Of Fossile Teeth and Bones of Elephants. Part the Second. By Sir Hans Sloane, Bart.

I. Of Fossil Teeth and Bones of Elephants. Part the Second. By Sir Hans Sloane, Bart. I Proceed now to the Second Part of this Discourse, wherein I propose to offer some Remarks on divers Accounts of Bones and Teeth found under Ground, which I met with in several antient and modern Authors, and which will give me an Opportunity of examining into the Skeletons, and Parts of Skeletons, which are shewn up and down as undeniable Monuments of the Existence of Giants. And first, as many of those Bones and Teeth, which are kept and shewn about for Bones and Teeth of Giants, have been found, upon a more accurate Inspection, to be only the Bones and Teeth of Elephants or Whales, it may from thence very probably be inferred, that others also, which for want of a sufficient Description cannot be accurately enough accounted for, must have belonged either to these, or else some other large Animal. Thus the Fore-fin of a Whale, stripp'd of its Webb and Skin, was not long ago publicly shewn for the Bones of a Giant's Hand; and I have in my own Possession (N° 1027) the Vertebra of the Loin of a large Whale, which was brought me from Oxfordshire, where I was assured it was found under Ground, and afterwards made Use of for a Stool to sit on (Fig. 1.). Now if a Computation had been made from the Proportion of this Vertebra to that of the other Parts of the Skeleton, and all had been supposed to have belonged to a Man, such a Skeleton would have exceeded in Measure, all those fabulous Skeletons of Giants mentioned by Authors. I cannot forbear on this Occasion to observe, that it would be an Object well worthy the Inquiries of ingenious Anatomists, to make a Sort of comparative Anatomy of Bones; I mean to examine, with more Accuracy than hath been hitherto done, what Proportions the Skeletons and Parts of Skeletons of Men and Animals bear to each other, with Regard either to the Size, or Figure, or Structure, or any other Quality. This would doubtless lead us into many Discoveries, and is otherwise one of those Things, which seem to be wanting to make Anatomy a Science still more perfect and compleat. The very Vertebra I speak of may serve to shew the Usefulness of such Observations. It differs in many Things from the Vertebrae of Men and Land-animals, as do the Vertebrae of Whales and the Fishes of the cetaceous Kind in general; and it is a very easy Matter to distinguish them from each other. The Body of the Vertebra is considerably larger in Proportion, and also lighter and more porous. The transverse Processes arise from the Middle of it on each Side. The oblique descending Processes are altogether wanting; and the Arch, or Foramen, which the spinal Marrow passes through, is made up by the spinal Process and the oblique ascending ones only: The Body of the Vertebra is very rough and uneven on each End, full of small Holes and Eminences, which receive the Holes and Eminences of a round Bone, or Plate, which answers to the Epiphysis in a human Vertebra, whereof there are two between each Vertebra, joined together together by an intermediate strong and pretty thick Cartilage, probably to facilitate the Motion, and particularly the Flexion of these Animals in the Sea. (Fig. 2, 3.) But to return from this short Digression. There are many Skeletons, that were from Time to Time found under Ground, and are mentioned by the Authors, who speak of them, as Skeletons of Giants, and undeniable Monuments of their Existence, which, as I have already observed, I should rather take to be the Skeletons of Elephants, Whales, or some other huge Land or Sea-animal. Of this Kind seem to be the pretended Skeletons of Giants of 12, 20, and 30 Cubits in Height mentioned by Philostratus*: The Skeleton of six and forty Cubits in Height, which according to Pliny† was found in the Cavity of a Mountain in Creta, upon the overthrowing of that Mountain by an Earthquake: The Skeleton sixty Cubits high, which Strabo‡ says, was found near Tingis (now Tangier) in Mauritania, and was supposed to have been the Skeleton of Anteus: The Skeleton of Pallas, as pretended, found at Rome in the Year 1500, which was higher than the Walls of that City: And likewise that, which Simon Majolus says was found in England in the Year 1171: Longè antè Fulgosì sæculum (are his Words ||) annis plus trecentis, anno scilicet 1171. in Anglia, illuvione fluminis, retecta sunt humati olim Hominis ossa adhuc ordine composita: Longitudo totius Corporis inventa est longa ad pedes quinquaginta. There are others, the Description whereof concludes more clearly for their having once belonged to * In suis Heroicis. † Hist. Nat. Lib. vii. C. xvi. ‡ Lib. xvii. || Dierum Canicularium Colloq. ii. pag. 36. Elephants, though it could not be positively asserted, that they did. S. Austin *, discoursing of the Existence and great Feats of the Giants before the Deluge, mentions in Proof of what he advances, That he himself, with several others, saw at Utica, upon the Sea-shore, the Grinder of a Man so large, that if it had been cut into Teeth of an ordinary Size, at least an Hundred might have been made of it. Hieronymus Magius †, although himself very much prejudiced in Favour of the Existence of Giants, yet suspects this Tooth, mentioned by S. Austin, to have been rather the Tooth of an Elephant, or else some huge Creature of the Sea, than that of a Man. But Ludovicus Vives, in his Commentaries upon that Passage of S. Austin, takes Notice, that in the Church of S. Christopher at Hippelela, he was shewn a Tooth bigger than his Fist, which they pretended was one of the Teeth of that huge Saint, no Doubt, upon as good Ground, as that very large Shoulder-bone, which Hieronymus Magius says ‡, was shewn in a Church at Venice, was the Shoulder-bone of S. Christopher. The pretended Skeleton of a Giant, which was found near Drapani, a Castle in Sicily, upon digging the Foundation of a House, and is described by Joh. Boccatius ||, is again not unlikely to have been the Skeleton of a large Elephant. For although the greatest Part of the Bones, through the Length of Time, and the Force of the subterraneal Steams, were so rotten, that after their being exposed to the Air, they fell to Pieces almost upon touching, yet three * De Civit. Dei. Lib. xv. C. ix. citatus per Cassanionem & Lambecium. † Miscellaneorum Lib. i. C. ii. pag. 17. ‡ L. C. pag. 20. 6. || Genealogia degli Dei. L. iv. ad fin. of the Teeth were found entire, which weighed an hundred Ounces, and were by the Inhabitants of Drapani hung up in one of their Churches, to perpetuate the Memory of this Fact. They likewise found Part of the Skull capacious enough to hold some Bushels of Corn, and one of the Shank-bones, which was so large, that upon comparing it with the Shank-bone of an ordinary Man, it was judged, that this Giant, whom some took to be Erick, others Ethellus, others one of the Cyclops, and again others the renowned Polyphemus himself, must have been 200 Cubits high; according to which Calculation, he is figured and represented by F. Kircher * as by far the largest of a whole Gradation of Giants, whom, after this, he places in the following Order: | Giant | Description | Height | |-------|-------------|--------| | Strabo | whose Skeleton was dug up near Tingis in Mauritania | 60 Cubits | | Pliny's Giant | found in a Mountain in Creta | 46 | | Asterius | Son of Anaëtes | 10 | | Orestes | dug up by special Command of the Oracle | 7 | | Giant | whose Bones were found under a large Oak, not far from the Convent of Reyden in the Canton of Lucern in Switzerland | 9 | | Goliath | as described in Sacred Writs | 6 ½ | The Case is still less doubtful with Regard to those Bones, which were found in France in 1456, in the * Mund. Subterræn. L. viii. Sect. 2. Reign of Charles VII, by the Side of a River in the Barony of Cruisse (afterwards erected into a County) not far from Valence. Johannes Marius in Libris de Galliarum Illustrationibus, Calamaeus in suis de Biturigibus Commentarijs, Fulgosus in his Annals, & Job. Cassanio of Monstroeuil, in his Treatise of Giants *, severally take Notice of these Bones, which were so large, that the whole Height of the Giant, to whom it was thought they belonged, and who was supposed to have been the Giant Briatus, was conjectured to have been of 15 Cubits. The Skull alone was two Cubits thick, and the Shoulder-bone six Cubits broad. Sometime after, other Bones of this Kind were found in the same Barony near the same Place, Part of which Cassanio saw himself, and gives such a particular Description of one of the Teeth, as leaves little Room to doubt, but that it was the Grinder, and consequently the other Bones, the Bones of an Elephant. His Words are †; Mirae magnitudinis dentem multi ibidem conspeximus, longitudine unius pedis, pondere librarum octo; multo autem oblongior quam crassus visus est, radicesque aliquot habere quibus gingivae inhaerebat. Visae est insuper ea pars, qua cibus terebatur, aliquantulum concava, latitudine digitorum quatuor. He adds farther, That such another Tooth was kept at Charmes, a neighbouring Castle, that he measured the Length of the Place, whence these Bones were dug, and found it to be nine Paces; that some Time after more Bones were discovered at the same Place, and that the Country all thereabouts was very mountainous, and such, * Pag. 57, & seq. † Pag. 62. as the Giants in all Probability delighted to dwell and command in. I have seen some of these Bones brought by a very curious French Merchant from this last mentioned Place, which I took to have belonged to an Elephant, by some large Cells between the Tables of the Skull, which are in the Skull of that Animal. Hieronymus Magius * gives an Account of a very large Skull, eleven Spans in Circumference, and some other Bones, probably belonging to that Skull, which were dug up near Tunis in Africa by two Spanish Slaves, as they were ploughing in a Field. He was informed of this Matter by Melchior Guilandinus, who saw the Skull himself, when he had the Misfortune to be taken by the Rovers, and carried into Slavery to that Place in the Year 1559. I am the more inclined to believe, that this Skull and Bones was Part of the Skeleton of an Elephant, because, as I shall shew hereafter, a like large Skeleton was dug up near the same Place some Time after, which by one of the Teeth sent to Petresk was made out to have been the Skeleton of an Elephant. I now come to those Bones, Teeth and Tusks, (or Horns, as some call them) which are mentioned by Authors to have been dug up in divers Parts of the World, and have been made out by them, or do otherwise appear by their Description and Figures, indisputably to belong to the Elephant. Johannes Goropius Becanus †, notwithstanding he lived in an Age, when the Stories of Giants were very much credited, and had found their Advocates, even * Miscellan. Lib. i. Cap. ii. pag. 19. 6. † Originum Antwerpianarum Libro. ii. quem Gigantomachiam appellavit, pag. 178. among Persons eminent for their Learning and Judgment, yet ventured to assert, that the Tooth, which was kept and shewn at Antwerp, as the Tooth of that unmerciful Giant, whose Detest, brought about as they pretended, by Brabo a Son of Julius Cæsar, and King of the Arcadians, was fabulously reputed to have given Occasion to the building of that Castle and City, was nothing but the Grinder of an Elephant. However displeasing this Assertion might be, as Goropius farther adds, to those who are delighted with such idle and ridiculous Stories, yet to the Judicious it will appear the less surprizing, on Account of what passed not long before he wrote this Book, when the almost entire Skeletons of two Elephants, with the Grinders, and likewise the dentes exerti, or Tusks, were found near Wielworda, Vilvorden, as they were digging a Canal from Brussels to the River Rupel, to defend that Town and Country from the Incursions of those of Mechelen. Goropius conjectures, that these Elephants had been brought thither by the Romans, at the Time either of the Emperor Galien, or Posthumus. A very large Skeleton, likewise of a Giant, as pretended, was dug up near Tunis in Africa about the Year 1630, whereof one Thomas d’Arcos, who was then at that Place, sent an Account, together with one of the Teeth, to the learned Peiresk. The Skull was so large, that it contained eight Meilleroles (a Measure of Wine in Provence) or one Modius, as Gassendus calls it *, or a Pint and a Half Paris Measure. Sometime after a live Elephant having been shewn at Toulon, Peiresk ordered, that he should be brought to his Country Seat, on Purpose to take that Opportunity * Gassendus in vita Peiresk. Lib. iv. Anno 1632. to examine the Teeth of the Creature, the Impressions whereof he caused to be taken in Wax, and thereby found, that the pretended Giant's Tooth sent him from Tunis, was only the Grinder of an Elephant. This is the second large Skeleton dug up near Tunis in Africa, and it appearing plainly by the Tooth sent to Peiresk, that it was the Skeleton of an Elephant, it may from thence very probably be conjectured, some other Circumstances concurring, that the other also, which Guilandinus saw there, must have been rather of an Elephant, than of a Giant. Thomas Bartholin * mentions the Grinder, or Maxillar-tooth of an Elephant, which was dug up in Island, and sent to him by Petrus Resenius. It was turned to a perfect stony Substance, like Flint, as was also the Tusk of a Rosmarus, dug up in the same Island. A large Tooth, which by its Shape appears plainly to be the Grinder of an Elephant, is described and figured by Lambecius †, who had it out of the Emperor's Library, though he could not be informed where it was found, or how it got thither. It weighed 28 Ounces, and was commonly taken to be the Tooth of a Giant. Antonius de Pozzis, chief Physician to the Emperor, in a Letter to Lambecius ‡, affirms it to be an Elephant's Tooth, and conjectures, that it was dug up at Baden, about four Miles from Vienna, where, but a few Years before he wrote this Letter, they had found also the Os Tibiae & femoris of an Elephant. * Act. Medic. & Philosoph. Hafn. To. I. Obs. xlvi. pag. 83. † Biblioth. Caesar. Vindob. L. VI. pag. 311. ‡ Io. Lib. vi. pag. 315. Another Tooth, probably of an Elephant too, is described and figured by Lambecius *, who had it out of the Emperor's Library. It weighed 23 Ounces, and was found in the Year 1644 at Krembs, in the lower Austria, as they were increasing the Fortifications of that Place. The Year following, when the Swedes came to besiege the Town of Krembs, a whole Skeleton of a Giant, as was pretended, was found at the Top of a neighbouring Mountain, near an old Tower. The Besiegers, in their Intrenchments there, being very much incommoded by the Water that came down from the Mountains, dug a Ditch three or four Fathoms deep, to lead it another Way. It was in digging this Ditch they found the Skeleton aforesaid, which was very much admired for its unusual Size. Many of the Bones, chiefly those of the Head, fell to Pieces upon being exposed to the Air, others were broke by the Carelessness of the Workmen; some escaped entire, and were sent to learned Men in Poland and Sweden. Among these was a Shoulder-bone, with an Acetabulum in it large enough to hold a Cannon-ball. The Head, with Regard to its Bulk, was compared to a round Table, and the Bones of the Arms (or Forelegs) as thick as a Man of an ordinary Size. One of the Grinders, weighing five Pounds, was given to the Jesuits at Krembs: Another is figured by Hapellius (in his Relationes Curiosae, Tom. iv. pag. 47, 48.) to whom I am indebted for this Account, and it appears plainly by the Figure of it, that it is an Elephant's Tooth. It weighed four Pounds three Ounces Nuremberg Weight. * Ib. Lib. vi. pag. 313. Again, in Lambecius his Bibliotheca Cesarea Vindobonensis *, are two Figures, and the Description of a very large Elephant's Tooth, which weighed 4½ Pounds. It was sent from Constantinople to Vienna in 1678, and offered to be sold to the Emperor for 2000 Rixdollars, having been before, for its unusual Size, and pretended great Antiquity, valued at 10,000 Rixdollars. They pretended that it was found near Jerusalem, in a spacious subterranean Cavern, in the Grave of a Giant, which had the following Inscription upon it in the Chaldaic Language and Characters; Here lies the Giant OG; whence it was conjectured to have been the Tooth of Og, King of Basan, who was defeated by Moses, and who only remained of the Remnants of Giants; whose Bed-stead was of Iron, nine Cubits was the Length thereof, and four Cubits the Breadth of it, after the Cubit of a Man †. As the whole Story look'd very like an Imposition, the Emperor ordered, that the Tooth should be sent back again to Constantinople. Hieronymus Ambrosius Langenmantel, a Member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, inserted into the Ephemerides of that Academy ‡ an Abstract of a Letter to himself, from Johannes Ciampini in Rome, concerning some very large Bones, to wit the Shank-bone, the Shoulder-bone, and five Vertebrae, of the Number whereof was one of the Vertebrae of the Neck, which were dug up near Vitorchiani, in the Bishoprick of Viterbo, in the Year 1687. They weighed altogether upwards of 180 Roman Pounds, and having been compared with other the like Bones * Lib. viii, pag. 652. † Deuteronom. Ch. iii. v. 2. ‡ Decur. ii. Annus vii, s. 1688. Obs. ccxxxiv. pag. 446. in several Collections at Rome, particularly the Chi- sian one, they appeared to be by far the largest. Most People took them to be the Bones of a Giant, but Ciampini, and some others, taking them, with more Probability, for the Bones of an Elephant, or some other large Animal, and knowing that there was in the Mediccan Collection at Florence a com- pleat Skeleton of an Elephant, they procured a Copy of it, and found upon Comparison, the above-men- tioned Bones so exactly to correspond with it, as to leave no Room to doubt, but that they had been Part of an Elephant's Skeleton. The Skeleton of an Elephant which was dug up in a Sand-pit near Tonna in Thuringen, in 1695, is one of the most curious, and also the most compleat in its Kind, forasmuch as they found the whole Head, with four Grinders, and the two dentes exerti, or Tusks, the Bones of the fore and Hind-legs, one of the Shoulder-bones, the Back-bones, with the Ribs, and several of the Vertebrae of the Neck. But the whole hath been so accurately described by Wilhel- mus Ernestus Tentzelius, Historiographer to the Dukes of Saxony, in a Letter to the learned Magli- abechi, printed in the Philosophical Transactions *, that it is needless to add any thing, the rather, as that Gentleman was pleased to oblige the Royal Society with some Pieces of the Bones of this Ele- phant, with Part of the Skull, wherein appeared its Cells, some of the Grinders, and Part of the dentes exerti; all which being produced at a Meeting of the Royal Society, were found exactly agreeable to his Description, and ordered to be carefully preserved in * No. 234, pag. 737. their Repository. From the Surface of the Ground down to the Place where these Bones were found, the Disposition of the Strata, or Layers, was as follows: A black Soil four Foot deep, Gravel two Foot and a Half, the Middle whereof was made up of Osteocolla and Stones to the Depth of two Foot, Osteocolla and Stones half a Foot, a sandy Clay six Foot, with about two Inches of Osteocolla in the Middle, Osteocolla and Pebbles one Foot, Gravel six Foot, a white and fine Sand, the Depth whereof was unknown, and in this the Bones were found. In the Second Volume of Count Marsili's Danubius, where he treats of the Antiquities he observed along this River, there is Mention made of several Bones and Teeth of Elephants, which that inquisitive Nobleman met with in Hungary and Transylvania, and which are now in his valuable Collection of natural and artificial Curiosities at Bologna. According to the best Information, the People of whom he had them could give him, they were found in Rivers, Lakes and Pools. One of the Vertebrae, a Grinder, and a considerable Part of the dens exertus, or Tusk, were found in the Lake, or Pool of Hiulca. Two Fragments of the Os Tibiae, a little corroded on the Inside, were taken out of a Pool near Fogheras in Transylvania, once the Seat of the Princes of that Country; and the whole lower Jaw, with two Grinders as yet sticking in it, he had from some Fishermen, who found it in the standing Waters by the River Tibiscus, a little above die Romerskantz, or the Roman Fort. All these the Author caused to be figured as big as the Life. I have above related the Opinion of Goropius about the Antiquity of those two two Elephants, the Skeletons whereof were found near Viterbo, which he traces no higher than the Time of the Romans, and their Expeditions into those Countries, particularly under Galien and Posthumus. Count Marsili is of the same Opinion with Regard to those Bones and Teeth found by him in Transylvania. He takes Notice, that whosoever is acquainted with the vast Use the Romans made of Elephants in their military Expeditions, ought not to be surprised that there are Bones and Teeth found of them in those Northern Countries, where otherwise there cannot have been any; and he urges, as a farther Proof of this Assertion, That they are found in Pools and Lakes, it having been the Custom of the Romans, to throw the Carcasses of dead Elephants into the Water, as it is still practised to this Day with the Carcasses of Horses and other Beasts, to prevent the Distempers and other Inconveniencies, which their Putrefaction might otherwise occasion. On the other Hand, there are many Arguments, taken from the Largeness of the Beasts, the Skeletons whereof are thus found under Ground, which sometimes far exceeds any that was, or could have been brought alive into Europe, from the Condition they are found in, and from the particular Disposition of the Strata above the Places where they are found, whereby it appears, almost to a Demonstration, that they must be of much greater Antiquity, and that they cannot have been buried at the Places where they are found, or brought thither any otherwise, but by the Force of the Waters of an universal Deluge. To insist only upon one of these Arguments: If the Skeletons of Elephants, which are thus found under Ground, Ground, and at considerable Depths too, had been buried there either by the Romans, or any other Nation, the Strata above them must necessarily have been broke through and altered; whereas on the contrary several Observations inform us, that they were found entire, whence it evidently appears, that what is found underneath, must have been lodged there, if not before, at least at the very Time when these Strata were formed; consequently long before the Romans. But there is another Argument, which seems to me to bear very hard against the Conjectures of Goropius and Count Marsili. Tentzelius hath already mentioned it, and it is urged from the great Value of Ivory at all Times, and particularly among the Romans, which appears by many Passages in antient Authors; as for Instance, by a very remarkable one in Pliny *, who takes Notice, That among the valuable Presents, which the Ethiopians were obliged to make to the Kings of Persia, by Way of a Tribute, there were twenty large Teeth (unquestionably the dentes exerti) of Elephants, and then adds, Tanta ebori autoritas erat. Now it is to be presumed, that the Romans would not have neglected to take away the Teeth, and particularly the dentes exerti of dead Elephants, before they flung their Carcasses into the Water, whereas there hath scarce been any Skeleton, or any Part of the Skeleton of an Elephant dug up any where, but the Teeth were found along with them, and even among those figured by Count Marsili, there are three Grinders, and a considerable Part of one of the dentes exerti. * Lib. xii. C. 4. Dr. Robert Plot in his *Natural History* of Staffordshire *, says, That he was presented by William Levaston Gower of Trentham, Esq; with the lower Jaw of some Animal, with large Teeth sticking in it, dug up in a Marle-pit in his Ground, and which upon Comparison he found exactly agreeable to the lower Jaw of the Elephant's Skull in Mr. Ashmole's Museum at Oxford. In the Museum of the Royal Society there are two Fossil-bones of Elephants: One was given by Sir Thomas Brown of Norwich, the other was brought from Syria for the Os Tibiae of a Giant, but Dr. Grew † proves by an exact Computation, that it can never have been the Os Tibiae of a human Skeleton, by being full 20 times as thick, and but three times as long. It is an English Yard and half a Foot long, and hath a Foot in Circumference, where it is thinnest. Dr. Grew observes, that by the Figure it appears to have belonged to the Leg, and not to the Thigh, and he conjectures the whole Elephant to have been about five Yards high. Before I dismiss this Subject, I must beg Leave to mention a few more. Geffner ‡ takes Notice, that he was presented by a Polish Nobleman with a Tooth four times as large as that, which he figured under the Title of Hippopotamus in his Book de Aquatilibus. It was found under Ground, as they were digging for the Foundation of a House, together with a very large Horn, as they called it, which many took to be an Unicorn's Horn, but wrongly, as he, Geffner, thought, because of its being too thick and * Ch. vii. §. 78. pag. 78. † Musæum, Reg. Soc. pag. 32. ‡ De Figuris Lapidum. pag. 157. too crooked. It is very probable, that this pretended Horn was the *dens exertus* of an Elephant. The same Author mentions a subterraneous Cavern near *Elbingeroda*, wherein were found the Bones and Teeth of Men and Animals so large, that it was scarce credible, that ever any of that bulky Size should have existed. The Grinder of an Elephant, petrified, is kept in the King of *Denmark* his Cabinet at *Copenhagen*, as appears by the Catalogue *, but there is no Mention made how it came thither, or where it was found. They shew in the same Collection a large Thigh-bone, which weighs about twenty *Danish* Pounds, and is above three Foot in Length †. It is so old, according to the Author of the Catalogue, that it is almost become stony. The same Author takes Notice of another large Bone, then in the Collection of *Otho Sperling*, which weighed 25 Pounds, and was four Foot long. It was, as Sperling told him, found in the Year 1643 at *Bruges* in *Flanders*, near the publick Prison, in Presence of *Bernard de Arauda*, and his, Sperling's, Father, who saw the whole Skeleton there, which was of 20 Yards of *Brabant* in Length. A Piece of Ivory was dug up in a Field on the River *Vistula*, about six Miles from *Warsaw*, which having been shewn at *Dantzick* to Gabriel *Rzaczynski*, Author of the *Natural History* of Poland, it seemed to him to be the *dens exertus* of an Elephant ‡. * Muf. Regium. Part I. Sect. vii. No 109. † Ibid. Part I. Sect. i. No 73. ‡ Rzaczynski Hist. Nat. Reg. Polon. pag. 2. In the Notes upon the last Edition of Dr. Herman's *Cynosura Medica*, published by Dr. Boecler of Strasburg *, under the Title of *Unicornu Fossilis*, there is Mention made of a remarkable Piece of Fossil Ivory, or rather of an Elephant's Tooth, in the Hands of Jacques Samson de Rathsamhausen de Ebenweyer, an Alsatian Nobleman. It was found in the Rhine upon one of his Estates near Nonneville, and was three Paris Foot, three Inches and a Half long: It had near a Foot at the Basis in Circumference, where thickest, and about 8 Inches and a Half at the other Extremity. It was filled within with a Sort of Marl, but the outward Surface was stony in some Places, and bony in others. The bony Part scrap'd, or burnt, smell'd like Ivory. The Scrapings boil'd made a Sort of Gelly. The Author of the Notes adds, That they find Fossil Ivory in several Parts of Europe, particularly in the Schwartzwald (*Sylva Hercynia*) in Moravia, in Saxony, and near Canstad in the Dutchy of Wirtemberg. * 1726. 4to. P. iii. pag. 133.