294 EXISTENCE OF THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT IN EUROPE. 



The best authorities consider that the mammoth and the 

 woolly-haired rhinoceros lived in Siberia before, as well as 

 during the glacial period, and though as regards Europe the 

 evidence is not so conclusive, it appears probable that they 

 also existed in Europe in pre -glacial times. It is pro- 

 bable that during the severer portions of the period they 

 retreated south, and advanced northward again during the 

 milder inter-glacial period. Whatever doubt, however, there 

 may be as to the date at which this species made its appear- 

 ance in Europe, we can no longer hesitate to believe that our 

 ancestors, or at least our predecessors, co-existed in England 

 with the mammoth, which they no doubt hunted, as the wildest 

 tribes of Africa and India do now. 



In Southern Europe unmistakable remains of the existing 

 African elephant have been met with, but the only other species 

 of elephant which inhabited Northern Europe during the quater- 

 nary period was the nearly allied Eleplias antiqims, remains of 

 which have been found in English caves and river gravels 



O j 



though, on the whole, it had a more southerly range than the 

 mammoth. It is generally associated with Rhinoceros lep- 

 torhinus, Guv., while, on the contrary, the mammoth and R. 

 tichorhinus usually occur together. 



Eig. 179 represents a molar tooth of E. antiqims, and fig. 

 180 one belonging to E. primigenius ; it will at once be seen 

 that the plates are much narrower in the latter than in the 

 former. 



FIG. 179. 



Molar Tooth of E, Antiquus. 



