BEHEMOTH 



229 



stumpy appendage). " Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth 

 not " is surely much more suggestive of the copious draughts of 

 an Elephant than the possibly equally copious hut not so visible 

 libations of a Hippopotamus. 



The most ancient of the true Elephants (genus Elephas} is 

 E. meridionalis. It is of the African type, i.e. the plates of the 

 molar teeth are not abundant, and are not so many as in the 

 existing E, africanus. It seems to have been one of the largest of 

 Elephants, standing 4 metres high. Its remains are abundant in 

 Europe, and are known also from England. Like this species 

 E. antiquus is also of the African type. It was contemporary 

 with man. Certain dwarf or " pony " races found in caves in 

 Malta, and called Elephas melitensis or E.falconeri, are believed 

 to belong to this species. Mr. Leith Adams, who described these a 

 remains, placed them in two dwarf species called by the names 

 used above, and found associated with them a larger form, which 

 he referred to E. antiquus. The existence of these animals in 

 Malta seems to argue at least its former larger dimensions, and 

 the presence of more abundant fresh water. The remarkable 

 swimming capabilities of the Elephant do not necessarily imply 

 either a former absence of land connexion or, on the other hand, 

 its existence. Nor as a third possibility can it be suggested that 

 the dwarf size argues an island of limited dimensions, when we 

 bear in mind the huge tortoises of the Galapagos and some other 

 islands. It is important to notice that Elephants of the African 

 type (Loxodoii) were not formerly absent from India. E. planifrons 

 was one of these. 



The genus Stegodon is so called from the fact that the molar 

 teeth, seen in longitudinal section, present a series of roof-shaped 

 folds, the interstices between which are not, or are, imperfectly 

 filled up with the cement which in Elephas reduces the surface of 

 the teeth to a level plane. This genus is exclusively Asiatic, and 

 is Miocene to Pleistocene in time range. The number of ridges 

 on the molars is small, not more than two. The incisors (tusks) 

 have no enamel ; the skeleton generally is like that of Elephas, 

 between which and Mastodon the present genus is intermediate. 

 Among the four or five species is S. ganesa (called after the Indian 

 Elephant-headed divinity), with tusks 10 feet long, to be seen at 

 the British Museum of Natural History. 



1 Trans. Zool. Soc. ix. 1874, p. 1. 



