Part 28 (1/2)

Many bones of the Mastodon have been found in America since that time, but remains are rarely met with in Europe, except as fragments--as the portion of a jaw-bone discovered in the Red Crag near Norwich, which Professor Owen has named _Mastodon angustidens_. It was even thought, for a long time, with Cuvier, that the Mastodon belonged exclusively to the New World; but the discovery of many of the bones mixed with those of the Mammoth, (_Elephas primigenius_) has dispelled that opinion.

Bones of Mastodon have been found in great numbers in the Val d'Arno. In 1858 a magnificent skeleton was discovered at Turin.

The form of the teeth of the Mastodon shows that it fed, like the Elephant, on the roots and succulent parts of vegetables; and this is confirmed by the curious discovery made in America by Barton. It lived, no doubt, on the banks of rivers and on moist and marshy lands. Besides the great Mastodon of which we have spoken, there existed a Mastodon one-third smaller than the Elephant, and which inhabited nearly all Europe.

There are some curious historical facts in connection with the remains of the Mastodon which ought not to be pa.s.sed over in silence. On the 11th of January, 1613, the workmen in a sand-pit situated near the Castle of Chaumont, in Dauphiny, between the cities of Montricourt and Saint-Antoine, on the left bank of the Rhone, found some bones, many of which were broken up by them. These bones belonged to some great fossil Mammal, but the existence of such animals was at that time wholly unknown. Informed of the discovery, a country surgeon named Mazuyer purchased the bones, and gave out that he had himself discovered them in a tomb, thirty feet long by fifteen broad, built of bricks, upon which he found the inscription TEUTOBOCCHUS REX. He added that, in the same tomb, he found half a hundred medals bearing the effigy of Marius. This Teutobocchus was a barbarian king, who invaded Gaul at the head of the Cimbri, and who was vanquished near _Aquae s.e.xtiae_ (Aix in Provence) by Marius, who carried him to Rome to grace his triumphal procession. In the notice which he published in confirmation of this story, Mazuyer reminded the public that, according to the testimony of Roman authors, the head of the Teuton king exceeded in dimensions all the trophies borne upon the lances in the triumph. The skeleton which he exhibited was five-and-twenty feet in length and ten broad.

Mazuyer showed the skeleton of the pretended Teutobocchus in all the cities of France and Germany, and also to Louis XIII., who took great interest in contemplating this marvel. It gave rise to a long controversy, or rather an interminable dispute, in which the anatomist Riolan distinguished himself--arguing against Habicot, a physician, whose name is all but forgotten. Riolan attempted to prove that the bones of the pretended king were those of an Elephant. Numerous pamphlets were exchanged by the two adversaries, in support of their respective opinions. We learn also from Ga.s.sendi, that a Jesuit of Tournon, named Jacques Tissot, was the author of the notice published by Mazuyer. Ga.s.sendi also proves that the pretended medals of Marius were forgeries, on the ground that they bore Gothic characters. It seems very strange that these bones, which are still preserved in the cases of the Museum of Natural History in Paris, where anybody may see them, should ever have been mistaken, for a single moment, for human remains. The skeleton of Teutobocchus remained at Bordeaux till 1832, when it was sent to the Museum of Natural History in Paris, where M. de Blainville declared that it belonged to a Mastodon.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 166.--Skeleton of Mesopithecus.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 167.--Mesopithecus restored. One-fifth natural size.]

The Apes made their appearance at this period. In the ossiferous beds of Sansan M. Lartet discovered the _Dryopithecus_, as well as _Pithecus antiquus_, but only in imperfect fragments. M. Albert Gaudry was more fortunate: in the Miocene rocks of Pikermi, in Greece, he discovered the entire skeleton of _Mesopithecus_, which we present here (Fig. 166), together with the same animal restored (Fig. 167). In its general organisation it resembles the dog-faced baboon or ape, a piece of information which has guided the artist in the restoration of the animal.

The seas of the Miocene period were inhabited by great numbers of beings altogether unknown in earlier formations; we may mention no less than ninety marine genera which appear here for the first time, and some of which have lived down to our epoch. Among these, the molluscous Gasteropods, such as _Conus_, _Turbinella_, _Ranella_, _Murex_ (Fig.

169), and _Dolium_ are the most abundant; with many Lamellibranchiata.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 168.--Cerithium plicatum.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 169.--Murex Turonensis.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 170.--Ostrea longirostris. One quarter natural size.

Living form.]

The Foraminifera are also represented by new genera, among which are the Bolivina, Polystomella, and Dentritina.

Finally, the Crustaceans include the genera _Pagurus_ (or the Hermit crabs); _Astacus_. (the lobster); and _Portunus_ (or paddling crabs). Of the first, it is doubtful if any fossil species have been found; of the last, species have been discovered bearing some resemblance to _Podophthalmus vigil_, as _P. Defrancii_, which only differs from it in the absence of the sharp spines which terminate the lateral angles of the carapace in the former; while _Portunus leucodon_ (Desmarest) bears some a.n.a.logy to Lupea.

[Ill.u.s.tration: XXIV.--Ideal Landscape of the Miocene Period.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 171.--Podophthalmus vigil.]

An ideal landscape of the Miocene period, which is given on the opposite page (PLATE XXIV.), represents the Dinotherium lying in the marshy gra.s.s, the Rhinoceros, the Mastodon, and an Ape of great size, the _Dryopithecus_, hanging from the branches of a tree. The products of the vegetable kingdom are, for the greater part, a.n.a.logous to those of the present time. They are remarkable for their abundance, and for their graceful and serried vegetation; and still remind us in some respects, of the vegetation of the Carboniferous period. It is, in fact, a continuation of the characteristics of that period, and from the same cause, namely, the submersion of land under marshy waters, which has given birth to a sort of coal which is often found in the Miocene formation, and which we call _lignite_. This imperfect coal does not quite resemble that of the Carboniferous, or true Coal-measure period, because it is of much more recent date, and because it has not been subjected to the same internal heat, accompanied by the same pressure of superinc.u.mbent strata, which produced the older coal-beds of the Primary epoch.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 172.--Lupea pelagica.]

The _lignites_, which we find in the Miocene, as in the Eocene period, const.i.tute, however, a combustible which is worked and utilised in many countries, especially in Germany, where it is made in many places to serve in place of coal. These beds sometimes attain a thickness of above twenty yards, but in the environs of Paris they form beds of a few inches only, which alternate with clays and sands. We cannot doubt that lignites, like true coal, are the remains of the buried forests of an ancient world; in fact, the substance of the woods of our forests, often in a state perfectly recognisable, is frequently found in the lignite beds; and the studies of modern botanists have demonstrated, that the species of which the lignites are formed, belong to a vegetation closely resembling that of Europe in the present day.

Another very curious substance is found with the lignite--yellow amber.

It is the mineralised resin, which flowed from certain extinct pine-trees of the Tertiary epoch; the waves of the Baltic Sea, was.h.i.+ng the amber out of the deposits of sand and clay in which it lies buried, this substance, being very little heavier than water, is thrown by the waves upon the sh.o.r.e. For ages the Baltic coast has supplied commerce with amber. The Phnicians ascended its banks to collect this beautiful fossil resin, which is now chiefly found between Dantzic and Memel, where it is a government monopoly in the hands of contractors, who are protected by a law making it theft to gather or conceal it.

Amber,[91] while it has lost none of its former commercial value, is, besides, of much palaeontological interest; fossil insects, and other extraneous bodies, are often found enclosed in the nodules, where they have been preserved in all their original colouring and integrity of form. As the poet says--

[91] See Bristow's ”Glossary of Mineralogy,” p. 11.