41. During the two preceding periods the Earth uncovered by water was of very small extent, marshy and frequently submerged: that is why the animals were all either aquatic or amphibious. The tertiary period, in which vast continents have been formed, has been characterized by the appearance of terrestrial animals.
Just as the transition period has brought forth colossal vegetables, and the secondary period monstrous reptiles; the tertiary period has produced gigantic mammal animals, such as the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, paleotherium, megatherium, dinotherium, the mastodon, mammoth, etc. The two latter elephant varieties were 5 to 6 meters tall, and their tusks would reach 4 meters long. It has produced birds as well, some of the species of which are living now. A few of the animals of this period have survived subsequent inundations. Others that have been designated by the generic term, “pre-diluvium animals,” have completely disappeared, or have been replaced by analogous species, in form lighter and smaller in which the original types have been merely outlined: such are the felisspeloea, a carnivorous animal about the size of the bull, having the anatomical characteristics of tiger and lion; the cervus megaceron, a variety of deer of which the horns, three yards in length were separated by three to four yards from their extremities.