, 1894-06-13
4 Fronl TIE Nncntntnr-A

(From tie Spectators
TIKI largest pair Of horses shown at tha
Cart-Horso Parade Last Monday wore iva
bays owned bA the Thames Bank DistiIlery
These gigantic animals stood eighteen hands
and probably weighed at least a ton each
and were capable of drawing a weight Of
over four tons, In addition to their driver
Compared with the average size of the nearest
approach to the wild horse existing. the tar.
pan Of tile Nhirgiz Steppes-for the animal
which PrejvalsN claimed to have discovered
I'M the highlands Of Cob is too like a wild ass
to be accepted as the primitive ancestor Of
tile horse ultlI more evidence is forthcoming
Glau is at present available for such remots
and inaccessible regions these mammoth
horses show al increase Of about one-third in
height, and three-quarterS in bulk and
weight, as the result of human effort direct
cd mainly to the increase of size in Just pro.
portion in q particular animal. The natural
Inference from this fact is a doubt whether
the limit IT size which Nature seems to have
set to the growth Of particular species is
really as fixed aud arbitrary rs might aDpoar
from The experience Of ages. even in cases
whore the conditions are more favourable
to their perfect development than are the
Asian stcppes to the growth Of the horse
The general weight Of what is called pale
ontological' evidence seems to favour the
last supcosition. Take, for example, the
gigantic t%ortoises, one Of the last members Of
whose respected family died at Colombo the
other day ut the age of at least one hundred
and whose epltaph was written by DR.
Guuther in the Times. DR. Gunther has al-
ways had q true naturaIist's sympathy for
these last survivors Of a race whose unwieldv
bulk recalls the days when the gigantic sons
Of earth fought with gods, and whose strength
suggested to the fancy Of Eastern cosmO@e.
nistS the picture of the tortoise bearing the
world upon its back. When they have com.
pleted their allotted century or so of blame
less life, they become their own monuments
in chelonial Valhalla at South Kensinoton
and dedicate themselves iii little votive
tablets to the mus ing reflections Of mushroom
humanity. There are exhibited the remains
Of the great tortoise Of Aldabra, a small I'M
inhabited island in the Indian Ocean. north
west of Madagascar. 1t was quito YOUNG.
its known age being only eighty years. and
it was still growing at the time Of its death
but it wei ghed $40 h., and it's legs are like
those Of a small rhinoceros. Compared with
this, the t~ortoises from the Galapagos islands
in the Pacific, whose strange and SOLITARY ev.
istenco is 50 c%uriously described by Darwin
are mere dwarfs, the largest having only
weighed 200 To-; but the contrast in sizo
between these surviving giants and the dwarf
scale Of the many forms which seem destined
to survive and flourish, down to the tiny "tor.
tolsettes" no bigger than a watch, would even
1t these creatures stood alone as examines of
the dRiudling tendency of species, be enough
to suggest that the limit Of animal dimen-
sions had long ago passed its acme and enter
ed on its decline. The evidence of the Of
gantic forms which fill the long galleries Of
the Museum, seems to point to the same con-
c%lusion. Those creatures for whose mon.
strous bones existing life affords no parallel
except to the instructed mind of the
biologist, skeletons like those of the
gigantic sloths, may merely present them
selves objects of wonder, without sug-
costing a comparison. But the skull of the
elephant found in theSewalik hills Of India