eem small. But larger still is the head of another
behind that again. Can you even imagine a beast that could carry tusks
about twelve feet long? That is to say, if two of the tallest men were
laid end to end they would be as long as that elephant's tusks, and the
thickness of the tusks was as great as a man's thigh. Think of all this
weight! And it was resting on the head and neck of the elephant! His
strength must have been like the strength of an engine. You would have
been less to him than a mouse is to us. It is not only guessing that
makes us say these animals lived in England, for here are the real
skulls and skeletons actually found buried in the earth. Further on is
what is called a sea-cow, a great fat beast weighing an enormous amount,
which floated in the sea. And at the end of the room is one of the
strangest of animals. Picture a creature as high as the room, standing
up on its hind legs like a kangaroo, and having very strong fore-arms,
with which it clutches a small tree. This is the skeleton we see now. It
could have packed you away inside it and never known you were there;
but, luckily for the children who lived on earth when it did (if there
were any), it did not eat flesh, but only the leaves of trees and other
vegetable things. It was called the giant ground sloth, and, as you may
judge from this name, was not very quick in its movements. It was not
found in England, but in South America, and there are now no more like
it in existence; and if we had not got its skeleton we should never have
known it had lived at all. There were many other curious creatures on
earth then--some that lived in the water and had long necks like snakes,
and fat bodies, and others like enormous lizards. There was also a big
bird, bigger even than the ostrich, this you can see in a case near the
sloth. Then in the centre of the room is the tall skeleton of a very,
very big stag, which is to other stags as a giant would be to you. He is
the Irish elk, and his skeleton was found in the peat bogs of Ireland;
he must have been a magnificent creature to look at when alive, with his
proud, free head and branching horns.

Passing through the hall, we see three or four cases showing examples of
the different colours of animals--the white ones among the snow, and the
yellow ones on the sand, the protective colouring of which we spoke
before; and on the staircase sits a statue of Darwin, the wonderful man
who found out this about anim