corded by my father, the late Mr. Samuel Woodward, as ascertained to have been dredged during a period of thirteen years upon the oyster-bed off Hasboro', on the Norfolk coast; "by far the largest number of these," says Dr. Falconer, "belong to Elephas antiquus." Elephas primigenius (the "Mammoth," properly so called,) possesses unusual interest in connection with early man. Not only because it is one of those forms which, there is reason to believe, extended back into Pre-glacial times; but also because it is apparently brought so near our own day by the discoveries of entire bodies of this remarkable beast embedded in the frozen soil and ice of the great rivers of Siberia and in Behring's Straits; no fewer than nine of which are on record. Its range in geographical area was equally great. It has been found in Ireland, Britain, through Europe, from the extreme north to the hills of Rome, and from France to the Ural Mountains, thence across Siberia into N. America, and southward to the Ohio, where its remains occur with those of the Mastodon in Big-bone-lick, Kentucky.

In October, 1864, I had the pleasure to visit Ilford, in Essex, and there see and examine the only existing cranium of Elephas primigenius with the tusk attached which has ever been obtained and preserved in this country. It is entirely owing to the skill and great practical judgment of Mr. W. Davies, of the Geological Department of the British Museum, that this fine fossil was ever raised from its matrix to adorn our National Museum. No doubt hundreds of these remains have turned up in the valley of the Thames alone, but never before was the requisite skill brought to bear upon so unwieldy and friable a relic. The right tusk, which was found detached from the skull, measured ten feet ten inches, including the portion which in the left side is enclosed within the alveolus. From the top of the cranium to the end of the socket of the tusk is four feet. The circumference of the tusk, one foot from the socket, is twenty-six inches.

The three species of Rhinoceros are all extinct. Of the three(1) R. megarhinus, or the great slender-limbed Rhinoceros, with largelydeveloped nasals, appears to be characteristic of the Norfolk Forestbed and Grays Thurrock. It also occurs in France, associated with the Mastodon brevirostris, and in Italy with the Mastodon arvernensis. (2) R. tichorhinus and (3) R. leptorhinus are the two species common to the ossiferous deposits of our caverns, and they also are found together in the Brick-earth of Ilford. A unique skull (the only one known) of Rhinoceros leptorhinus, was obtained from the same brick-field at Ilford which yielded the Mammoth skull. We are indebted also to Mr. Davies for the preservation of this most valuable relic. All these Rhinoceri were bicorn, and resembled the Sumatran species. Like the Mammoth, the Rhinoceri had an enormously extended range in Pre-historic times. One of the earliest remains found in Russian Siberia, imbedded in ice, was an almost entire example of the great woolly R. tichorhinus, found in 1772 by Pallas, on the banks of a tributary of the Lena, lat. 64 degrees. 1 See GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE, 1868, Vol. V., p. 540, Pl. XXII. and XXIII.

VOL. VI.-NO. LIV.

5

This carcass emitted an odour like putrid flesh; part of the skin was still covered with short, crisp wool, with black and grey hairs. The head and foot are preserved at St. Petersburg, in the Royal Museum.

Hippopotamus major.-As might be expected, the remains of the Hippopotamus are more frequently found in river-deposits than in caves. Yet this remark does not hold good in all cases. Remains have been found in one of the Gower Caves (Raven's Cliff), Durdham Down Caves, in Kent's Hole near Torquay, Kirkdale, and other localities, but in the Grottoes of San Ciro and Maccagnone, in Sicily, the Hippopotamus remains formed by far the greater bulk. Many ship-loads of these interesting relics were quarried and sent to Marseilles and England to be used in sugar-refining! Professor Ferrara, who examined the remains, stated that the great mass belonged to two species of Hippopotamus. Those collected by Dr. Falconer are preserved in the British Museum, and identified with H. major and H. Pentlandi. It is abundantly distributed through our River-valley, gravel and Brick-earth deposits, and occurs from Yorkshire southwards through England, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, etc.

From observations of the habits of the living animal (H. amphibius) in South Africa, we learn that, where undisturbed, it frequents with equal pleasure the coast as it does the rivers, and that north of Port Natal they not only swarm in the rivers but upon the sea-shore, retreating to the sea when disturbed or attacked. Such evidence as this enables us to understand the presence, in Pre-historic times, of the Hippopotamus in Britain during the summer, even after this country had been isolated from the Continent, although this seems not to have been the case, until nearly the close of the Quaternary period.

A species of Marmot (the Sphermophilus erythrogenoides of Falconer), and another Rodent (Lagomys spelaus), a species of tailless hare, completes the list of extinct species contemporaneous with man. For, incredible as it may seem, it appears that after a careful investigation of the remains of Felis spelaa, the Cave-lion, Messrs. Boyd Dawkins and Sanford have concluded that it cannot be differentiated in any way whatever from the existing lion of Africa. And again that Hyana spelaa is only a variety of H. crocuta, the great spotted Hyæna of S. Africa.

We now pass therefore to Animals whose geographical distribution has been changed. These we can analyze more fully than the extinct forms before enumerated; and they arrange themselves naturally into two divisions-those which have migrated north, and those which have migrated south.

The first division, as you will have anticipated, is by far the largest of the two, including nine species. The second consists of two only (the Cave-lion and Cave-hyæna already referred to).

Spermophilus citillus" the pouched Marmot" is the first. Its remains have been found at Fisherton, the Mendip Caves, and else

where in England, and also in the Liege Caverns. It is still met with in northern and central Europe, near the snow-line.

The Lemming (also found at Fisherton, near Salisbury) is now represented in Lapland, Norway, Greenland, Siberia, and Arctic North America. Its migratory and gregarious habits have been ably described by Richardson and others.

The Ovibos moschatus-" Musk-ox," or "musk sheep," possesses peculiar interest, as one of those generalized species still left us, which we were long at a loss where to place with certainty, whether with the Oxen or the Sheep. M. Lartet has shown, however, reason for placing it with the Ovida and Capride. The gravel of the Avon, the river-gravel near Maidenhead, and Green Street Green, in Kent, and the Crayford brick-pits, in the valley of the Thames, have all yielded examples of this animal. It has also been detected by M. Lartet in France. In Siberia its remains occur in the frozen mud of the great rivers, which yield the bodies of the Mammoth, along the whole line of the shores of the Polar Sea. Its living habitat is now the barren, treeless wastes of the high northern latitudes of North America, and our Arctic voyagers have traced it and lived upon it so lately as 1856. Captain (now Sir Leopold) M'Clintock gives the following statistics of the Musk-ox in a paper read before the Royal Dublin Society, 25th January, 1857: Musk-oxen on Melville Island, April 4 and May 13, saw 59 (shot two); third visit, July 1 to 19, saw 30 (shot two); Prince Patrick's Island, May 14 and June 26, saw 5 (shot three)-total seen, 94; number shot, seven. They were so unused to man's presence that, when one of a herd was shot, it was often difficult to induce the rest of the party to move off, so as to allow M'Clintock and his men to take possession of their fallen comrade. We cannot help contrasting this brave and noble sailor's conduct with that of the Laird of Lamont. M'Clintock observes, "We never killed more than we absolutely needed." Mr. Lamont, on the contrary, gives a list of walruses and other victims "shot for pastime," and left to render still more desolate with their decaying carcases these northern seas.

4. The "Saiga Antelope" deserves a word. It has lately been determined as occurring in the caves of France, with the reindeer, etc. An antelope is recorded as being found fossil, together with several species of deer, beaver, wild boar, etc., in shell-marl beneath peat, near Newbury, in Berkshire, by Dr. J. Collet, F.R.S., in 1757.(Phil. Trans.) May not this also have been the Saiga antelope? It is now found to inhabit the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains, and the shores of the Sea of Azof. On a small island a number were found living, so tame as to be undismayed at a discharge of fire-arms. It is to be seen alive in the Zoological Gardens. It is the only tapir-snouted antelope known.

5. The brown bear, Ursus arctos, occurs both in Britain and Ireland. Undoubted remains from Longford, in Ireland, and Manea Fen, Cambridgeshire, are preserved in the British Museum. It still lives in Russia. So lately as A.D. 1057 bears were natives of

Scotland and Wales, and reckoned among the beasts of the chase, equal to the hare or the boar (Ray, Syn. Quad. p. 214).

6. Gulo luscus-the " Wolverine," or "Glutton"-was once a native of this country, as its remains testify from the caverns of Banwell, Bleadon, and Gower. It is still common in Siberia and North America, and is the pest of the fur-hunters of those countries. 7. The "Ermine," Mustela erminea, is another of the Weasel tribe, now gone North-east, and over the Ural chain into Siberia.

8. The "Elk," Alces malchis, has been met with in Scotland, at Chirdon Burn, beneath peat, in a similar deposit as the Megaceros in Ireland. A lower jaw also has been obtained from Llandebie Cave, in South Wales. It is the true Elk of Norway, or Moose-deer of

the Canadians.

9. If we take into consideration the relative importance of the various animals to man in his hunter state, the whole list is probably surpassed by the Reindeer (Cervus tarandus). Not only do we find its remains in greater profusion than that of any other animal in those caves in which man undoubtedly resided, but his weapons were for the most part fabricated from its horns, bones, and sinews; and doubtless, his clothes were composed of its skin. The later investigations of Mr. Pengelly, at Torquay, have led to the discovery of similar barbed javelins of Reindeer horn to those of the French Caves. That fewer cut antlers have been found in England than in France, may be due to the more savage condition of the early Britons; but it cannot be attributed to lack of the reindeer. In Boscoe's Den, Gower, South Wales, more than 1,000 antlers have been obtained by Colonel Wood; indeed, their remains are almost co-extensive with the cavern and river-valley and peat-deposits. It is reasonable to suppose that the reindeer may have retained a footing in Scotland even long after the Roman occupation of Britain; but it must have yielded, if living there, not only before the pursuit of the chase by man, but also before the overpowering influence of the red-deer, Cervus elaphus, and still more to the great change in physicial conditions which effected our climate. That the reindeer could continue to live for long in Britain after its isolation from France, seems unlikely, for the migratory instincts were as strong in the race then as at the present day. The only change produced has been to modify the area which the migration formerly extended over. Instead of migrating southward in winter, from Norway and Denmark into France and Britain, they are not only pressed northward by the great tide of human beings which has occupied their former territory, but also by the change in the thermometer. Vast as was the range of the reindeer in past times, we see how enormous is its kingdom in our own day. Through Northern Europe, Asia, and America, it occupies the area from the edge of the woods to the farthest northern latitude, crossing the frozen sea fearlessly in vast herds from land to land. Sir Leopold M'Clintock mentions seeing, on Melville Island, in April and May, on two visits, 29 head of reindeer, two of which he shot. In July, on two visits, he saw 74, and again shot one. On Prince Patrick's

Island, in May and June, he saw eight, and shot five. On Emerald Island, in June, 13 head; being a total of 124 head seen in these three far northern islands, between 76° and 77° North lat.

When migrating in Siberia, says the Russian Admiral von Wrangel, the migrating body may consist of many thousand head of deer, and though they are divided into herds of some 200 or 300 each, yet they always keep so near as to form only one immense mass, sometimes 60 miles in length. In crossing the rivers they all follow the same route. They select a place where a dry valley leads down to the stream on one side and a flat sandy shore facilitates landing on the other. As each separate herd approaches the river, the deer draw more closely together, and the largest and strongest buck takes the lead. He advances, closely followed by a few of the others, with head erect, and apparently intent on examining the locality; having satisfied himself that all is right, he enters the river, the rest of the herd crowd in after him, and in a few minutes the surface is covered with them. It is doubtless due to casualties in these migrations that we owe some, if not all, of our reindeer bones in river-valley deposits. Detached antlers may easily be explained where they occur in quantities (as in the peninsula of Gower, in South Wales) by the annual shedding of the horns; but most of those from the Caves have a part of the skull attached to the burr of the horn. This is so in more than 50 from the Cave of Bruniquel, which have passed through my hands.

In many of the Caverns of Central and Southern France we have abundant evidence that the wild Horse was largely eaten by the Cave-dwellers, and that its bones formed an important article for the fabrication of many of their weapons of the chase, and also for their needles. Remains of Horse are abundant in the Bruniquel Cave.

Of the animals now living, but become extinct in some regions, the Beaver-Castor Europaeus (or Castor fiber? of Canada) from being killed by man is, probably, quite extinct in Europe. Only one refuge seems left to it by any chance, and that is the mouths of the Danube in the Euxine Sea, where its fossil congener is found. It was formerly abundant in our Welsh rivers, even at a late date, comparatively speaking. It was scarce in the 9th century, in the 12th it was only found in one river in Wales, and another in Scotland. There can be no doubt the Beaver was killed off the face of the land for the sake of his fur coat. His remains are abundant in the Cambridgeshire fens, and he did his best to divert the rivers and destroy the land for his own pleasure, but like other selfish pleasureseekers, his would-be pools became peat, and in it are embedded the bones of the curious, ingenious, but destructive rodent, who aided the mischief.

In a single night, not long since, the Beaver at the Zoological Gardens diverted all the water of his pond, by the introduction of mud into his tank, and sent several dozen gallons of very dirty water over the gravel walk. He wanted to make a dam-failing which he made a mess!

The Lithuanian Bison-preserved by Imperial ukase of his Majesty