EXTINCTION OF SPECIES.
In reviewing the past succession of different forms of ancient life upon
the globe, we are reminded of a series of dissolving views, in which each
species evolves itself by an imperceptible gradation from some
pre-existing one, arrives at its maximum of individuality, and then slowly
fades away, while another type, either higher or lower, evolved in turn
from it, emerges from obscurity, and succeeds it on the field of view.
Specific individuality has in all cases a natural term, dependent on
physical causes, but that term is in many cases abruptly anticipated by a
combination of unfavourable conditions.
Alteration of climate, isolation by geological changes, such as the
submergence of continents and islands, and the competition of other
species, are among the causes which have at all times operated towards its
destruction; while, since the evolution of man, his agency, so far as we
can judge by what we know of his later history, has been especially active
in the same direction.
The limited distribution of many species, even when not enforced by
insular conditions, is remarkable, and, of course, highly favourable to
their destruction. A multiplicity of examples are familiar to naturalists,
and possibly not a few may have attracted the attention of the ordinary
observer.
For instance, it is probably generally known, that in our own island, the
red grouse (which, by the way, is a species peculiar to Great Britain) is
confined to certain moorlands, the ruffs and reeves to fen districts, and
the nightingale,[38] chough, and other species to a few counties; while
Ireland is devoid of almost all the species of reptiles common to Great
Britain. In the former cases, the need of or predilection for certain
foods probably determines the favourite locality, and there are few
countries which would not furnish similar examples. In the latter, the
explanation depends on biological conditions dating prior to the
separation of Ireland from the main continent. Among birds, it might
fairly be presumed that the power of flight would produce unlimited
territorial expansion, but in many instances the reverse is found to be
the case: a remarkable example being afforded by the island of Tasmania, a
portion of which is called the unsettled waste lands, or Western Country.
This district, which comprises about one-third of the island upon the
western side, and is mainly composed of mountain chains of granites,
quartzite, and mica schists, is entirely devoid of the numerous species of
garrulous and gay-plumaged birds, such as the Mynah mocking-bird, white
cockatoo, wattle bird, and Rosella parrot, though these abundantly enliven
the eastern districts, which are fertilized by rich soils due to the
presence of ranges of basalt, greenstone, and other trappean rocks.
Another equally striking instance is given by my late father, Mr. J.
Gould, in his work on the humming-birds. Of two species, inhabiting
respectively the adjacent mountains of Pichincha and Chimborazo at
certain elevations, each is strictly confined to its own mountain; and, if
my memory serves me correctly, he mentions similar instances of species
peculiar to different peaks of the Andes.
Limitation by insular isolation is intelligible, especially in the case of
mammals and reptiles, and of birds possessing but small power of flight;
and we are, therefore, not surprised to find Mr. Gosse indicating, among
other examples, that even the smallest of the Antilles has each a fauna of
its own, while the humming-birds, some of the parrots, cuckoos, and
pigeons, and many of the smaller birds are peculiar to Jamaica. He states
still further, that in the latter instance many of the animals are not
distributed over the whole island, but confined to a single small
district.
Continental limitation is effected by mountain barriers. Thus, according
to Mr. Wallace, almost all the mammalia, birds, and insects on one side of
the Andes and Rocky Mountains are distinct in species from those on the
other; while a similar difference, but smaller in degree, exists with
reference to regions adjacent to the Alps and Pyrenees.
Climate, broad rivers, seas, oceans, forests, and even large desert
wastes, like the Sahara or the great desert of Gobi, also act more or less
effectively as girdles which confine species within certain limits.
Dependence on each other or on supplies of appropriate food also form
minor yet practical factors in the sum of limitation; and a curious
example of the first is given by Dr. Van Lennep with reference to the
small migratory birds that are unable to perform the flight of three
hundred and fifty miles across the Mediterranean. He states that these are
carried across on the backs of cranes.[39]
In the autumn many flocks of cranes may be seen coming from the North,
with the first cold blast from that quarter, flying low, and uttering
a peculiar cry, as if of alarm, as they circle over the cultivated
plains. Little birds of every species may be seen flying up to them,
while the twittering cries of those already comfortably settled upon
their backs may be distinctly heard. On their return in the spring
they fly high, apparently considering that their little passengers can
easily find their way down to the earth.
The question of food-supply is involved in the more extended subject of
geological structure, as controlling the flora and the insect life
dependent on it. As an example we may cite the disappearance of the
capercailzie from Denmark with the decay of the pine forests abundant
during late Tertiary periods.
Collision, direct or indirect, with inimical species often has a fatal
ending. Thus the dodo was exterminated by the swine which the early
visitors introduced to the Mauritius and permitted to run wild there;
while the indigenous insects, mollusca, and perhaps some of the birds of
St. Helena, disappeared as soon as the introduction of goats caused the
destruction of the whole flora of forest trees.
The Tsetse fly extirpates all horses, dogs, and cattle, from certain
districts of South Africa, and a representative species in Paraguay is
equally fatal to new-born cattle and horses.
Mr. Darwin[40] shows that the struggle is more severe between species of
the same genus, when they come into competition with each other, than
between species of distinct genera. Thus one species of swallow has
recently expelled another from part of the United States; and the
missel-thrush has driven the song-thrush from part of Scotland. In
Australia the imported hive-bee is rapidly exterminating the small
stingless native bee, and similar cases might be found in any number.
Mr. Wallace, in quoting Mr. Darwin as to these facts, points the
conclusion that "any slight change, therefore, of physical geography or
of climate, which allows allied species hitherto inhabiting distinct areas
to come into contact, will often lead to the extermination of one of
them."
It is the province of the palæontologist to enumerate the many remarkable
forms which have passed away since man's first appearance upon the globe,
and to trace their fluctuations over both hemispheres as determined by the
advance and retreat of glacial conditions, and by the protean forms
assumed by past and existing continents under oscillations of elevation
and depression. Many interesting points, such as the dates of the
successive separation of Ireland and Great Britain from the main
continent, can be determined with accuracy from the record furnished by
the fossil remains of animals of those times; and many interesting
associations of animals with man at various dates, in our present island
home and in other countries, have been traced by the discovery of their
remains in connection with his, in bone deposits in caverns and elsewhere.
Conversely, most valuable deductions are drawn by the zoologist from the
review which he is enabled to take, through the connected labours of his
colleagues in all departments, of the distinct life regions now mapped out
upon the face of the globe. These, after the application of the necessary
corrections for various disturbing or controlling influences referred to
above, afford proof reaching far back into past periods, of successive
alterations in the disposition of continents and oceans, and of
connections long since obliterated between distant lands.
The palæontologist reasons from the past to the present, the zoologist
from the present to the past; and their mutual labours explain the
evolution of existing forms, and the causes of the disparity or connection
between those at present characterizing the different portions of the
surface of the globe.
The palæontologist, for example, traces the descent of the horse, which,
until its reintroduction by the Spaniards was unknown in the New World,
through a variety of intermediate forms, to the genus Orohippus occurring
in Eocene deposits in Utah and Wyoming. This animal was no larger than a
fox, and possessed four separated toes in front, and three behind.
Domestic cattle he refers to the Bos primigenius, and many existing
Carnivora to Tertiary forms such as the cave-bear, cave-lion, sabre-tiger,
and the like.
The zoologist groups the existing fauna into distinct provinces, and
demands, in explanation of the anomalies which these exhibit, the
reconstruction of large areas, of which only small outlying districts
remain at the present date, in many instances widely separated by oceans,
though once forming parts of the same continent; and so, for the simile
readily suggests itself, the workers in another branch of science,
Philology, argue from words and roots scattered like fossils through the
various dialects of very distant countries, a mutual descent from a common
Aryan language: the language of a race of which no historical record
exists, though in regard to its habits, customs, and distribution much may
be affirmed from the large collection of word specimens stored in
philological museums.
Thus Mr. Sclater, on zoological grounds, claims the late existence of a
continent which he calls Lemuria, extending from Madagascar to Ceylon and
Sumatra; and for similar reasons Mr. Wallace extends the Australia of
Tertiary periods to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, and perhaps to
Fiji, and from its marsupial types infers a connection with the northern
continent during the Secondary period.
Again, the connection of Europe with North Africa during a late geological
period is inferred by many zoologists from the number of identical species
of mammalia inhabiting the opposite sides of the Mediterranean, and
palæontologists confirm this by the discovery of the remains of elephants
in cave-deposits in Malta, and of hippopotami in Gibraltar; while
hydrographers furnish the supplemental suggestive evidence that an
elevation of only fifteen hundred feet would be sufficient to establish
two broad connections between the two continents--so as to unite Italy
with Tripoli and Spain with Morocco, and to convert the Mediterranean Sea
into two great lakes, which appears, in fact, to have been its condition
during the Pliocene and Post Pliocene periods.
It was by means of these causeways that the large pachyderms entered
Britain, then united to the continent; and it was over them they retreated
when driven back by glacial conditions, their migration northward being
effectually prevented by the destruction of the connecting arms of land.
Some difference of opinion exists among naturalists as to the extent to
which zoological regions should be subdivided, and as to their respective
limitations.
But Mr. A. R. Wallace, who has most recently written on the subject, is of
opinion that the original division proposed by Mr. Sclater in 1857 is the
most tenable, and he therefore adopts it in the very exhaustive work upon
the geographical distribution of animals which he has recently issued. Mr.
Sclater's Six Regions are as follows:--
1.--_The Palæarctic Region_, including Europe, Temperate Asia, and
North Africa to the Atlas mountains.
2.--_The Ethiopian Region_, Africa south of the Atlas, Madagascar, and
the Mascarene islands, with Southern Arabia.
3.--_The Indian Region_, including India south of the Himalayas, to
South China, and to Borneo and Java.
4.--_The Australian Region_, including Celebes and Lombok, Eastward to
Australia and the Pacific islands.
5.--_The Nearctic Region_, including Greenland, and North America, to
Northern Mexico.
6.--_The Neotropical Region_, including South America, the Antilles,
and Southern Mexico.
This arrangement is based upon a detailed examination of the chief genera
and families of birds, and also very nearly represents the distribution of
mammals and of reptiles. Its regions are not, as in other subsequently
proposed and more artificial systems, controlled by climate; for they
range, in some instances, from the pole to the tropics. It probably
approaches more nearly than any other yet proposed to that desideratum, a
division of the earth into regions, founded on a collation of the groups
of forms indigenous to or typical of them, and upon a selection of those
peculiar to them; with a disregard of, or only admitting with caution, any
which, though common to and apparently establishing connection between two
or more regions, may have in fact but little value for the purpose of such
comparison; from the fact of its being possible to account for their
extended range by their capability of easy transport from one region to
another by common natural agencies.[41]
Such an arrangement should be consistent with the retrospective
information afforded by palæontology; and, taking an extended view of the
subject, be not merely a catalogue of the present, but also an index of
the past. It should afford an illustration of an existing phase of the
distribution of animal life, considered as the last of a long series of
similar phases which have successively resulted from changes in the
disposition of land and water, and from other controlling agencies,
throughout all time. A reconstruction of the areas respectively occupied
by the sea and the land at different geological periods will be possible,
or at least greatly facilitated, when a complete system of similar
groupings, illustrative of each successive period, has been compiled.
It is obvious that any great cosmical change, affecting to a wide extent
any of the regions, might determine a destruction of specific existence;
and this on a large scale, in comparison with the change which is always
progressing in a smaller degree in the different and isolated divisions.
The brief remarks which I have made on this subject are intended to
suggest, rather than to demonstrate--which could only be done by a lengthy
series of examples--the causes influencing specific existence and its in
many cases extreme frailty of tenure. And I shall now conclude by citing
from the works of Lyell and Wallace a short list of notable species, now
extinct, whose remains have been collected from late Tertiary, and Post
Tertiary deposits--that is to say, at a time subsequent to the appearance
of man. From other authors I have extracted an enumeration of species
which have become locally or entirely extinct within the historic period.
These instances will, I think, be sufficient to show that, as similar
destructive causes must have been in action during pre-historic times, it
is probable that, besides those remarkable animals of which remains have
been discovered, many others which then existed may have perished without
leaving any trace of their existence. There is, consequently, a
possibility that some at least of the so-called _myths_ respecting
extraordinary creatures, hitherto considered fabulous, may merely be
distorted accounts--_traditions_--of species as yet unrecognised by
Science, which have actually existed, and that not remotely, as man's
congener.
_Extinct Post Tertiary Mammalia._
THE MAMMOTH.--Among other remarkable forms whose remains have been
discovered in those later deposits, in which geologists are generally
agreed that remains of man or traces of his handicraft have also been
recognised, there is one which stands out prominently both for its
magnitude and extensive range in time and space. Although the animal
itself is now entirely extinct, delineations by the hand of Palæolithic
man have been preserved, and even frozen carcases, with the flesh
uncorrupted and fit for food, have been occasionally discovered.
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--THE MAMMOTH. (_After Jukes._)]
This is the mammoth, the _Elephas primigenius_ of Blumenbach, a gigantic
elephant nearly a third taller than the largest modern species, and twice
its weight. Its body was protected from the severity of the semi-arctic
conditions under which it flourished by a dense covering of reddish wool,
and long black hair, and its head was armed or ornamented with tusks
exceeding twelve feet in length, and curiously curved into three parts of
a circle. Its ivory has long been, and still is, a valuable article of
commerce, more especially in North-eastern Asia, and in Eschscholtz Bay in
North America, near Behring's straits, where entire skeletons are
occasionally discovered, and where even the nature of its food has been
ascertained from the undigested contents of its stomach.
There is a well-known case recorded of a specimen found (1799), frozen and
encased in ice, at the mouth of the Lena. It was sixteen feet long, and
the flesh was so well preserved that the Yakuts used it as food for their
dogs. But similar instances occurred previously, for we find the
illustrious savant and Emperor Kang Hi [A.D. 1662 to 1723] penning the
following note[42] upon what could only have been this species:--
"The cold is extreme, and nearly continuous on the coasts of the northern
sea beyond Tai-Tong-Kiang. It is on this coast that the animal called Fen
Chou is found, the form of which resembles that of a rat, but which equals
an elephant in size. It lives in obscure caverns, and flies from the
light. There is obtained from it an ivory as white as that of the
elephant, but easier to work, and which will not split. Its flesh is very
cold and excellent for refreshing the blood. The ancient work Chin-y-king
speaks of this animal in these terms: 'There is in the depths of the north
a rat which weighs as much as a thousand pounds; its flesh is very good
for those who are heated.' The Tsée-Chou calls it Tai-Chou and speaks of
another species which is not so large. It says that this is as big as a
buffalo, buries itself like a mole, flies the light, and remains nearly
always under ground; it is said that it would die if it saw the light of
the sun or even that of the moon."
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--TOOTH OF THE MAMMOTH. (_After Figuier._)]
It seems probable that discoveries of mammoth tusks formed in part the
basis for the story which Pliny tells in reference to fossil ivory. He
says[43]:--"These animals [elephants] are well aware that the only spoil
that we are anxious to procure of them is the part which forms their
weapon of defence, by Juba called their horns, but by Herodotus, a much
older writer, as well as by general usage, and more appropriately, their
teeth. Hence it is that, when these tusks have fallen off, either from
accident or old age, they bury them in the earth."
Nordenskjöld[44] states that the savages with whom he came in contact
frequently offered to him very fine mammoth tusks, and tools made of
mammoth ivory. He computes that since the conquest of Siberia, useful
tusks from more than twenty thousand animals have been collected.
Mr. Boyd Dawkins,[45] in a very exhaustive memoir on this animal, quotes
an interesting notice of its fossil ivory having been brought for sale to
Khiva. He derives[46] this account from an Arabian traveller,
Abou-el-Cassim, who lived in the middle of the tenth century.
Figuier[47] says: "New Siberia and the Isle of Lachon are for the most
part only an agglomeration of sand, of ice, and of elephants' teeth. At
every tempest the sea casts ashore new quantities of mammoth's tusks, and
the inhabitants of New Siberia carry on a profitable commerce in this
fossil ivory. Every year during the summer innumerable fishermen's barks
direct their course to this isle of bones, and during winter immense
caravans take the same route, all the convoys drawn by dogs, returning
charged with the tusks of the mammoth, weighing each from one hundred and
fifty to two hundred pounds. The fossil ivory thus withdrawn from the
frozen north is imported into China and Europe."
In addition to its elimination by the thawing of the frozen grounds of the
north, remains of the mammoth are procured from bogs, alluvial deposits,
and from the destruction of submarine beds.[48] They are also found in
cave deposits, associated with the remains of other mammals, and with
flint implements. This creature appears to have been an object of the
chase with Palæolithic man.
Mr. Dawkins, reviewing all the discoveries, considers that its range, at
various periods, extended over the whole of Northern Europe, and as far
south as Spain; over Northern Asia, and North America down to the Isthmus
of Darien. Dr. Falconer believes it to have had an elastic constitution,
which enabled it to adapt itself to great change of climate.
Murchison, De Verneuil, and Keyserling believed that this species, as well
as the woolly rhinoceros, belonged to the Tertiary fauna of Northern Asia,
though not appearing until the Quaternary period in Europe.
Mr. Dawkins shows it to have been pre-glacial, glacial, and post-glacial
in Britain and in Europe, and, from its relation to the intermediate
species _Elephas armeniacus_, accepts it as the ancestor of the existing
Indian elephant. Its disappearance was rapid, but not in the opinion of
most geologists cataclysmic, as suggested by Mr. Howorth.
Another widely distributed species was the _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_--the
smooth-skinned rhinoceros--also called the woolly rhinoceros and the
Siberian rhinoceros, which had two horns, and, like the mammoth, was
covered with woolly hair. It attained a great size; a specimen, the
carcase of which was found by Pallas imbedded in frozen soil near Wilui,
in Siberia (1772), was eleven and a half feet in length. Its horns are
considered by some of the native tribes of northern Asia to have been the
talons of gigantic birds; and Ermann and Middendorf suppose that their
discovery may have originated the accounts by Herodotus of the
gold-bearing griffons and the arimaspi.
Its food, ascertained by Von Brandt, and others, from portions remaining
in the hollows of its teeth, consisted of leaves and needles of trees
still existing in Siberia. The range of this species northwards was as
extensive as that of the mammoth, but its remains have not yet been
discovered south of the Alps and Pyrenees.
The investigation,[49] made by M. E. Lartet in 1860, of the contents of
the Grotto of Aurignac, in the department of the Haute Garonne, from which
numerous human skeletons had been previously removed in 1852, shows that
this animal was included among the species used as ordinary articles of
food, or as exceptional items at the funeral feasts of the Palæolithic
troglodytes. In the layers of charcoal and ashes immediately outside the
entrance to the grotto, and surrounding what is supposed to have been the
hearth, the bones of a young _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_ were found, which
had been split open for the extraction of the marrow. Numerous other
species had been dealt with in the same manner; and all these having
received this treatment, and showing marks of the action of fire, had
evidently been carried to the cave for banqueting purposes. The remains of
Herbivora associated with those of this rhinoceros, consisted of bones of
the mammoth, the horse (_Equus caballus_), stag (_Cervus elaphus_), elk
(_Megaceros hibernicus_), roebuck (_C. capreolus_), reindeer (_C.
tarandus_), auroch (_Bison europæus_). Among carnivora were found remains
of _Ursus spelæus_ (cave-bear), _Ursus arctos_? (brown bear), _Meles
taxus_ (badger), _Putorius vulgaris_ (polecat), _Hyæna spelæa_
(cave-hyæna), _Felis spelæa_ (cave-lion), _Felis catus ferus_ (wild cat),
_Canis lupus_ (wolf), _Canis vulpis_ (fox). Within the grotto were also
found remains of _Felis spelæa_ (cave-lion) and _Sus scrofa_ (pig). The
cave-bear, the fox, and indeed most of these, probably also formed
articles of diet, but the hyæna seems to have been a post attendant at the
feast, and to have rooted out and gnawed off the spongy parts of the
thrown-away bones after the departure of the company.
In the Pleistocene deposits at Würzburg, in Franconia, a human
finger-bone occurs with bones of this species, and also of other large
mammalia, such as the mammoth, cave-bear, and the like.
And flint implements, and pointed javelin-heads made of reindeer horn, are
found associated with it in the vicinity of the old hearths established by
Palæolithic man in the cave called the Trou du Sureau, on the river
Malignée in Belgium.
In the cavern of Goyet, also in Belgium, there are five bone layers,
alternating with six beds of alluvial deposits, showing that the cave had
been inhabited by different species at various periods. The lion was
succeeded by the cave-bear, and this by hyænas; then Palæolithic man
became a tenant and has left his bones there, together with flint
implements and remains of numerous species, including those already
enumerated as his contemporaries.
THE SABRE-TOOTHED TIGER OR LION.--This species, _Machairodus[50]
latifrons_ of Owen, was remarkable for having long sabre-shaped canines.
It belongs to an extinct genus, of which four other species are known,
characterised by the possession of serrated teeth. The genus is known to
be represented in the Auvergne beds between the Eocene and Miocene, in the
Miocene of Greece and India, in the Pliocene of South America and Europe,
and in the Pleistocene. Mr. Dawkins believes that this species survived to
post-glacial times. It is one of the numerous animals whose remains have
been found with traces of man and flint implements in cave deposits at
Kent's Hole, near Torquay, and elsewhere.
THE CAVE-BEAR, _Ursus spelæus_, of Rosenmüller.--The appearance of this
species has been preserved to us in the drawing by Palæolithic man found
in the cave of Massat (Arieze).
It occurs in the Cromer Forest Bed, a deposit referred by Mr. Boyd Dawkins
to the early part of the Glacial period, and generally regarded as
transitional between the Pliocene and Quaternary. It is also found in the
caves of Perigaud, which are considered to belong to the reindeer era of
M. Lartet or the opening part of the Recent period, and numerous
discoveries of its remains at dates intermediate to these have been made
in Britain and in Europe. Carl Vogt, indeed, is of opinion that this
species is the progenitor of our living brown bear, _Ursus arctos_, and
Mr. Boyd Dawkins also says that those "who have compared the French,
German, and British specimens, gradually realize the fact that the fossil
remains of the bears form a graduated series, in which all the variations
that at first sight appear specific vanish away."
It has been identified by Mr. Busk among the associated mammalian bones of
the Brixham cave. Its remains are very abundant in the bone deposit of the
Trou de Sureau in Belgium, and in the cavern of Goyet, which it tenanted
alternately with the lion and hyæna, and, like them, appears to have
preyed on man and the larger mammalia.
Mr. Prestwich has obtained it in low-level deposits of river gravels in
the valleys of the north of France and south of England, and it has been
obtained from the Löss, a loamy, usually unstratified deposit, which is
extensively distributed over central Europe, in the valleys of the Rhine,
Rhone, Danube, and other great rivers. This deposit is considered by Mr.
Prestwich to be equivalent to other high-level gravels of the Pleistocene
period.
THE MASTODON.--The generic title Mastodon has been applied to a number of
species allied to the elephants, but distinguished from them by a peculiar
structure of the molar teeth; these are rectangular, and in their upper
surfaces exhibit a number of great conical tuberosities with rounded
points disposed in pairs, to the number of four or five, according to the
species; whereas in the elephants they are broad and uniform, and
regularly marked with furrows of large curvature. The mastodons, in
addition to large tusks in the premaxillæ, like those of the elephant, had
also in most instances, a pair of shorter ones in the mandible.
[Illustration: FIG. 11.--MASTODON'S TOOTH (WORN). (_After Figuier._)]
Cuvier established the name Mastodon,[51] or teat-like toothed animals,
for the gigantic species from America which Buffon had already described
under the name of the animal or elephant of the Ohio.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.--MASTODON'S TOOTH. (_After Figuier._)]
The form first appears in the Upper Miocene of Europe, five species being
known, two of them from Pikermi, near Athens, and one, _M. angustidens_,
from the Miocene beds of Malta. Mastodon remains have also been found in
the beds of the Sivalik hills, and four species of mastodon in all are
known to have ranged over India during those periods.
In Pliocene deposits we have abundant remains of _M. arvernensis_, and _M.
longirostris_ from the Val d'Arno in Italy, and the _M. Borsoni_ from
central France.
The _M. arvernensis_ may be considered as a characteristic Pliocene
species in Italy, France, and Europe generally. In Britain it occurs in
the Norwich Crag and the Red Crag of Suffolk.
Species of mastodon occur in the Pliocene of La Plata, and of the
temperate regions of South America; on the Pampas, and in the Andes of
Chili.
The _Mastodon mirificus_ of Leidy is the earliest known species in
America; this occurs in Pliocene deposits on the Niobrara and the Loup
fork, west of the Mississippi.
The remains of the _Mastodon americanus_ of Cuvier occur abundantly in the
Post Pliocene deposits throughout the United States, but more especially
in the northern half; they are also found in Canada and Nova Scotia.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.--THE MASTODON.]
Perfect skeletons are occasionally procured from marshes, where the
animals had become mired. In life this species appears to have measured
from twelve to thirteen feet in height and twenty-four to twenty-five
feet in length, including seven feet for the tusks. Undigested food found
with its remains show that it lived partly on spruce and fir-trees. A
distinct species characterised the Quaternary deposits of South America.
THE IRISH ELK.--The species (_Megaceros hibernicus_), commonly but
erroneously called the Irish Elk, was, as professor Owen[52] has pointed
out, a true deer, whose place is between the fallow and reindeer.
Though now extinct, it survived the Palæolithic period, and may possibly
have existed down to historic times. Mr. Gosse adduces some very strong
testimony on this point, and is of opinion that its extinction cannot have
taken place more than a thousand years ago.
It had a flattened and expanded form of antler, with peculiarities unknown
among existing deer, and was, in comparison with these, of gigantic size;
the height to the summit of the antlers being from ten to eleven feet in
the largest individuals, and the span of the antlers, in one case, over
twelve feet.
Although its remains have been found most abundantly in Ireland, it was
widely distributed over Britain and middle Europe. It has been found in
peat swamps, lacustrine marls, bone caverns, fen deposits, and the Cornish
gravels. It has been obtained from the cavern of Goyet in Belgium, and
from the burial-place at Aurignac, in the department of the Haute Garonne.
Its known range in time is from the early part of the Glacial period down
to, possibly, historic periods.
The CAVE-HYÆNA.--_Hyæna spelæa_ of Goldfuss--is, like the cave-bear,
characteristic of Europe during the Palæolithic age. It has been found in
numerous caves in Britain, such as Kent's Hole, the Brixham cave, and one
near Wells in Somersetshire, explored by Dawkins in 1859; in all of these
the remains are associated with those of man, or with his implements. This
species is closely related to the _H. crocuta_ of Zimm, at present
existing in South Africa, and is by some geologists considered identical
with it. It is, however, larger.
It appears to have to some extent replaced the cave-bear in Britain; we
are also, doubtless, greatly indebted to it for some of the extensive
collections of bones in caverns, resulting from the carcases which it had
dragged thither, and imperfectly destroyed.
In a cave at Kirkdale, in the vale of Pickering, the bones of about three
hundred individuals--hyænas--were found mingled with the remains of the
mammoth, bear, rhinoceros, deer, cave-lion, brown bear, horse, hare, and
other species. Mr. Dawkins,[53] in describing it, says: "The pack of
hyænas fell upon reindeer in the winter, and at other times on horses and
bisons, and were able to master the hippopotamus, the lion, the
slender-nosed rhinoceros, or the straight-tusked elephant, and to carry
their bones to their den, where they were found by Dr. Buckland. The
hyænas also inhabiting the 'Dukeries,' dragged back to their dens
fragments of lion."
Notable Quaternary forms (now extinct) on the American continent are the
gigantic sloth-like animals _Megatherium_, which reached eighteen feet in
length, and _Mylodon_, one species of which (_M. robustus_) was eleven
feet in length; Armadillos, such as _Glyptodon_, with a total length of
nine feet; _Chlamydotherium_, as big as a rhinoceros; and _Pachytherium_,
equalling an ox.
In Australia we find marsupial forms as at the present day; but they were
gigantic in comparison with the latter. As for example, the _Diprotodon_,
which equalled in size a hippopotamus, and the _Nototherium_, as large as
a bullock.
I may mention a few other species, the remains of which are associated
with some of those commented on in the last few pages; but which, as they
have undoubtedly continued in existence down to the present period, are
external to the present portion of my argument, and are either treated of
elsewhere, or need only to be referred to in a few words.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--MYLODON ROBUSTUS. (_After Figuier._)]
It must also be borne in mind that the linking together of species by the
discovery of intermediate graduated forms, is daily proceeding; so that
some even of those spoken of in greater detail may shortly be generally
recognised, as at present they are held by a few, to be identical with
existing forms.
The HIPPOPOTAMUS.--The _Hippopotamus major_, now considered identical with
the larger of the two African species--_H. amphibia_, has been found
associated with _E. antiquus_ and _R. hemitæchus_ of Falc in Durdham Down
and Kirkdale caves, and in those at Kent's Hole and Ravenscliff. It has
also been found in river gravels at Grays, Ilford, and elsewhere, in the
lower part of the river-border deposits of Amiens with flint implements,
and in Quaternary deposits on the continent of Europe.
THE CAVE-LION--_Felis spelæa_--is now considered to be merely a variety of
the African lion (_Felis leo_), although of larger size; it had a very
wide range over Britain and Europe during the Post Pliocene period, as
also did the leopard (_F. pardus_) and probably the lynx (_Lyncus_).
The REINDEER or CARIBOO--_Cervus tarandus_--which still exists, both
domesticated and wild, in northern Europe and America, is adapted for
northern latitudes. It formerly extended over Europe, and in the British
Isles probably survived in the north of Scotland until the twelfth
century.
Its remains have been found in Pleistocene deposits in numerous
localities, but most abundantly in those which M. Lartet has assigned to
the period which he calls the Reindeer age.
Other Pleistocene mammals still existing, but whose range is much
restricted, are the musk ox (_Ovibos moschatus_), familiar to us, from the
accounts of arctic expeditions, as occurring in the circumpolar regions of
North America; the glutton (_Gulo luscus_), the auroch (_Bison europæus_),
the wild horse (_E. fossilis_), the arctic fox (_Canis lagopus_), the
bison (_Bison priscus_), the elk or moose (_Alces malchis_), found in
Norway and North America, the lemming, the lagomys or tail-less hare, &c.
As examples of total extinction in late years, we may mention the dodo,
the solitaire, and species allied to them, in the islands of Mauritius,
Bourbon, and Reunion; the moa in New Zealand; the _Æpiornis_ in
Madagascar; the great auk, _Alca impennis_, in northern seas, and the
_Rhytina Stelleri_, common once in the latitude of Behring's Straits, and
described by Steller in 1742.
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--SKELETON OF RHYTINA STELLERI. (_From "The Voyage
of the 'Vega.'"_)]
The Dodo, a native of the island of Mauritius, was about 50 lbs. in
weight, and covered with loose downy plumage, it was unable to rise from
the ground in consequence of the imperfect development of its wings; it
was minutely described by Sir Thomas Herbert in 1634, and specimens of the
living bird and of its skin were brought to Europe. Its unwieldiness led
to its speedy destruction by the early voyagers.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--RHYTINA STELLERI. (_From "The Voyage of the
'Vega.'"_)]
The Solitaire was confined to the island of Mascaregue or Bourbon. It is
fully described by Francis Leguat, who, having fled from France into
Holland in 1689, to escape religious persecution consequent on the
revocation of the Edict of Nantes, engaged under the Marquis de Quesne in
an expedition for the purpose of settlement on that island. This bird also
speedily became extinct.
The Moa (_Dinornis giganteus_, Owen) reached from twelve to fourteen feet
in height, and survived for a long period after the migration of the
Maories to New Zealand. Bones of it have been found along with charred
wood, showing that it had been killed and eaten by the natives; and its
memory is preserved in many of their traditions, which also record the
existence of a much larger bird, a species of eagle or hawk, which used to
prey upon it.[54]
Rapidly approaching total extinction are the several species of _Apteryx_
in the same country--remarkable birds with merely rudimentary wings: as
also the _Notornis_, a large Rail--at first, and for a long time, only
known in the fossil state, but of which a living specimen was secured by
Mr. Walter Mantell in 1849: and the _Kapapo_ (_Strigops habroptilus_) of
G. R. Gray--a strange owl-faced nocturnal ground-parrot.
The _Æpyornis maximus_ was almost as large as the Moa; of this numerous
fossil bones and a few eggs have been discovered, but there are not, I
believe, any traditions extant among the natives of Madagascar of its
having survived to a late period.
The Great Auk (_Alca impennis_) is now believed to be extinct. It formerly
occurred in the British Isles, but more abundantly in high latitudes; and
its remains occur in great numbers on the shores of Iceland, Greenland,
and Denmark, as also of Labrador and Newfoundland.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--RHYTINA STELLERI. (_After J. Fr. Brandt._)]
Steller's Sea-cow (_Rhytina Stelleri_ of Cuvier) was a mammal allied to
the Manatees and Dugongs; it was discovered by Behring in 1768 on a small
island lying off the Kamtchatkan coast. It measured as much as from
twenty-eight to thirty-five feet in length, and was soon nearly
exterminated by Behring's party and other voyagers who visited the island.
The last one of which there is any record was killed in 1854.[55]
To the above may be added the _Didunculus_, a species of ground-pigeon
peculiar to the Samoa Islands, and the _Nestor productus_, a parrot of
Norfolk Island. An extended list might be prepared, from fossil evidences,
of other species which were at one time associated with those I have
enumerated.
[Illustration: FIG. 18.--RHYTINA STELLERI. (_From "The Voyage of the
'Vega.'"_)]
In conclusion, I may point out that that excellent naturalist Pliny[56]
records the disappearance, in his days, of certain species formerly known.
He mentions the Incendiary, the Clivia, and the Subis (species of birds),
and states that there were many other birds mentioned in the Etruscan
ritual, which were no longer to be found in his time. He also says that
there had been a bird in Sardinia resembling the crane, and called the
Gromphæna, which was no longer known even by the people of the country.
_Local Extinction._
Of local extinction we may note in our own island the cases of the beaver,
the bear, the wolf, the wild cattle, the elk, the wild boar, the bustard,
and the capercailzie; of these the beaver survived in Wales and Scotland
until the time of Giraldus Cambrensis in 1188, and Pennant notes
indications of its former existence in the names of several streams and
lakes in Wales. It was not uncommon throughout the greater part of Europe
down to the Middle Ages.
The bear, still common in Norway and the Pyrenees, is alluded to, as Mr.
Gosse points out, in the Welsh Triads,[57] which are supposed to have been
compiled in the seventh century. They say that "the Kymri, a Celtic tribe,
first inhabited Britain; before them were no men here, but only bears,
wolves, beavers, and oxen with high prominences." Mr. Gosse adds, "The
Roman poets knew of its existence here. Martial speaks of the robber
Laureolis being exposed on the cross to the fangs of the Caledonian bear;
and Claudian alludes to British bears. The Emperor Claudius, on his return
to Rome after the conquest of this island, exhibited, as trophies, combats
of British bears in the Arena. In the Penitential of Archbishop Egbert,
said to have been compiled about A.D. 750, bears are mentioned as
inhabiting the English forests, and the city of Norwich is said to have
been required to furnish a bear annually to Edward the Confessor, together
with six dogs, no doubt for baiting him."
The wolf, though greatly reduced in numbers during the Heptarchy, when
Edgar laid an annual tribute of three hundred wolf-skins upon the Welsh,
still occurred in formidable numbers in England in 1281, and not
unfrequently until the reign of Henry VII. The last wolf was killed in
Scotland in the year 1743, and in Ireland in 1770.[58]
The wild cattle are now only represented by the small herds in Chartley
Castle, Chillingham, and Cadgow parks; the spare survivors probably of the
species referred to by Herodotus when he speaks of "large ferocious and
fleet white bulls" which abounded in the country south of Thrace, and
continued in Poland, Lithuania, and Muscovy until the fifteenth century,
or perhaps of the Urus described by Cæsar as little inferior to the
elephant in size, and inhabiting the Hercynian forest, and believed to be
identical with the _Bos primigenius_ found in a fossil state in Britain.
The wild boar was once abundant in Scotland and England. The family of
Baird derives its heraldic crest from a grant of David I. of Scotland, in
recognition of his being saved from an infuriated boar which had turned on
him. In England only nobles and gentry were allowed to hunt it, and the
slaughter of one by an unauthorized person within the demesnes of William
the Conqueror was punished by the loss of both eyes.[59]
The bustard, once abundant, is now extinct in Britain, so far as the
indigenous race is concerned. Occasionally a chance visitant from the
continent is seen; but there, also, its numbers have been greatly
diminished. It was common in Buffon's time in the plains of Poitou and
Champagne, though now extremely rare, and is still common in Eastern Asia.
The capercailzie, or cock of the woods, after complete extinction, has
been reintroduced from Norway, and, under protection, is moderately
abundant in parts of Scotland.
In America, the process of extermination marches with the settlement of
the various states. W. J. J. Allen records the absolute disappearance of
the walrus from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and of the moose, the elk, and
the Virginian deer, from many of the states in which they formerly
abounded. This also is true, to some extent, of the bear, the beaver, the
grey wolf, the panther, and the lynx.
The buffalo (_Bos americanus_) is being destroyed at the rate of two
hundred and fifty thousand annually, and it is estimated that the number
slain by hunters for their hides during the last forty years amounts to
four millions. It has disappeared in the eastern part of the continent
from many extensive tracts which it formerly inhabited.
Among the ocean whales, both the right and the sperm have only been
preserved from extinction by the fortunate discovery of petroleum, which
has reduced the value of their oil, and thus lessened considerably the
number of vessels equipped for the whale fishery.
In South Africa, elephants and all other large game are being steadily
exterminated within the several colonies.
In Australia, we find that the seals which thronged the islands of Bass's
Straits in countless thousands, at the period when Bass made his
explorations there, have utterly disappeared. The bulk of them were
destroyed by seal-hunters from Sydney within a few years after his
discovery. The lamentable records of the _Sydney Gazette_ of that period
show this, for they detail the return to port, after a short cruise, of
schooners laden with from twelve to sixteen thousand skins each. The
result of this has been that for many years past the number of seals has
been limited to a few individuals, to be found on one or two isolated
rocks off Clarke's Island, and on Hogan's group.
The great sea-elephant, which, in Peron's time, still migrated for
breeding purposes from antarctic regions to the shores of King's Island,
where it is described by him as lining the long sandy beaches by hundreds,
has been almost unseen there since the date of his visit, and its memory
is only preserved in the names of Sea-Elephant Bay, Elephant Rock, &c.
which are still inscribed on our charts.
The introduction of the Dingo, by the Australian blacks in their southward
migration, is supposed to have caused the extinction of the Thylacinus
(_T. cynocephalus_), or striped Australian wolf, on the main land of
Australia, where it was once abundant; it is now only to be found in the
remote portions of the island of Tasmania. This destruction of one species
by another is paralleled in our own country by the approaching extinction
of the indigenous and now very rare black rat, which has been almost
entirely displaced by the fierce grey rat from Norway.
We learn from incidental passages in the _Bamboo Books_[60] that the
rhinoceros, which is now unknown in China, formerly extended throughout
that country. We read of King Ch'aou, named Hĕa (B.C. 980), that "in his
sixteenth year [of reign] the king attacked Ts'oo, and in crossing the
river Han met with a large rhinoceros." And, again, of King E, named Sëĕ
(B.C. 860), that "in his sixth year, when hunting in the forest of Shay,
he captured a rhinoceros and carried it home." There is also mention
made--though this is less conclusive--that in the time of King Yiu, named
Yeu (B.C. 313), the King of Yueh sent Kung-sze Yu with a present of three
hundred boats, five million arrows, together with rhinoceros' horns and
elephants' teeth.
Elephants are now unknown in China except in a domesticated state, but
they probably disputed its thick forest and jungly plains with the
Miaotsz, Lolos, and other tribes which held the country before its present
occupants. This may be inferred from the incidental references to them in
the _Shan Hai King_, a work reputed to be of great antiquity, of which
more mention will be made hereafter, and from evidence contained in other
ancient Chinese works which has been summarized by Mr. Kingsmill[61] as
follows:--
"The rhinoceros and elephant certainly lived in Honan B.C. 600. The
_Tso-chuen_, commenting on the C‘hun T‘siu of the second year of the Duke
Siuen (B.C. 605), describes the former as being in sufficient abundance to
supply skins for armour. The want, according to the popular saying, was
not of rhinoceroses to supply skins, but of courage to animate the
wearers. From the same authority (Duke Hi XIII., B.C. 636) we learn that
while T‘soo (Hukwang) produced ivory and rhinoceros' skins in abundance,
Tsin, lying north of the Yellow River, on the most elevated part of the
Loess, was dependent on the other for its supplies of those commodities.
The _Tribute of Yu_ tells the same tale. Yang-chow and King (Kiangpeh and
Hukwang), we are told, sent tribute of ivory and rhinoceros' hide, while
Liang (Shensi) sent the skins of foxes and bears. Going back to mythical
times, we find Mencius (III. ii. 9) telling how Chow Kung expelled from Lu
(Shantung) the elephants and rhinoceroses, the tigers and leopards."
Mr. Kingsmill even suggests that the species referred to were the mammoth
and the Siberian rhinoceros (_R. tichorhinus_).
M. Chabas[62] publishes an Egyptian inscription showing that the elephant
existed in a feral state in the Euphrates Valley in the time of Thothmes
III. (16th century B.C.). The inscription records a great hunting of
elephants in the neighbourhood of Nineveh.
Tigers still abound in Manchuria and Corea, their skins forming a regular
article of commerce in Vladivostock, Newchwang, and Seoul. They are said
to attain larger dimensions in these northern latitudes than their
southern congener, the better-known Bengal tiger. They are generally
extinct in China Proper; but Père David states that he has seen them in
the neighbourhood of Pekin, in Mongolia, and at Moupin, and they are
reported to have been seen near Amoy. Within the last few years[63] a
large specimen was killed by Chinese soldiery within a few miles of the
city of Ningpo; and it is probable that at no distant date they ranged
over the whole country from Hindostan to Eastern Siberia, as they are
incidentally referred to in various Chinese works--the _Urh Yah_ specially
recording the capture of a white tiger in the time of the Emperor Süen of
the Han dynasty, and of a black one, in the fourth year of the reign of
Yung Kia, in a netted surround in Kien Ping Fu in the district of Tsz
Kwei.
The tailed deer or Mi-lu (_Cervus Davidianus_ of Milne Edwardes), which
Chinese literature[64] indicates as having once been of common occurrence
throughout China, is now only to be found in the Imperial hunting grounds
south of Peking, where it is restricted to an enclosure of fifty miles in
circumference. It is believed to exist no longer in a wild state, as no
trace of it has been found in any of the recent explorations of Asia. The
_Ch‘un ts‘iu_ (B.C. 676) states that this species appeared in the winter
of that year, in such numbers that it was chronicled in the records of Lu
(Shantung), and that in the following autumn it was followed by an inroad
of "Yih," which Mr. Kingsmill believes to be the wolf.
There also appears reason to suppose that the ostrich had a much more
extended range than at present; for we find references in the
_Shi-Ki_,[65] or book of history of Szema Tsien, to "large birds with eggs
as big as water-jars" as inhabiting T‘iaou-chi, identified by Mr.
Kingsmill as Sarangia or Drangia; and, in speaking of Parthia, it says,
"On the return of the mission he sent envoys with it that they might see
the extent and power of China. He sent with them, as presents to the
Emperor, eggs of the great bird of the country, and a curiously deformed
man from Samarkand."
The gigantic Chelonians which once abounded in India and the Indian seas
are now entirely extinct; but we have had little difficulty in believing
the accounts of their actual and late existence contained in the works of
Pliny and Ælian since the discovery of the Colossochelys, described by Dr.
Falconer, in the Upper Miocene deposits of the Siwalik Hills in
North-Western India. The shell of _Colossochelys Atlas_ (Falconer and
Cautley) measured twelve feet, and the whole animal nearly twenty.
Pliny,[66] who published his work on Natural History about A.D. 77, states
that the turtles of the Indian Sea are of such vast size that a single
shell is sufficient to roof a habitable cottage, and that among the
islands of the Red Sea the navigation is mostly carried on in boats formed
from this shell.
Ælian,[67] about the middle of the third century of our era, is more
specific in his statement, and says that the Indian river-tortoise is very
large, and in size not less than a boat of fair magnitude; also, in
speaking of the Great Sea, in which is Taprobana (Ceylon), he says: "There
are very large tortoises generated in this sea, the shell of which is
large enough to make an entire roof; for a single one reaches the length
of fifteen cubits, so that not a few people are able to live beneath it,
and certainly secure themselves from the vehement rays of the sun; they
make a broad shade, and so resist rain that they are preferable for this
purpose to tiles, nor does the rain beating against them sound otherwise
than if it were falling on tiles. Nor, indeed, do those who inhabit them
have any necessity for repairing them, as in the case of broken tiles, for
the whole roof is made out of a solid shell so that it has the appearance
of a cavernous or undermined rock, and of a natural roof."
El Edrisi, in his great geographical work,[68] completed A.D. 1154, speaks
of them as existing down to his day, but as his book is admitted to be a
compilation from all preceding geographical works, he may have been simply
quoting, without special acknowledgment, the statements given above. He
says, speaking of the Sea of Herkend (the Indian Ocean west of Ceylon),
"It contains turtles twenty cubits long, containing within them as many as
one thousand eggs." Large tortoises formerly inhabited the Mascarene
islands, but have been destroyed on all of them, with the exception of the
small uninhabited Aldabra islands, north of the Seychelle group; and those
formerly abundant on the Galapagos islands are now represented by only a
few survivors, and the species rapidly approaches extinction.
I shall close this chapter with a reference to a creature which, if it may
not be entitled to be called "the dragon," may at least be considered as
first cousin to it. This is a lacertilian of large size, at least twenty
feet in length, panoplied with the most horrifying armour, which roamed
over the Australian continent during Pleistocene times, and probably until
the introduction of the aborigines.
Its remains have been described by Professor Owen in several
communications to the Royal Society,[69] under the name of _Megalania
prisca_. They were procured by Mr. G. F. Bennett from the drift-beds of
King's Creek, a tributary of the Condamine River in Australia. It was
associated with correspondingly large marsupial mammals, now also extinct.
From the portions transmitted to him Professor Owen determined that it
presented in some respects a magnified resemblance of the miniature
existing lizard, _Moloch horridus_, found in Western Australia,[70] of
which Dr. Gray remarks, "The external appearance of this lizard is the
most ferocious of any that I know." In Megalania the head was rendered
horrible and menacing by horns projecting from its sides, and from the tip
of the nose, which would be "as available against the attacks of
Thylacoleo as the buffalo's horns are against those of the South African
lion." The tail consisted of a series of annular segments armed with horny
spikes, represented by the less perfectly developed ones in the existing
species _Uromastix princeps_ from Zanzibar, or in the above-mentioned
moloch. In regard to these the Professor says, "That the horny sheaths of
the above-described supports or cores arming the end of the tail may have
been applied to deliver blows upon an assailant, seems not improbable, and
this part of the organization of the great extinct Australian dragon may
be regarded, with the cranial horn, as parts of both an offensive and
defensive apparatus."
The gavial of the Ganges is reported to be a fish-eater only, and is
considered harmless to man. The Indian museums, however, have large
specimens, which are said to have been captured after they had destroyed
several human beings; and so we may imagine that this structurally
herbivorous lizard (the Megalania having a horny edentate upper jaw) may
have occasionally varied his diet, and have proved an importunate
neighbour to aboriginal encampments in which toothsome children abounded,
and that it may, in fact, have been one of the sources from which the myth
of the Bunyip, of which I shall speak hereafter, has been derived.