We cannot
reasonably hope for a new suspension of the traffic: indeed we can
only look for its extension. The luxurious tastes of man are inimical
to the existence of the elephant. From time immemorial, the war of
extermination has existed. His rightful domain--in the plain or the
wilderness, or amid the wild herbage of his native savannas--is at all
points ruthlessly invaded. But the result is inevitable--it will come
to an end; and some future generation of naturalists--those of them at
least who are curious in Palaeontology--will regard the remains of our
contemporary races of elephants with the same kind of astonishment
with which we investigate the pre-historic evidences of the gigantic
tapir or the mammoth.
* * * * *
[Footnote 3: In the sacristy of the cathedral at Aix-la-Chapelle is
still preserved, among other relics of this great prince, an immense
ivory hunting-horn; and 'Charlemagne's chess-men,' which still exist,
form part of the collection of works of art at Cologne.]
[Footnote 4: See an article on the Aberdeen Combworks, No. 396.]
BLIGHTED FLOWERS.
The facts of the following brief narrative, which are very few and of
but melancholy interest, became known to me in the precise order in
which they are laid before the reader.
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