PART II

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ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY.

Animals and plants are not scattered indifferently over the earth’s surface, but are grouped together in assemblages of different kinds. The animals and plants of the British Isles, for example, are wholly distinct from those of the West Indies, and these again from the East Indian kinds. Naturalists, after a long study of the distribution of organised beings, have been enabled to divide the earth’s surface into provinces, each characterised by its peculiar set of inhabitants. The assemblage of organised beings in each province exhibits, when viewed _en masse_, a general aspect, or _facies_, independent of its being composed, in part, of kinds of creatures different from those found in any other province. This facies depends on combinations of colour, sculpture, texture, and often minute and insignificant characters, when regarded separately, but when presented in coordination, becoming of importance through their constancy and their influence in determining the leading features of a fauna or flora, or both combined. Even when comparatively few of the characteristic animal and vegetable types of a province are brought together, within a limited space, some notion may thus be conveyed to the spectator of the _facies_, or aspect of life in that region. This has been attempted in the arrangement of the Geographical Garden in the Crystal Palace.

Organised beings are distributed over the earth and in the sea _horizontally_ and _vertically_. On their horizontal distribution depend their geographical life-provinces; on their vertical distribution, their arrangement in altitudinal and bathymetrical zones or belts. If we ascend any high mountain, we rise through successive belts of vegetation, each frequented by its favourite form of animal life. We are reminded during our ascent of the successive faunas and floras that we should pass amongst, were we proceeding from the mountain’s base to the pole. If the mountain be sufficiently high, we at length reach a region where all life ceases. So likewise in the sea--if we explore the depths of ocean, and commence our examination on the borders of the shore, we shall find that the animal and vegetable population of the waters are not dispersed indifferently through their depths, but occupy successive levels, or zones. If we go deep enough, vegetable life first disappears, and animal species become so few, comparatively, that we cannot but conclude that we are approaching a point beyond, or rather below which all is desert.

As yet, no attempt has been made in the Crystal Palace to display the zones of altitude, though it is quite possible to do so, by means of a miniature mountain encircled by belts of alpine vegetation, amid which the characteristic animals of the zones might be placed in relative order of elevated dwelling-places. This may be looked forward to, as a worthy object for carrying out hereafter. A slight and partial indication of the phenomena of distribution of marine animals in depth, is exhibited in cases representing the sea-population of a few regions; especially the British, the West Indian, and Australian seas. In these the spectator will observe that the law of distribution in provinces holds good among marine animals as among terrestrial. And if we regard the peculiar features of the contents of the West Indian case, contrasting it with that filled with British sea-animals, a striking example of the difference of _facies_, or general aspect, in a temperate province as contrasted with a tropical one, is too evident not to attract our notice. Differences of the same kind are displayed in the contrasts of form and colour presented by the birds of different regions, inclosed in the cases placed at intervals among the plants, and always in connection with the other illustrations of the portions of the globe to which they belong.

EASTERN OR OLD WORLD.

The Boar-hunt, one of the relics of the Great Exhibition of 1851, placed beyond this Court, must be accepted as a type of Europe--a region so familiar to all, that no space has been spared for its fuller illustration. The OLD WORLD Court is consequently devoted to African and Asiatic illustrations. The several provinces of Africa are fairly typified, but those of Asia, great and important though they be, have, for the present, an inadequate share of space assigned.

The southernmost portion of this Court is occupied by the south extremity of Africa; to this we pass southwards through the northern African provinces of Egypt and Barbary, brought into unavoidable proximity with the tropical countries of Asia. Central and Eastern Africa follow, the latter having affinities with Asia through Arabia.

The visitor when beside the North African section of the Court must suppose the proximity of Southern Europe, and by doing so, bear in mind the close affinity that exists between the mass of vegetation that he then sees around him, and the floras of Italy and Spain.

CENTRAL ASIA.

The yak and Ovis Ammon stand as representatives of the central regions of Asia. The former is a characteristic animal of Tibet, and does not thrive except at high elevations. Here, too, is placed the Bactrian camel. The vegetation among which these animals are grouped is mainly Himalayan, and may be regarded as representing the flora of the verge of this great province.

Beyond the northern bounds of the Central Asiatic region, we pass rapidly amid European types, mingling, as we proceed eastwards, with Boreal American forms. The vegetation, like the animal life, puts on a mixed aspect, and one of a transatlantic character. In the main, the Siberian fauna and flora are linked with those of eastern Europe.

The arctic portion of Asia presents the characteristic assemblage of polar animals, white bears, seals, walruses, narwhals, dolphins, gulls, and cormorants, whilst along the shores range reindeer, arctic foxes, lemmings, ptarmigans, and snowy owls; more inland, wolves and otters, with fur-bearing animals abound. This is the linking region of the Old and New Worlds.

INDIA.

The group of the Tiger-hunt indicates some of the zoological features of the low country and jungles of India and the warm regions of Asia. The tiger is indeed one of the most characteristic animals of the Tropical Asiatic provinces, as is also the Indian elephant. The one-horned rhinoceros, the Indian hyæna, humped oxen of various kinds, a few peculiar deer, the scaly ant-eater, the bonnet-monkey, the Hoonuman (_Semnopithecus entellus_), and the wanderoo, are all well-marked and conspicuous Indian mammals. Some of the larger quadrupeds are common to Europe and Africa. The birds of India are numerous, and often very beautiful.

By bamboos and orange-trees, and a few forms of vegetation capable of cultivation under the conditions and within the space of our Garden, a very slight indication indeed is afforded of the general Indian flora. But in the back-ground of the Indian group, the rich assemblage of Indian rhododendrons and azaleas, the _Juniperus recurva_ and the _Ficus elastica_, serve to represent one of the most beautiful floras in the world, that of the mountain ranges of India, whilst on its eastern-side, camellias, tea-plants, Carphon laurels, and magnolias exemplify the change in Asiatic vegetation with the great Chinese province.

NORTH AFRICA.

The portion of this continent, north of Sahara, west of the Libyan desert, and including the chains of the Atlas, is clothed with a very different vegetation, and peopled by a distinct set of land animals from those occupying the greater and more characteristic African regions. In many respects, it has more affinity in its natural history and features with the southern countries of Europe, especially Spain and Sicily, than with Africa. Even its most characteristic mammal, the Barbary ape, has apparently an indigenous stronghold in Gibraltar. The wild boar, genet, porcupine, and fallow deer, the last alone of its tribe in Africa, indicate European affinities, whilst southern relations are marked by a few forms of antelope and by the lion. Some small rodents are peculiar. The traveller passing from temperate Europe to Barbary, sees in the domesticated camel and many plants--the date-palm, the opuntia, and the agave--distinguishing and peculiar features of its landscape; yet none of these is an original native of the region. Even the date-palm belongs properly to the countries south of the Atlas. The truly characteristic plants--such as the carob, fig, and palmetto, are all of Mediterranean types and South European forms. The sea that separates Europe and Africa has an uniform population nearly throughout; and, in the main, is not more than a colony of the Atlantic.

NORTH-EASTERN AND EASTERN AFRICA.

Egypt is a truly African province, and is linked by many of its productions with Nubia, Abyssinia, and the countries that border on the Indian Ocean. The crocodile and the hippopotamus, now confined to the higher portions of the Nile, are essentially African types. The fishes of the Nile have close affinities with those of the rivers of the Senegal streams. Among them the polypterus is remarkable for its approach to the ancient and extinct forms of ganoids. From Sennaar, southwards, we find the elephant and one-horned rhinoceros. Monkeys, species of _Cercopithecus_, occur in the same region.

In the highlands of Shoa, the undulating surfaces of the table-lands are covered with green bushes of euphorbia; lions and hyænas are common. In the lower country of the Danakils, palms abound, with acacias and aloes; and the wart-hog, small antelopes and guinea-fowls, are among the animals. Crocodiles and hippopotami haunt the streams and marshes. On the plains are the Koodoo antelope and zebra; ostriches are hunted below the Galla country, and leopards and buffaloes abound.

Taking the vegetation from the north southwards, not a few conspicuous plants are distinctive of successive districts; thus, the date-palm, the papyrus, and the bean of Pythygoras may be cited for Egypt Proper; the doom, the coffee, and acacias to the more southern provinces. Some curious affinities with South African vegetation are indicated by Abyssinian species of pelargonium and protea.

There is a close relationship between the natural history of the Eastern African region and that of Arabia; so near, indeed, that in many respects we may regard these provinces as subdivisions of one great region. Many of the most striking plants are common to both, and the same may be said of not a few characteristic animals. The Red Sea, that separates them, proves, when its animal and vegetable inhabitants are explored, to be only a colony of the great Indian Ocean marine province, the most extensive of all the natural-history regions of the ocean, and the most varied in its contents. These are remarkable for brilliancy of colouring and beauty or singularity of shape and sculpture, as well as for the richness of the fauna in the number of generic and specific types.

WESTERN AFRICA.

Western Africa within the tropics constitutes in many respects one vast natural-history province, extending far into the interior and towards the eastern coasts. This wide-spreading region is capable of being subdivided, and the steaming districts along the coast from Senegal to Congo present numerous peculiarities that are not seen in the inland portions. These latter again vary considerably in features of surface, and the animal and vegetable population must change more or less accordingly. But throughout this portion of the African continent there range not a few of the large quadrupeds, and doubtless of the smaller ones and other tribes along with them. The African elephant, the hippopotamus, the two-horned rhinoceros, the phascochœrus, or wart-hog, the lion and the jackal, are examples; although the Great Desert cuts off the range northwards of several of them. Among birds, the ostrich and the _Vultur kolbii_ are instances.

The most conspicuous zoological peculiarities of this region are manifested by quadrumanous and edentate quadrupeds. This is a country of monkeys, and of very remarkable ones. The thumbless apes (_Colobus_) are concentrated here. The various herds of _Cercopithecus_ are chiefly members of this region: the mandrills are all belonging to it, and the baboons abound. The African orang-outang is a native of Guinea; and three species of chimpanzee are found on the same line of coast.

The edentata of this region are confined to the countries in the neighbourhood of the coast, and though few are highly peculiar. There are species of the genus _Manis_, the scaly ant-eater, or pangolin. In the presence of these extraordinary quadrupeds along the western shores of Africa we seem to have a relation with the New World shadowed out; one that is also indicated by a few analogies among the plants. At the same time, by similar indications, a relationship of analogy with the Indian region may be traced. Thus, there are curious resemblances between the flora of Congo, that of India, and of the islands of the Indian Ocean. These similitudes are the more remarkable since the physical features of the country between the western and eastern coasts are such as scarcely to admit of any continuity of like vegetation or animal population. With the flora of South Africa that of the west has but very slight connection.

A number of antelopes, though as we go northwards the species are less numerous, manifest the distinguishing feature of the group of African ruminants. In our group the harnessed and Isabella antelopes typify this character.

The vegetation of intertropical Africa varies considerably in different districts, on account of the striking difference in the mineral constitution of the soil, and the elemental peculiarities of the seaward and inland districts. Palms of several kinds are abundant along the coast countries, and among them the most prominent is the _Elais guiniensis_, a palm-oil species. As a group, however, although playing so prominent a part in the West African landscape, the number of kinds of palm is small, when compared with the vast number of individuals. The _Pandanus candelabrum_, one of the screw-palms, is a conspicuous tree. Mangroves clothe the sides of swamps and the deltas of rivers. Towards the inner country the great _Adansonia digitata_ or _Baobab_, the largest tree in the world, becomes frequent, and ranges westwards to the boundaries of Abyssinia. The great tree-cotton, or _Bombax_, is also characteristic. Among the herbaceous plants that range along the western coasts of Africa, one of the best known and prettiest is the _Gloriosa superba_. _Cinchoniaceæ_ and _Malvaceæ_ are among the tribes of plants that attain a considerable development.

SOUTH AFRICA.

There are few tracts of land on the earth’s surface so distinctly marked by zoological and botanical peculiarities, and by a striking aspect of fauna and flora as South Africa. Its mountains--and they attain considerable elevation, as much as 10,000 feet in some instances--its low grounds, sandy plains, and deserts called Karoos, if not everywhere adorned with a luxuriant vegetation, are singularly prolific in remarkable and interesting plants, and are the resorts of numerous quadrupeds, many of them of considerable dimensions. In its mammalia and its flowering plants we recognise the prominent and distinctive natural-history characteristics of the region.

One baboon, _Cynocephalus porcarius_, and a _Cercopithecus_, are the only monkeys of the Cape region, and though peculiar as species, are rather to be regarded as links of the fauna of the South African with the general fauna of Africa. In this light, too, must the carnivora be regarded, although numerous and prominent; for the most conspicuous, the lion for example, are common to a vast extent of the African continent. The hyæna genus, however, may be regarded as having its metropolis in this province. Some of the conspicuous pachyderms also appertain to the general African group, such as the elephant, the hippopotamus, the two-horned rhinoceros, the Ethiopic hog, and the zebra. Here is the country of the gnoos and other antelopes, of quaggas, lions following in the track; some of the antelopes may be seen in herds of hundreds.

Here we are out of the region of palms; nor are large trees of any kind very distinctive of the South African flora. There are no vast forests, arborescent plants are scarce, but instead, there are great tracts of bush, composed, in the Caffrarian districts, for the most part of succulent and thorny shrubs; leafless columnar euphorbias, some of them shaped like great candelabra and occasionally towering to thirty or forty feet, and fleshy aloes with threatening weapon-like leaves and tall standards of handsome flowers, give a strange and bizarre aspect to the Bush-country vegetation, and cover with prickly thickets the steep sides of the ravines that furrow and separate the long flat ridges of hills. Here grow the _Zamia horrida_, the crane-like Strelitzia, prickly kinds of acacia, everlasting-flowers in great variety, and ice-plants. One of the latter, the _Mesembryanthemum edule_, or Hottentot fig, is the only native fruit, and a bad one at best.

The mention of Cape plants at once suggests to the lover of flowers a number of beautiful natives of the South African region: Cape lilies, various sorts of corn-flags, ixias, lobelias, oxalidiæ, peculiar orchids, pelargoniums, diosmeas, polygalas, and heaths, of the last in wondrous variety. The curious little pachydermatous quadruped, _Hyrax capensis_, is a specific peculiarity; so also is the quagga. It is the group of the hollow-formed ruminants that give the grand distinguishing feature to the South African fauna. The beautiful family of antelopes attains its maximum here, nearly one half of the total number of species being South African. The gnoo, the eland, the harte-beest and spring-bok, are some of those most familiar on account of their dimensions or beauty: the abundance of antelopes compensates for the absence of deer. The Cape buffalo (_Bos caffer_) is another distinctive ruminant; and the giraffe, though ranging far to the north, is a conspicuous member of the southern fauna. The sand-flats around the Cape are bored by peculiar moles of the genus Bathyergus, and one of the most curious of African animals, the Cape ant-eater, _Orycteropus capensis_, one of the few members of its order existing in the Old World, is confined to the province from which it derives its specific appellation. The ornithological peculiarities of the Cape are not so striking.

Many of the animals mentioned are now becoming scarce, or to be seen only far in the interior. The elephant, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus are rapidly disappearing through the persecution of the hunter. On the high open table-lands of the interior immense multitudes of quadrupeds congregate especially; and the proteaceæ, equally distinctive of this flora, abound most in the western districts of the colony, and are especially numerous on the sandy plains. One of the most beautiful of orchids, the famous _Disa grandiflora_, is a plant of Table Mountain. Among remarkable plants may be mentioned, the waxberry, _Myrsia cordifolia_, a shrub, the berries of which are thickly coated with wax; and the well-known monstrous-looking _Testudinaria elephantipes_. The much-cultivated and familiar great White Arum, _Calla Æthiopica_, is common in wet places.

It is worthy of note, that whilst the animals, both quadrupeds and birds, of South Africa have many relations with those of Western Africa within the tropics, the plants belong to completely a different series, and are connected with the flora of the rest of Africa only by eastern relations. In some features of the flora there is a curious analogy manifested with the Australian types.

The coasts of the Cape have a marine population as peculiar and striking in their way as the terrestrial, and constitute a well-marked sea-province, the eastern limits of which are to the south of Natal, where the great Indo-Pacific region meets that of the Cape. Among shell-fish, the limpet tribe has its chief congregation of species here.

WESTERN OR NEW WORLD.

ANTARCTIC AMERICA.

We enter the NEW WORLD by the cold regions of the extreme south--the home of penguins. Here we find forms of animal and vegetable life representative of those that inhabit the Arctic regions and their borders. The most southerly arborescent vegetation is seen in Hermit Island near Cape Horn, where stunted forests of antarctic and evergreen beeches grow. The same phenomenon is exhibited of multiplication of individuals and paucity of species to which attention will be called in the notice of the extreme north. The southernmost of all flowering plants is a grass, the _Aira antarctica_, a native of the South Shetland islands.

SOUTHERNMOST REGIONS.

By the Chilian auraucarias, the fuchsias, calceolarias, and petunias, some of the peculiar features of the vegetation of the southernmost regions of South America are indicated. Many of our most beautiful and familiar garden plants come from these provinces. In the high regions of the Andes of Chili, as well as further towards the equator, lives the chinchilla, famous for its fur, at an elevation of between 12,000 and 14,000 feet--guinea-pigs are found of peculiar kinds, and the llama, which ranges to a height of 1800 feet.

TROPICAL SOUTH AMERICA.

The rich regions of Brazil and Tropical America are typified by some of their most characteristic vegetable forms, and by not a few of the most striking members of their mammalian fauna, as well as birds of exquisite hues and strange shapes. Among the latter, the toucans and humming birds are singularly striking. This is the great central home of the New World monkeys, contrasting with and representative of those of the Old World, but constituting an entirely distinct group. Their nostrils placed far apart and flattened, the number of their teeth, and the prehensile tail,--a fifth hand,--with which so many of them are endowed, give them an aspect very different from their relatives over the Atlantic. In the vast forests of Brazil they revel among the palms, Barringtonias and monkey pots, whilst, on the ground below, the giant ant-eater, and many another creature equally strange, prowls around the shade. The jaguar, puma, and ocelot, which take the place of the great cats of the Old World, the agouti and capabara, the sloth and coati-mundi, all present themselves in this compartment. The American tapir is here, and in the more western portions of the ground, are placed crochet-deer, and the _Rhea americana_, the ostrich of the west. The llama marks the region of the Andes, and in the New World represents the camel of the Old.

CENTRAL AMERICA.

Birds of beautiful plumage, and vegetation of singular and fantastic forms, mark the separating region of Central America. The cactus tribe of plants, the yuccas, and the great aloe or rather agave give a peculiar and striking aspect to this region. Yet of the larger forms of animal life there is little to display. Before long we may show the strange sea-cow, or manatee, as coming within the bounds of this province, and a glance at the West Indian marine case will serve at once to indicate the richness and beauty of the fauna of seas and shores. The number and curious variety of its sponges, the elegance and rich painting of its shell-fish, the odd shapes of its fishes, and the presence of striking forms of reef-building corals, all, however, different from those of the Indian seas, cannot fail to impress its peculiarities on the thoughtful visitor.

Along the southern verge of this province is the country of that most exquisite of water-lilies, the great _Victoria_: on secluded lakes, among luxuriant forests, and in the reaches of the mighty rivers that flow tranquilly among them, this beautiful plant flourishes indigenous.

TEMPERATE NORTH AMERICA.

Between the Central and the Arctic Provinces are the wooded regions of NORTH AMERICA, where the vegetation of Canada passes into that of the United States, and is bounded on the western side by Oregonian fauna. A wide range has to be illustrated in a small space, and we are obliged to bring together in close proximity the countries of the pines and the palmettos. The Canadian porcupine, Wapiti deer, elk, beaver, raccoon, Virginian opossum, and Virginian deer stand here as representatives for the States and neighbouring countries. Shrew moles (Scalops aquaticus), starnoses (Condylura cristata), musk-rats, bony pikes and limuli would be effective additions, and highly characteristic. The fauna and flora of the United States, though in great part peculiar, are in many of their members curiously representative of the vegetable and animal life in the corresponding portion of the Old World; in not a few instances form replaces form. At the same time, the differences are not to be overlooked, and in the presence of the opossum, of some of the fishes and certain invertebrate animals, we seem to have indications of claims to a superior antiquity on the part of the so-called New, over the boasted Old World.

BARREN GROUNDS.

The _Barren grounds_ that skirt the polar regions of North America, and which include the country to the east of the Rocky Mountains, and north of the great lakes, constitute a region of low hills with rounded summits, and more or less precipitous sides, separated by narrow valleys. They are bare of trees, except near the margins of larger rivers; a few stunted willows, dwarf birches and larches, are occasionally met with, but the greater part of the surface is covered with lichens only. The brown bear, the glutton, the ermine, the Canadian otter, the wolf, the zibet, the arctic hare, the reindeer, and the musk-ox, are characteristic quadrupeds. Between this district and the northern shores of Lake Superior is a belt of wooded land, where the elk, squirrel, beaver, &c., occur. On the prairie lands that belong to the next section are the great bison or American buffalo, peculiar deer, and the grisly bear. Towards the west, and along the Rocky Mountains are found the American goat (only on the highest ridges), and the pretty prong-horned antelope. The distribution of most of these large animals is determined by the vegetation, and that in a great measure by the disposition of the water-sheds.

ARCTIC REGIONS.

To realise our conceptions, we ought, before quitting the Geographical Garden from the north, to find ourselves surrounded by masses of ice and snow. Let us picture in our minds long lines of hoary coasts, the dark rock occasionally breaking through its frosty covering, the deep green waves tossing masses of ice, and bearing up towering and fantastic icebergs, whose cleft and cavernous sides are beautiful with intense blue shadows. Great whales sport among the waters, their black masses, here and there, breaking the monotony of colours. Myriads of glancing jellyfishes, iridescent beroes, and pearly molluscs, give animation to the transparent waters. Flocks of sea-birds fly in every direction, watching the fishes that supply them with abundant food; seals rest on the icy platform, and nearer the land the great white bear, beautiful as strong, prowls along the verge of the shore. A scene such as this cannot be realised ever at Sydenham, but we can indicate some few of its characteristic elements. The imagination of intelligent visitors must supply the rest.

The Arctic Province is represented only in one geographical Court, that of the Western or New World. The one indication must serve for all the regions that border the icy seas. Indeed there is no forcing in this arrangement, for the entire Arctic fauna is characterised by prevailing monotony. Myriads of individuals of the prevailing species, mostly dull in hue, or at least deficient in brilliant colouring, whether they belong to the earth, the air, or the sea, compensate for the paucity of different kinds. White and grey, in the air; dull browns in the sea, are the prevailing tints. Some bright flowers during the summer season, break the modest rule by their gaiety. Throughout the icy seas, from Greenland round by Spitzbergen to Behring’s Straits, and along the labyrinthine coast of Asiatic America to Greenland again, the same marine animals are diffused. This is the region of the salmon genus, all the species of which radiate, as it were, around the Arctic province.

By the polar bears and a group of Arctic birds an indication of this northernmost of faunas is afforded. The various foxes of the Arctic shores, the dogs of the Esquimaux, the walrus with its human head, whalebone and finner whales, were their bulk admissible, would fill up the group with more completeness. The reindeer serves to indicate the boundary of the province, and stands as a representative of the verge of these realms of ice and snow.

AUSTRALIA AND INDIAN ISLANDS.

The vegetation and much of the animal population of the Indian islands, both on the land and in the sea, constitute a passage between the floras and faunas of Asia, and those so exceedingly peculiar, when regarded apart, of Australia. The group of islands connected with New Guinea--mountainous, forest-clothed, hot and moist in their climate--especially exhibit this passage. Spice-trees and numerous forms of palms mark differences; the presence of casuarinæ, gum-trees, and melaleucas, resemblances. A few species of Australian types are highly suggestive of the same relation.

The ourang, the Malay tapir, and bears, and the flying-squirrels, with a rich array of birds, illustrate the zoology of the Indian Archipelago; while that of Australia and Tasmania are indicated by the kangaroos, duck-billed platypus, Tasmanian wolf, and echidnas, with many of the singular and strangely peculiar birds of this most remarkable zoological province, where we seem to have the lowest conditions of the vertebrate type, assembled as if to indicate a rudimentary stage in the world’s history. The vegetation--typified here by Banksias and other proteaceous shrubs, epacridiæ, gum-trees, and many more forms as striking and peculiar--indicates a corner of the earth set apart.

BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

[Illustration: GEOLOGY AND INHABITANTS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

THE EXTINCT ANIMALS RESTORED BY B. WATERHOUSE HAWKINS. F.G.S. F.L.S.

PUBLISHED FOR THE CRYSTAL PALACE LIBRARY, BY BRADBURY & EVANS. 11, BOUVERIE ST.]

GEOLOGY AND INHABITANTS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD.

DESCRIBED BY RICHARD OWEN, F.R.S.

THE ANIMALS CONSTRUCTED BY B. W. HAWKINS, F.G.S.

[Illustration]

CRYSTAL PALACE LIBRARY, AND BRADBURY & EVANS, 11, BOUVERIE STREET, LONDON.

1854.

BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS TO THE CRYSTAL PALACE COMPANY, WHITEFRIARS.

CONTENTS.

PAGE INTRODUCTION 5 THE SECONDARY ISLAND 7

CHALK FORMATION 9 THE MOSASAURUS 10 THE PTERODACTYLE 11

WEALDEN FORMATION 14 THE IGUANODON 14 THE HYLÆOSAURUS 17

OOLITE FORMATION 19 THE MEGALOSAURUS 19 PTERODACTYLES OF THE OOLITE 22 TELEOSAURUS 22

LIAS FORMATION 25 ENALIOSAURIA 25 THE ICHTHYOSAURUS 25 ICHTHYOSAURUS PLATYODON 29 ICHTHYOSAURUS TENUIROSTRIS 30 ICHTHYOSAURUS COMMUNIS 30 PLESIOSAURUS 31 PLESIOSAURUS MACROCEPHALUS 31 PLESIOSAURUS DOLICHODEIRUS 32 PLESIOSAURUS HAWKINSII 33

NEW RED SANDSTONE 35 BATRACHIA 35 LABYRINTHODON SALAMANDROIDES 36 LABYRINTHODON PACHYGNATHUS 38 DICYNODON 38

[Illustration]

GEOLOGY AND INHABITANTS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD.

INTRODUCTION.

Before entering upon a description of the restorations of the Extinct Animals, placed on the Geological Islands in the great Lake, a brief account may be premised of the principles and procedures adopted in carrying out this attempt to present a view of part of the annual creation of former periods in the earth’s history.

Those extinct animals were first selected of which the entire, or nearly entire, skeleton had been exhumed in a fossil state. To accurate drawings of these skeletons an outline of the form of the entire animal was added, according to the proportions and relations of the skin and adjacent soft parts to the superficial parts of the skeleton, as yielded by those parts in the nearest allied living animals. From such an outline of the exterior, Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins prepared at once a miniature model form in clay.

This model was rigorously tested in regard to all its proportions with those exhibited by the bones and joints of the skeleton of the fossil animal, and the required alterations and modifications were successively made, after repeated examinations and comparisons, until the result proved satisfactory.

The next step was to make a copy in clay of the proof model, of the natural size of the extinct animal: the largest known fossil bone, or part, of such animal being taken as the standard according to which the proportions of the rest of the body were calculated agreeably with those of the best preserved and most perfect skeleton. The model of the full size of the extinct animal having been thus prepared, and corrected by renewed comparisons with the original fossil remains, a mould of it was prepared, and a cast taken from this mould, in the material of which the restorations, now exposed to view, are composed.

There are some very rare and remarkable extinct animals of which only the fossil skull and a few detached bones of the skeleton have been discovered: in most of these the restoration has been limited to the head, as, for example, in the case of the Mosasaurus; and only in two instances--those, viz., of the Labyrinthodon and Dicynodon--has Mr. Hawkins taken upon himself the responsibility of adding the trunk to the known characters of the head, such addition having been made to illustrate the general affinities and nature of the fossil, and the kind of limbs required to produce the impressions of the footprints, where these have been detected and preserved in the petrified sands of the ancient sea-shores trodden by these strange forms of the Reptilian class.

With regard to the hair, the scales, the scutes, and other modifications of the skin, in some instances the analogy of the nearest allied living forms of animals has been the only guide; in a few instances, as in that of the Ichthyosaurus, portions of the petrified integument have been fortunately preserved, and have guided the artist most satisfactorily in the restoration of the skin and soft parts of the fins; in the case of other reptiles, the bony plates, spines, and scutes have been discovered in a fossil state, and have been, scrupulously copied in the attempt to restore the peculiar tegumentary features of the extinct reptiles, as _e.g._ in the Hylæosaurus.

In every stage of this difficult, and by some it may be thought, perhaps, too bold, attempt to reproduce and present to human gaze and contemplation the forms of animal life that have successively flourished during former geological phases of time, and have passed away long ages prior to the creation of man, the writer of the following brief notice of the nature and affinities of the animals so restored feels it a duty, as it is a high gratification to him, to testify to the intelligence, zeal, and peculiar artistic skill by which his ideas and suggestions have been realised and carried out by the talented director of the fossil department, Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins. Without the combination of science, art, and manual skill, happily combined in that gentleman, the present department of the Instructive Illustrations at the Crystal Palace could not have been realised.

THE SECONDARY ISLAND.

The most cursory observation of the surface of the earth shows that it is composed of distinct substances, such as clay, chalk, lias, limestone, coal, slate, sandstone, &c.; and a study of such substances, their relative position and contents, has led to the conviction that these external parts of the earth have acquired their present condition gradually, under a variety of circumstances, and at successive periods, during which many races of animated beings, distinct both from those of other periods and from those now living, have successively peopled the land and the waters; the remains of these creatures being found buried in many of the layers or masses of mineral substances, forming the crust of the earth.

The object of the Islands in the Geological Lake is to demonstrate the order of succession, or superposition, of these layers or strata, and to exhibit, restored in form and bulk, as when they lived, the most remarkable and characteristic of the extinct animals and plants of each stratum.

The series of mineral substances and strata represented in the smaller island have been called by geologists “secondary formations,” because they lie between an older series termed “primary,” and a newer series termed “tertiary:” the term “formation” meaning any assemblage of rocks or layers which have some character in common, whether of origin, age, or composition.[43]

[43] Lyell, “Manual of Elementary Geology.”

Following the secondary formations as they descend in the earth, or succeed each other from above downwards, and as they are shown, obliquely tilted up out of their original level position from left to right, in the Secondary Island, they consist: 1st, of the Chalk or Cretaceous group; 2nd, the Wealden; 3rd, the Oolite; 4th, the Lias; and 5th, the New Red Sandstone.

THE CHALK.

The chalk formations or “cretaceous group of beds” include strata of various mineral substances; but the white chalk which forms the cliffs of Dover and the adjoining coasts, and the downs and chalk quarries of the South of England, is the chief and most characteristic formation. Chalk, immense as are the masses in which it has been deposited, owes its origin to living actions; every particle of it once circulated in the blood or vital juices of certain species of animals, or of a few plants, that lived in the seas of the secondary period of geological time. White chalk consists of carbonate of lime, and is the result of the decomposition chiefly of coral-animals (_Madrepores_, _Millepores_, _Flustra_, _Cellepora_, &c.), of sea-urchins (_Echini_), and of shell-fishes (_Testacea_), and of the mechanical reduction, pounding, and grinding of their shells. Such chalk-forming beings still exist, and continue their operations in various parts of the ocean, especially in the construction of coral reefs and islands.

Every river that traverses a limestone district carries into the sea a certain proportion of caustic lime in solution: the ill effects of the accumulation of this mineral are neutralised by the power allotted to the above-cited sea-animals to absorb the lime, combine it with carbonic-acid, and precipitate or deposit it in the condition of insoluble chalk, or carbonate of lime.

The entire cretaceous series includes from above downwards:

Maestricht beds of yellowish chalk.

Upper white chalk with flints.

Lower white chalk without flints.

Upper green-sand.

Gault.

Lower green-sand and Kentish rag.

The best known and most characteristic large extinct animal of the chalk formations is chiefly found in the uppermost and most recent division, and is called

No. 1.--THE MOSASAURUS.

(_Mosasaurus Hoffmanni_, Hoffmann’s Mosasaur.)

Of this animal almost the entire skull has been discovered, but not sufficient of the rest of the skeleton to guide to a complete restoration of the animal. The head only, therefore, is shown, of the natural size, at the left extremity of the Secondary Island.

The first or generic name of this animal is derived from the locality, Maestricht, on the river Meuse (Lat. _Mosa_), in Germany, where its remains have been chiefly discovered, and from the Greek, word _sauros_, a lizard, to which tribe of animals it belongs. Its second name refers to its discoverer, Dr. Hoffmann, of Maestricht, surgeon to the forces quartered in that town in 1780. This gentleman had occupied his leisure by the collection of the fossils from the quarries which were then worked to a great extent at Maestricht for a kind of yellowish stone of a chalky nature, and belonging to the most recent of the secondary class of formations in geology. In one of the great subterraneous quarries or galleries, about five hundred paces from the entrance, and ninety feet below the surface, the quarrymen exposed part of the skull of the Mosasaurus, in a block of stone which they were engaged in detaching. On this discovery they suspended their work, and went to inform Dr. Hoffmann, who, on arriving at the spot, directed the operations of the men, so that they worked out the block without injury to the fossil; and the doctor then, with his own hands, cleared away the matrix and exposed the jaws and teeth, casts of which are shown in the cretaceous rock of the Island.

This fine specimen, which Hoffmann had added with so much pains and care to his collection, soon, however, became a source of chagrin to him. One of the canons of the cathedral at Maestricht, who owned the surface of the soil beneath which was the quarry whence the fossil had been obtained, when the fame of the specimen reached him, pleaded certain feudal rights to it. Hoffmann resisted, and the canon went to law. The Chapter supported the canon, and the decree ultimately went against the poor surgeon, who lost both his specimen and his money--being made to pay the costs of the action. The canon did not, however, long enjoy possession of the unique specimen. When the French army bombarded Maestricht in 1795, directions were given to spare the suburb in which the famous fossil was known to be preserved; and after the capitulation of the town it was seized and borne off in triumph. The specimen has since remained in the museum of the Garden of Plants at Paris.

This skull of the Mosasaurus measures four and a half feet long and two and a half feet wide. The large pointed teeth on the jaws are very conspicuous; but, in addition to these, the gigantic reptile had teeth on a bone of the roof of the mouth (the pterygoid), like some of the modern lizards. The entire length of the animal has been estimated at about thirty feet. It is conjectured to have been able to swim well, and to have frequented the sea in quest of prey: its dentition shows its predatory and carnivorous character, and its remains have hitherto been met with exclusively in the chalk formations. Besides the specimens from St. Peter’s Mount, Maestricht, of which the above-described skull is the most remarkable, fossil bones and teeth of the Mosasaurus have been found in the chalk of Kent, and in the green-sand--a member of the cretaceous series--in New Jersey, United States of America. No animal like the Mosasaurus is now known to exist.

Nos. 2 & 3.--THE PTERODACTYLE.

Nos. 2 and 3 are restorations of a flying reptile or dragon, called Pterodactyle, from the Greek words _pteron_, a wing, and _dactylos_, a finger; because the wings are mainly supported by the outer finger, enormously lengthened and of proportionate strength, which, nevertheless, answers to the little finger of the human hand. The wings consisted of folds of skin, like the leather wings of the bat; and the Pterodactyles were covered with scales, not with feathers: the head, though somewhat resembling in shape that of a bird, and supported on a long and slender neck, was provided with long jaws, armed with teeth; and altogether the structure of these extinct members of the reptilian class is such as to rank them amongst the most extraordinary of all the creatures yet discovered in the ruins of the ancient earth.

Remains of the Pterodactyle were first discovered, in 1784, by Prof. Collini, in the lithographic slate of Aichstadt, in Germany, which slate is a member of the oolitic formations: the species so discovered was at first mistaken for a bird, and afterwards supposed to be a large kind of bat, but had its true reptilian nature demonstrated by Baron Cuvier, by whom it was called the _Pterodactylus longirostris_, or Long-beaked Pterodactyle: it was about the size of a curlew.

A somewhat larger species--the _Pterodactylus macronyx_, or Long-clawed Pterodactyle--was subsequently discovered by the Rev. Dr. Buckland, in the lias formation of Lyme Regis: its wings, when expanded, must have been about four feet from tip to tip. The smallest known species--the _Pterodactylus brevirostris_, or Short-beaked Pterodactyle--was discovered in the lithographic slate at Solenhofen, Germany, and has been described by Professor Soemmering.

Remains of the largest known kinds of Pterodactyle have been discovered more recently in chalk-pits, at Burham, in Kent. The skull of one of these species--the _Pterodactylus Cuvieri_--was about twenty inches in length, and the animal was upborne on an expanse of wing of probably not less than eighteen feet from tip to tip. The restored specimen of this species is numbered 3.

A second very large kind of Pterodactyle--the _Pterodactylus compressirostris_, or Thin-beaked Pterodactyle--had a head from fourteen to sixteen inches in length, and an expanse of wing, from tip to tip, of fifteen feet. The remains of this species have also been found in the chalk of Kent. From the same formation and locality a third large kind of Pterodactyle, although inferior in size to the two foregoing, has been discovered, called the _Pterodactylus conirostris_, and also--until the foregoing larger kinds were discovered--_Pterodactylus giganteus_. The long, sharp, conical teeth in the jaws of the Pterodactyles indicate them to have preyed upon other living animals; their eyes were large, as if to enable them to fly by night. From their wings projected fingers, terminated by long curved claws, and forming a powerful paw, wherewith the animal was enabled to creep and climb, or suspend itself from trees. It is probable, also, that the Pterodactyles had the power of swimming; some kinds, _e.g._, the _Pterodactylus Gemmingi_, had a long and stiff tail. “Thus,” writes Dr. Buckland, “like Milton’s Fiend, all qualified for all services and all elements, the creature was a fit companion for the kindred reptiles that swarmed in the seas, or crawled on the shores of a turbulent planet.

‘The Fiend, O’er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.’

_Paradise Lost_,