The evening world., 1894-10-06
SIZE OF ANIMALS.
London Writer Wonders II the
Limit Hns Been Renched.

the cart-horse parade last Monday were
fWo bays owned by the Thames Bank
eighteen hands high, and probably
weighed at least a ton each, and were
capable or drawing a weight of over four
tons, In addition to their driver, says the
London Spectator. Compared with the
average SIC of the nearest approach
to the wild horse existing, the tarpan
OF the khirgiz steppes-for the animal
covered In the highlands of Cobb is too
like a, wild ass to be accepted as the
Pr!mltlVe ancestor OF the horse until
more evidence Is forthcoming than is a
present available from such remote and
inaccessible regions-these mammoth
horses show an increase of about one
third in height, and three-quarters in
bulk and weight as the result of human
effort directed mainly to the Increase of
animal.
t., The natural Inference from this fact
is doubt whether the m OF size which
nature seems to have set to the growth
OF particular species is really as fixed
ana ana arbitrary as might appear from
where the conditions are more favorable
to their perfect development than are
me Asian steppes to the growth of the
horse, The general, weight of what is
called 'palaeontological' evidence seems
70 favor the last suppositon. Take,
for example. the gigantic tortoises, one
or the last members of whose respected
family died at Colombo the other day at
the age OF at least one hundred, and
whose epitaph was written by DR..
Gunther in the Times. DR.. Gunther has
always had true naturalst's sym
whose nnweldly bulk recalls the DAYS
when the gigantic sons of earth fought
with gods, and whose strength sug-
gested to the fancy of Eastern cosmo-
bearing the world upon its back
When they have completed their al
lotted century or so of Dlameless life
chelonian Nalhalia at South kenslngton,
and dedicate themselves in little votive
tablets to the musing reflections OF
bm ipit11 on. humanity There are ex-
of Aldabra. a small un!nhabited island
In the Indian Ocean, northwest of
Madagascar
1t was quite young. its known age be-
ing only eighty years. and 1t was still
growing at the time of its death: but It
weighed $40 pounds, and It's legs are
pared with this, the tortoises from the
Galapagos Islands, in the Pacific
so eurdi0 ms described by Darwin are
weighed 200 pounds; but the contrast in
size between these surviving giants and
the dwarf scale of the many forms which
down to the tiny 'tortoisettes' no big,
ger than watch, would even IL these
creatures stood alone as examples OF
the species, he enough to suggest that
the limit OF animal dimensions had long
cline. 40 W
The evidence of the gigantic forms
which fill the long galleries of the mu-
scum seems to point to the same con
ciuSion, Those creatures for whose
monstrous bones existing life affords no
parallel except to the instructed mind
OF the biologist, skeletons like those Of
the gigantic sloths, may merely present
themselves objects of wonder Without
suggesting comparison. But the skull
OF the elephant found n the Sawalik hi Is
Or INDIA, with tusks twelve feet long
ike the limbs OF a Tree, and the horns |
OF the Irish deer, which stood two feet |
higher at the shoulder then the larPe1t |
wapitl OF the Rocky MountainsSre.
mains OF creatures Identical in charac-
Ter with those which now freauent the |
regions they once inhablted-seem Visible !
evidence OF steady and universal de-
cilne or which Instances might be null
tipled without number.
The theory that great size was in Itself
par 10 the well-being OF the giant soe-
rles Is an easy II not wholly satisfac-
Tory means OF accounting for a degene-
ration, for the failure of food can hard
nave been such, In the Indian forests.
,or instance, as to account for the
winding of forms like the "Elephas
sanesa into the smaller but still enor-
nous bulk OF the herds which still sur-
I'VE and multiply In the Jungles OF Hin