"Pictures which charm the poet's practised eye, And suit the painter's magic skill to draw, Direct the Christian's thoughts to Nature's God, Filling his mind with rapture and with awe; And while these beauteous works his eye explores,

His spirit owns their Maker, and adores."

S. S. S.

THE DINOTHERIUM OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

THERE once existed a huge beast, fossil fragments of which were not unknown to Cuvier, who, from the resemblance of the teeth to those of the tapir, termed it Tapirus giganteus, or, the extinct gigantic tapir. Within the last few years were discovered in the sandstone deposits at Eppelsheim, twelve leagues from Mayence, not only several lower jaws, but also a nearly perfect skull, in company with the skull of an allied animal, and the relics of huge tapirs, elephants, equine animals, and huge carnivora. The sandstone in which these relics occur belongs to the middle deposits of the tertiary system, and contains a mixture of aquatic or semi-aquatic and terrestrial animals. Most of the bones bear the marks of having been rolled, and are even yet Occasionally covered with preserved flustræ, (species of zoophyte,) indicating their temporary residence, after the death of the animals, in an estuary or sea, from which they have been drifted, and then deposited, together with the bed of sandstone which now entombs them, and which is replete with marine shells.

The skull of the dinotherium is at once characterized by the large size of the recess or orifice of the nostrils, and the formation of its posterior part-hollowed, and presenting rugosities for the reception of vast muscles, both for the support and the movement of this massive

head; while the lower jaw is strangely elongated, and curved downwards at its anterior portion, in which, at the extremity, are implanted two huge tusks, following the same line of curvature. The depth of the temporal fosse, for the lodgement of the muscles for moving or raising the jaw in the act of mastication, indicates their enormous volume; and the adjacent bony processes are in due proportion. In no other known animal has the lower jaw so strange a form, or such tusks so singularly placed. Of this

* Cuvier afterwards stated that these remains were the relics of an animal which must constitute a distinct type,

size, casts from the originals in the museum of Darmstadt are in the British Museum, and cannot but strike the attention of even the incurious visitor; they impress upon the mind a feeling of wonder, and the thought naturally arises,—what could the animal have been when alive?

With these relics have been found a shoulder bladebone, something like that of a mole's in form, but, of course, of enormous size; and bones of the feet, showing that they must have been furnished with enormous claws, like those of the pangolin or manis, and fitted for tearing up any object to which the animal applied them. With regard to these bones that they belonged to the same animal of the limbs, it yet remains to be proved to which the skull belonged.

The character of the nasal recess does

not imply of necessity a proboscis. The position of the occipital condyles indicate that the head was continued in a right line from the body, as in the dugong of

the eastern seas; and the downward cur

vature of the lower jaw in the latter aquatic animal, (not one of the whale tribe, but belonging to the pachydermatous series,) exhibits some degree of resemblance to that of the dinotherium. Such a lower jaw as that of unis extinct beast could not have availed a short

necked, terrestrial animal, and, moreover, could not have been supported by an animal, unless the buoyancy of a denser medium than air, that is, water,

operated in aid of the muscles by which it was supported and moved. Other points in the form of the skull, interesting to the comparative anatomist, also go far to prove aquatic habits.

The cogent reason for regarding the dinotherium as an animal which resided in the water, at least habitually, have not escaped Dr. Buckland, although he considers the animal to have been furnished with a proboscis and huge hooked claws, by means of which latter and of its tusks it raked up vegetables from the bottom of lakes and rivers, and seized and conveyed them to its mouth, in the same mode as the elephant. "It is," says Dr. Buckland, "mechanically impossible that a lower jaw, nearly four feet long, loaded with such heavy tusks at its extremity, could have been otherwise than cumbrous and inconvenient to a quadruped living on dry land. No such disadvantage would have attended this structure in a large animal destined to live in water; and the aquatic habits (only partially so) of the family of tapirs, to which the dinotherium was most nearly allied, render it probable that, like them, it was an inhabitant of fresh-water lakes or rivers. To an animal of such habits, the weight of its tusks sustained in water would have been no source of inconvenience; and if we suppose them to have been employed as instruments for raking and grubbing up by the roots large aquatic vegetables from the bottom, they would, under such service, combine the mechanical powers of the pickaxe with those of the horse-harrow of modern husbandry. The weight of the head placed above these downward tusks would add to their efficiency for the service here supposed, as the power of the harrow 19 increased by loading it with weights. The tusks of the dinotherium may also have been applied with mechanical advantage to hook on the head of the animal to the bank, with the nostrils sustained above the water, so as to breathe securely during sleep, while the body remained floating at perfect ease beneath the surface. The animal might thus repose, moored to the margin of a lake or river, without the slightest muscular exertion; the weight of the head and body tending to fix and keep the tusks tast anchored in the substance of the bank. These tusks might have been further used, like those in the upper jaw of the walrus, to assist in dragging the body out of the water, and also as

formidable instruments of defence. The structure of the scapula seems to show that the fore-leg was adapted to co-operate with the tusks and teeth, in digging and separating large vegetables from the bottom. The great length attributed to the body (eighteen feet) would have been no way inconvenient to an animal living in the water, but attended with much mechanical disadvantage to so weighty a quadruped upon land."

To much of the above we willingly subscribe; but we hesitate respecting the proboscis and the clawed limbs, As regards the latter, we must pause before we allow the bones of the fore-limbs, attributed to the dinotherium by professor Kaup, to have really belonged to it. De Blainville states, that the clawbones have been found, with the tooth of a huge animal, confessedly of the pangolin family, (or one of the edentata,) by M. Lartet, which, if correct, sets the matter at rest. As for the hinder limbs, professor Kaup does not pretend to describe them, nor do we know whether it had any or not. It might have resembled, in the absence of these members, and the possession of a terminal paddle, the menatee and dugong. To us, the nasal cavity of the skull seems to indicate a huge inflated muzzle, covering a chamber capable of serving as a reservoir of air, rather than the presence of a proboscis; we may, then, predict valvular nostrils, and imagine a large thick upper lip, concealing even the downward portion of the lower jaw; so that, externally viewed, when the mouth was closed, it would not be easy to say whether the tusks proceeded from the under or upper jaw. We are, in fact, inclined to believe the dinotherium to have been an animal of exclusively aquatic habits, and intermediate between the manatee or dugong, and the true pachydermata, if not immediately allied to the former; in fact, one of those aquatic mammalia, with the fore-limbs like oars, which naturalists, till recently, have regarded as belonging to the great order of whales.

Whatever was the dinotherium, it is one of the extinct forms which once tenanted this planet; its teeth indicate its diet to have been vegetable, and its tusks were evidently instrumental in tearing up the long water-weeds. Perhaps it had its oppressors, gigantic as it was, but this we know not; neither can we follow out its living history nor its fate.

M.

THE FALLOW DEER.

THE fallow deer is well known in the parks, chases, and forests of England. Authorities of eminence maintain that it has been introduced from foreign climes to this country, and its sufferings under the severity of the cold of our winters seem to imply that it is naturally the inhabitant of more genial regions. In this respect its habits are different from the hardy stag and roebuck, which brave the severity even of Scottish winters, and flourish through them without the aid of man. Mr. Bell suggests that the fallow deer was probably brought from the south of Europe, or the western parts of Asia, where it attains a much larger size than in its semi-domesticated state in the parks of this country. On the other hand, it is said to be indigenous, and that, less bold and fleet than the stag, and preferring rich grassy plains and glades to wild hills and uncultivated moorlands, it was

the first of our British deer to succumb to men. Other considerations have induced some to suppose that this species, originally of a brown colour, is one of our native animals; that its spotting is the result of self-domestication, and that this has induced a delicacy of constitution which renders it necessary to have recourse again to the true wild breed still existing in Norway, for the purpose of improving the race, or of enabling it to endure our winters. Which of these opinions is the more correct, is a question which the lapse of time, and the absence of sufficient historic testimony, renders difficult, if not impossible, satisfactorily to affirm. It is generally admitted that James 1. brought fallow deer first into Scotland, and then to Enfield Chase and Epping, to be near his favourite palace, Theobalds. When Pennant wrote, who says that, under the old Welsh laws, a fallow deer was valued at the price of a cow, they were scarcely known in France,

N

but were sometimes found in the north of Europe. He states, that in Spain they were extremely large, and that they are met with in Greece, the Holy Land, and China. For the two latter localities he quotes Hasselquist, who says he saw these animals on Mount Tabor, and Du Halde. He goes on to observe, that in every country but this, these deer were uncontrolled by man; but they are,

and sometimes have been, confined in parks on the continent, as well as in England.

The fallow deer is said to be now common in the forest of Lithuania, from whence, according to Raczinsky, the parks of the Polish nobles were supplied. In Livonia it requires to be sheltered during the winter months. It abounds in Sardinia, and in several of the Greek and other islands in the Mediterranean, but the evidence of its existence in the higher countries of Asia, and onwards through the Chinese dominions, is too obscure to be depended on as truly applicable to this particular species. If not indigenous to France and Spain, the period of its introduction to those countries must have been very remote.

Before the cultivation of the soil had become so general in England, immense tracts of land were preserved for the habitation of the red, and sometimes the fallow deer, and the severest penalties were denounced against those who dared to infringe the laws. The murder of a fellow-creature and the slaughter of a deer were then regarded, unhappily, as equally criminal. The offender was declared an outlaw, and, as he wandered, homeless and destitute, over the wilder districts of the country, or slunk along the coast, with the hope that some friendly vessel would assist him in exiling himself for ever, the hand of every man was extended against him; law, both civil and criminal, awarded him no protection, and he might be destroyed by any one, as a wild beast, being considered to have caput lupinum-the head of a wolf.

In Great Britain there are two varieties of fallow deer-the spotted kind, supposed, by some, to have been imported from Bengal; and the deep-brown sort, now so common, said to have been introduced from Scotland. The principal difference between this animal and the stag seems to be in the size and form of its horns, and in the skin being marked with numerous, and somewhat triangular spots. The horns of the fallow deer, too, are

much larger than those of the stag, being broad and palmated at their ends, and better furnished with antlers. The first year no horns are possessed by the fawn; in the second, they are exceedingly simple, and are called prickets; in the third, two branches appear, and the palms are visible; and in the fifth, it is considered to be "a buck of the first head;" after which the horns only increase in size. These are shed from the middle of April through the first week of May, which are partly renewed by the month of September. The doe generally produces her young in the last week of May, or during the first two of June. The season for buck-venison commences in July, and goes on till about Michaelmas, when doe-venison comes in, and continues till January. As an article of food, it is considered superior to that of any other of the deer tribe.

Fallow deer associate in herds, which sometimes divide into two parties, and maintain obstinate battles for the possession of some favourite part of the park; each party having its leader, which is the strongest and most experienced of the herd. They attack in regular order of battle, fighting with courage, mutually supporting one another; they retire, they rally, and seldom give up after one defeat. The combat is frequently renewed, till, after several defeats, the weaker party is obliged to give way, and leave the conquerors in possession of the object of their contention. In obtaining their food, ingenuity is frequently displayed. In Bushy-park, when endeavouring to obtain the berries from the thorn bushes which are beyond their reach, the bucks have been observed to spring from the ground, and, shaking their horns in the entangling branches, to scatter the food, which they have then quietly consumed.

Fallow deer easily become familiar with man, and those who have visited Greenwich park cannot have failed to observe them, as they familiarly intrude themselves for a biscuit or an apple. Playford, in his "Introduction to Music," says: "When travelling some years since, I met on the road, near Royston, a herd of about twenty, following a bagpipe and violin, which, while the music played, went forward; when it ceased, they all stood still: and in this manner they were brought out of Yorkshire to Hampton Court." Partiality for musical sounds, however, is by no means

restricted to deer, of which numerous illustrations might easily be given.

N. S.

THE CONVERSION OF SAUL OF TARSUS. CAN a sinful mortal be conceived to be at a greater distance from Christianity than Saul was, the moment prior to his reception of it? Then was he nearest the very gate of hell, when just about to enter the gate of the kingdom of heaven. What a state is that which the historian describes! "Then Saul, breathing out threatening and slaughter." His heart was hot within him. It burned with rancour and cruelty. His breath was flame. Imprecations and threats were vomited from that heart, through that mouth. The volcano of his breast heaved and swelled, and poured its streams of fire on every side. A hotter brand,

surely, was never quenched in the blood of the Saviour. His was not a temper prepared to yield to slight evidence; and his very religion placed him beyond the reach of the ordinary means of recovery. He was young, and naturally generous: but, by the religion of the Pharisees, his heart was encrusted with hardness. All the softer feelings, like doves in a tempest, scared and scattered by the rage and uproar of his malignant passions, shrank into the recesses of his soul, nor dared to interpose and look out. Only a miracle could reclaim such a man. That such a man was converted, is itself proof of the miracle. We have his own account of the miracle, as given to Agrippa: "Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. Oh what a change now took place in Saul's temper! He who once destroyed men's lives, now lives, and is willing to die to save them. He who had no pity, now yearns over the guilt and wretchedness of the whole world.-R. Watson.

THE PARENTS OF ALL LIVING.

No. II.

THE ARGUMENT DERIVED FROM THE DISTINCTIVE MARKS AND HABITS, FOUND WITHOUT DEVIATION IN THE VARIOUS DIFFERENT SPECIES OF ANIMALS.

AMONG the great variety of creatures, many possess certain marks or qualities, which give them a general resemblance, while they are nevertheless found to be different in several essential particulars. These distinctions afford the highest probability that they were of a different origin in creation, though included by naturalists in general tribes. Those who have endeavoured to classify the animal creation, often use such expressions as the ox-kind, the dog- kind, the cat-kind; but however expressive our old English word "kind" may be, it is too comprehensive, in its general use, to correspond with accurate observation. The word "kind," as used in the sacred record, doubtless means species, as it is now applied to such creatures as have proceeded from one original pair; while the term "genus" comprehends those which possess only a general resemblance. A race of plants or animals, marked by peculiar habits or character, which they have constantly displayed, is termed "a species;" and two species are always essentially different, if they are distinguished from each other by some characteristic, which the one cannot be supposed to have acquired, or the other to have lost, by the operation of any outward causes. We are thus led to conclude that those species, thus distinguished, have not descended from the same original stock.

are

Cuvier, with reference to the animal kingdom, has this remark: "We under the necessity of admitting the existence of certain forms, which have perpetuated themselves from the beginning of the world, without exceeding the limits first prescribed: all individuals belonging to one of these forms, constitute what is termed a species."

There may be varieties in individuals of a species, either of plants or animals; but when brought about by any casual intermixture of species, it is found never to be permanent: a few generations wear out the medley, and the original type appears in all its former qualities and solidity. Hence the introduction of the "race," which, when applied to individuals of slightly different modifications from the original, implies, strictly, that

term