Extinct Monsters: A Popular Account of Some of the Larger Forms of Ancient Animal LifeHutchinson, H. N. (Henry Neville)
Science
Extinct Monsters: A Popular Account of Some of the Larger Forms of Ancient Animal Life
Hutchinson, H. N. (Henry Neville)
Paleontology
With the following eloquent passage from Dr. Falconer's "Memoirs," we
take leave of the remarkable Sivalik fauna, hoping that future
geologists will endeavour to follow his example and bring to light yet
other "lost creations" from that region, so rich in fossils, yet
comparatively unexplored. Would that the English Government could see
their way to follow the example of the United States, and send out a
scientific expedition to explore this wonderful region! There can be
no doubt that a rich harvest lies waiting there to be reaped.
"What a glorious privilege it would be, could we live back--were it
but for an instant--into those ancient times when these extinct
animals peopled the earth! to see them all congregated together in one
grand natural menagerie--these mastodons and elephants, so numerous in
species, toiling their ponderous forms and trumpeting their march in
countless herds through the swamps and reedy forests! to view the
giant Sivatherium, armed in front with four horns, spurning the
timidity of his race, and, ruminant though he be, proud in his
strength, and bellowing his sturdy career in defiance of all
aggression! And then the graceful giraffes, flitting their shadowy
forms like spectres through the trees, mixed with troops of large as
well as pigmy horses, and camels, antelopes, and deer! And then, last
of all, by way of contrast, to contemplate the colossus of the
tortoise race, heaving his unwieldy frame, and stamping his toilsome
march along plains which hardly look over strong to sustain him!
"Assuredly it would be a heart-stirring sight to behold! But although
we may not actually enjoy the effect of the living pageant, a still
higher order of privilege is vouchsafed to us. We have only to light
the torch of philosophy, to seize the clue of induction, and, like the
Prophet Ezekiel in the vision, to proceed into the valley of death,
when the graves open before us and render forth their contents; the
dry and fragmented bones run together, each bone to his bone; the
sinews are laid over, the flesh is brought on, the skin covers all,
and the past existence--_to the mind's eye_--starts again into being,
decked out in all the lineaments of life. 'He who calls that which
hath vanished back again into being, enjoys a bliss like that of
creating.' Such were the words of the philosophical Niebuhr, when
attempting to fill up the blanks in the fragmentary records of the
ancient Romans, whose period in relation to past time dates but as of
yesterday. How much more highly privileged, then, are we, who can
recall, as it were, the beings of countless remote ages, when man was
not yet dreamed of! not only this, but if we use discreetly the lights
which have been given to us, we may invoke the spirit of the winds,
and learn how _they_ were tempered to suit the natures of these
extinct beings."
CHAPTER XII.
GIANT SLOTHS AND ARMADILLOS.
"Injecta monstris terra dolet suis."
Horace, _Odes_, book iii.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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