38 



abundant remains of this Elephas primiyenius (as it lias been 

 prematurely called, since it was the last of our British ele- 

 phants) have been found in temperate and high northern lati- 

 tudes in Europe, Asia and America. This, like other Arctic 

 animals, was peculiar in its family for its range in longitude. 

 The Musk Buffalo was its contemporary in England and Eu- 

 rope, and still lingers in the northernmost parts of America. 



I have received evidences of Elephantine species from 

 China and Australia, proving the proboscidian pachyderms to 

 have once been the most cosmopolitan of hoofed herbivorous 

 quadrupeds. 



Both the proboscidian and toxodontal orders of UNGULATA 

 may be called aberrant : the dentition of the latter, and several 

 particulars of the organization of the Elephant, indicate an 

 affinity to the Rodentia ; the cranium of the Toxodon, like 

 that of the Dinothere, resembles that of the Sirenia in its re- 

 markable modifications. 



The typical Ungulate quadrupeds are divided, according 

 to the odd or even number of the toes, into PEKISSODACTYLA 

 and ARTIODACTYLA J : the single hoof of the horse, the triple 

 hoof of the tapir, exemplify the first : the double hoof of the 

 camel, the quadruple hoof of the hippopotamus, exemplify the 

 second. In the perissodactyle or odd-toed UNGULATA, the dorso- 

 lumbar vertebras differ in number in different species, but are 

 never fewer than twenty-two; the femur has a third trochanter, 

 and the medullary artery does not penetrate the fore part of 

 its shaft. The fore part of the astragalus is divided into two 

 very unequal facets. The os magnum and the digitus medius 

 which it supports are large, in some disproportionately so, and 

 the digit is symmetrical : the same applies to the ectocunei- 

 form and the digit which it supports in the hind foot. If the 

 species be horned, as the Rhinoceros, the horn is single ; or, 

 if there be two, they are placed on the median line of the 

 head, one behind the other, each being thus an odd horn. 



1 From 7re/)i<r<To5aKTiAo?, qui cligitos habet impares numero ; and dpnos, 

 par, Sct/cruXos, digitus. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, No. 14, 

 May, 1848. 



