will, I am sure, be five feet high before the flowers are out. But alas! we shall be away from this dear place when they blossom.

11th.—I had some confused idea that the great fossil animal, which is called the mastodon, was the same as the mammoth; but my uncle told me to-day, that though the remains of the mastodon have some general resemblance to the elephant, yet there is no doubt that they were quite distinct animals. The bones of the mastodon have been found in great numbers both in North and South America, but no complete skeletons have yet been put together. A small species of this animal has been discovered in Saxony, as well as in some other parts of Europe; and naturalists now divide the whole family into five species. The principal points of difference are not only the disposition and shape of the grinding-teeth, but the bulk of the animal; for the great mastodons that have been found on the banks of the Ohio must have stood twelve feet high.

My uncle had before told me that the term mammoth came from Russia; it is said to be of Tartar origin, derived from mama, which signifies the earth; for the Siberians believe that elephants of that description still live under ground. He says that their tusks are found in such abundance in Eastern Siberia and in the Arctic marshes, that almost the whole of the ivory-turner’s work in Russia is made from Siberian fossil ivory, and that it is not at all inferior in quality to the living ivory of Africa and Asia. Although for a long series of years thousands have been annually procured from the banks of the rivers and from the shores of the Frozen Sea, yet they are still collected in abundance. The best fossil ivory is found in the countries within the arctic circle, where the ground is thawed at the surface only during their very short summer.

The remains of two other huge animals have also been discovered in America, the megatherium, about the size of the rhinoceros; and the megalonix, which was something smaller. From the construction of their teeth they were both herbivorous, and M. Cuvier supposes their prodigious claws to have been employed in digging up roots. They appear to be different species of the same family; and, though related to the sloth genus, they are, like the mammoth and mastodon, entirely extinct. I asked him how he knew that they were extinct, and he told me it was quite impossible that they could still inhabit the interior of America without its being known to the European settlers on the sea coasts; some of them, in the course of time, must have strayed out of the forests, and have been observed by travellers; or, in our constant intercourse with the natives, who have traversed the country in all directions, some accounts of such large animals must have reached us. In South America the Indians point out these large fossil bones as the remains of gigantic monsters, which would have destroyed the whole human race if they had not been themselves destroyed by the interference of the Great Spirit. Nor is it likely, continued my uncle, that any of the other animals, which we know to be extinct now, should have existed since the deluge: no great catastrophe since that time has happened, which could have been equal to the sweeping away of a whole species; and almost all those that at present inhabit the three continents of the old world are mentioned in the writings of Aristotle, or of other ancient authors. The Romans had such a passion for collecting wild beasts, that in the time of Commodus twenty lions, twenty African hyenas, and ten tygers, were killed in one day’s sport at Rome; and thirty-two elephants, a hippopotamus, and ten camelopards were exhibited there at the same time. To such industrious hunters and showmen there could have been few species unknown.

My uncle mentioned a curious circumstance, which, he says, has not been much noticed: that none of the extraordinary animals which inhabit “New Holland’s continental isle” have ever been found among the fossil remains in any other part of the globe; and of the fossil strata there, very little is yet known.

I asked him if there was any foundation for the chimæra, and the other imaginary monsters of the ancients. “Those ideal creatures,” he replied, “may be partly referred to the marvellous traditions that accompany the early records of all nations; and partly to the habit, which was so prevalent in those times, of describing real objects as well as passions and events by means of metaphor and allegory. It would be childish to expect that we should now find in any part of the globe remains of such animals as the flying pegasus, or as the sphynx of Thebes; but we must not reject as altogether fabulous those which appear in the hieroglyphics of Egypt and Persepolis. The rude sculpture of those ages has perhaps been the common source of many mistakes; for the most simple and natural method of drawing any animal is by its profile; and in this way, the oryx and the unicorn may appear to have had but a single horn—although the bas relief or outline might have been intended to represent the antelope or some other creature with two horns.”

12th.—There were so many changes from brightness to cloudiness this morning, that as my uncle rose from the breakfast-table, he repeated these lines so descriptive of those rapid alternations.