During what we may term the middle period, and when the lake above referred to was in existence, lived the Paleotherium, or ancient wild beast. It had a thick skin, and was about the size of a horse, but rather stunted and clumsy in appearance; on each foot were three long toes, rounded, and without claws. The upper jaw was longer than the lower, like that of the tapir. The animal was herbivorous, and, judging by the skull, possessed no very high share of intelligence.

We say nothing of the Anoplotherium, and other animals of the same species, which lived along with it, but pass on to the middle Rhine valley, and exhume the bones of the Dinotherium. Palæontology has made us so well acquainted with the

that, having found the head and femur, (thigh bone,) we are enabled to reconstruct the whole animal, and recall not only its appearance, but its habits and instincts also. In point of size the Dinotherium is far beyond anything that the animal creation has yet presented us with: the body is barrel-shaped, like that of the hippopotamus; it is, however, more than twenty feet long and fifteen high, has a short trunk, longer than that of the tapir, but shorter than the elephant's. It has large and heavy tusks, suspended from the lower instead of the upper jaw, where they would have the support of the muscles of the neck; and some idea may be formed of the enormous power of the animal, when we state that those tusks, with the bone they were imbedded in, weighed above 400 lbs., and were no doubt used for the purpose of digging. The legs were great pillars ten feet high.

Such was another of the inhabitants of Europe in olden times; but, in proceeding toward the north, we are by no means losing the track of those great animals which have, since their restoration, excited so much attention. The first of them which was discovered was a Mastodon, which had been imbedded in the ice for ages, and was found after a brisk thaw by a poor Russian fisherman. The Russians called it a mammoth, supposing that it had burrowed under the ground like a mole; but it has since been found that the mastodon is an animal of a distinct species, and that at one time large herds of them went every year toward the pole during the summer, and returned into the more temperate regions, and more particularly to the great saltlicks" of Ohio during the winter. The temperature of the polar regions must, however, at that time, have differed very much from what it is now, or those large animals could never have found food to support them there during the warmest summer.

Although in appearance the animal was something like the elephant, the size was at least double that of the largest specimens of that quadruped. The one found by the Russian was covered with a coat of long hair, and must, when alive, have been a very noble creature. We know more particulars of this animal from the fact that, after being incased in ice for thousands of years, the skin still retained the hair upon it, the flesh was eaten by wild animals, and one of the pupils of the eyes is still preserved in the museum of St. Petersburgh.

From the great number of bones which are known to exist in the northern part of Russia and America, it is supposed that hundreds of thousands of mastodons must have perished at the same time, in consequence of some great revolution of nature, or the early setting in of winter, which prevented their returning again to the milder regions of the South. Upon the shores of the Frozen Ocean there is said to be an island composed entirely of these mastodon bones; and the inhabitants of Siberia make excursions during the summer and collect the tusks, which are brought into the ivory markets of Europe. The lady who wears an artificial tooth may perhaps have in her mouth a relic of one of those noble animals which perished ages ago beyond the arctic circle.

Great as was the size, and enormous as

must have been the strength, of those quadrupeds, still there were others, which in some points of physical development far exceeded them. Among the most remarkable of these was the Megatherium, or great Sloth of South America. The pelvis of this animal is one of the most massive bony structures that the world has ever seen. It is not so much the size, as the strength of the animal that is indicated by those colossal bones. It lived upon vegetables; and so great was its power, that it pulled up large trees by the roots, to be enabled to reach the upper branches. Having with its vast claws broken the ground around the tree, it rose upon its haunches, when, using its tail, which was three feet in circumference, as a third leg or prop, and taking the tree in its powerful embrace, it rocked it to and fro, to loosen the roots, until, gathering up all its strength, it lifted it from the ground. Since those creatures passed away from the great Pampas, the world has seen nothing to equal them in point of pure physical power.

In India the thick-skinned animals of the gigantic order were represented by the Sivatherium, a creature of enormous size and singular form, the head being of very peculiar shape. It had a trunk shorter than the elephant's, and just above it two horns not unlike those of the rhinoceros ; but on the top of the head a pair of large horns or antlers branched out on either side like those of the stag. The bulk of the body was very large, and the whole structure indicated prodigious strength. In olden times those animals associated with others now extinct, such as the gigantic fossil Giraffe, and wandered in large herds over the continent of India.

We are entirely indebted to science for our knowledge of those extraordinary creatures; and it has taken many great and zealous laborers to restore them to the world's natural history. One has devoted his life to the study of the rocky crust of the earth, and pointed out the strata in which they are found; another has gathered together the fragments of the bones, and reconstructed the body; while a third has examined the floral productions of the age, and indicated the food on which they fed, and thus, by the aid of the lithologist, the paleontologist, and the botanist, the grave of a buried world is opened and the dead come forth.

THE BLIND.

[AVING, in the last number of THE NATIONAL, stated the results of experiments in Europe and this country, in the establishment of industrial institutions for the adult blind, we should not do justice to a subject so important were we to dismiss it without stating fairly the arguments advanced for and against such institutions. We cannot but regard this as the great social problem of the Institution for the Blind, and its proper solution will require superior intellectual powers as well as goodness of heart.

Those who oppose the organization of these workshops for the adult blind, urge the following reasons for their opposition

1. That the blind, under ordinary circumstances, (males especially,) can earn their own support, and that, especially in the case of graduates of blind institutions, society having educated them and furnished them with a trade or profession, has discharged its duty toward them.

2. That even if they could not fully support themselves, it would be wrong to select one class of the helpless poor, and supply them with comforts and luxuries, while the rest are left to famish; that this would be to offer a premium upon the loss of one sense, and thus encourage the violation of physical laws which induces this misfortune.

3. That contributions to the support of the blind, however made, are still alms, and that the recipient of alms is necessarily a pauper; and his support being guaranteed, he will almost, as a matter of course, fall into the habits and feelings of a dependent; that selfishness, ingratitude, and a repining, dissatisfied spirit, would take the place of the cheerful and happy disposition of the independent workman.

4. That the concentration of the blind in masses, renders them clannish, and encourages class feelings and views, greatly to their disadvantage; that they would be benefited by being scattered in society, even if they were called to endure greater privation.

5. That very many who would receive the benefits of such an establishment, have friends who are well able to aid them, and

the public the burden of supporting those who have a just claim on them.

6. That if there are special cases of hardship, they will be somehow provided for; and that the general benefit of the community must preponderate over individual cases of suffering; and that, in any event. it is only the more forward and fortunate few who will receive the benefit, while many equally, and perhaps more deserving, are suffered to continue in want.

7. That these establishments, though they may prosper while their number of workmen is small, and their goods can be disposed of at retail, yet so soon as they have employés enough to manufacture largely, must become amenable to the laws of trade, and sell at wholesale, or accumulate stock; that in either case they can only conduct business at a loss, and their capital, of course, be constantly impaired ; that this mode of conducting business is objectionable when the funds are furnished by the state, or contributed by general charity; that if individuals choose to bestow the money in such a way, it is very well, but that we have no right to use public funds for such a purpose.

8. That, in many cases, the more thorough mechanical education of the young blind would obviate any necessity of such aid.

9. That the stern necessity of labor will be the best incentive to exertion on the part of the blind as well as the seeing, and that, if driven to this necessity, few of them would become inmates of the almshouse.

10. That where the adult blind are boarded and lodged in the establishment, the feebleness of increasing years will soon make it an asylum for the aged and infirm, instead of a workshop for healthy, vigorous workmen, and thus the energies of even the most active will be impaired, and their ability for self-support lessened.

To these arguments the advocates of industrial institutions reply:

1. That with comparatively few exceptions, the laboring blind, after the most strenuous exertions, are unable to earn sufficient for their entire support, owing to the severe competition to which they are exposed in the few trades in which they are most successful; that the experience of all the institutions which have

the Southern District of New York.

strates this.

many of the blind as of the deaf and dumb; this would make the whole number about four thousand two hundred; of these, at least one half, either from their location, their circumstances, or their prejudices, would not apply to such institutions, if established; take for the balance the amount named by Mr. Chapin, the principal of the Philadelphia Institution, as sufficient to bring up their wages to the point of support; namely, $20 per annum, and you have the sum of $42,000 per annum as the cost of enabling the entire blind of the country, between twenty and fifty years of age, to support themselves.

7. In regard to the number of persons to be employed in industrial institutions, there is, undoubtedly, difference of opinion. A small establishment can sell the greater part of its wares at retail, and thus realize a better price, one approximating more nearly to a support for its employer, than a larger one; while, on the other hand, a large establishment can buy to better advantage, and selling at wholesale is more certain of a steady market. No establishment of the kind should attempt to do business without some capital, either provided by the State, or by donation from individuals; nor can they well conduct it without a fund of moderate amount, the interest of which should be applied to making up the deficiency in the labor of the workmen. It would be desirable, also, that the instructors and workmen should be interested, pecuniarily, in attaining the maximum of production. This has been accomplished in Paris, and might be here.

8. That the mechanical training of the pupils in the workshops might be more thorough, and their knowledge of business better, is undoubtedly true; and this would enable them to make their labor more productive, and would probably bring some to the point of self-support.

9. "The stern necessity of labor" can as well be enforced in the industrial workshop as anywhere else. It can be made for the interest of the employés to permit no drones in the hive; and the work accomplished under such circumstances would be likely to approach very nearly to the highest amount they are capable of accomplishing.

10. The effects of age in decreasing the capacity for labor, can be provided for by a moderate increase of the allowance made to a faithful workman after a certain num

ber of years of service, and by the provision of a retreat when he becomes too infirm to labor; where, though less comfortable than in a luxurious and wellappointed home, there will be none of the discomforts of the almshouse, and where his labor may have earned him the right to pass his declining years in quietness and comfort.

The advocates of these institutions urge further, that with many of the blind, especially in our large cities, the choice lies between a scanty support acquired by labor, and an ample one attained by a mendicant life; and that the self-respect and moral principle which leads the workman to prefer the former to the latter, should be encouraged and strengthened. Even in an economic view this is desirable; for while the amount necessary to complete their support is small, if they are encouraged to labor, their entire support must be provided, if they are forced to remain in idleness, either by the almshouses, or by the charities they extort by begging.

These are, so far as we are aware, the principal arguments urged for and against industrial institutions for the blind; we have endeavored to give them fairly; and though we have not always used the eloquent language of the writers on either side, we have not, we hope, omitted any essential particular in their arguments.*

The experience of our older American institutions leads to the following conclusions:

1. That for the present, at least, there are quite a number of the adult blind, especially females, who cannot, by their unaided exertions, attain a support.

2. That it is desirable that aid, if furnished to these, should be so administered as not to guarantee them a support, (if they are able to labor,) without strenuous and continued exertion on their part, but only to render that exertion effective.

3. That the funds used for affording this aid, should be derived from private, rather than from state appropriations; not because the state is not interested in such beneficence, but because, in the administration of a private charity, more discrim

• We have been under special obligations to T. Colden Cooper, Esq., Principal of the New York Institution for the Blind, and to William Chapin, for valuable and interesting communications on Esq., Principal of the Philadelphia Institution, this subject.