88 VERTEBRATES : MAMMALS. 



by that behind it. It is asserted that they shed their 

 teeth eight times, but their tusks are changed only once. 



The Genus Elcphas comprises the Elephants proper. 



The Asiatic Elephant, E. indicus, Cuv., of India, is 

 specially characterized by its oblong head, concave fore- 

 head, and the undulating sections of the laminae which 

 are seen on the crown of the grinders. This species has 

 smaller ears than the next, and four nails to each hind 

 foot. It has been used for a beast of burden from the 

 earliest times. 



The African Elephant, E. africanus, Cuv., of Southern 

 Africa, is distinguished by its round head, convex fore- 

 head, large ears, and the lozenge-shaped figures on the 

 crown of the grinders. Both species are hunted for their 

 tusks, which furnish the world with ivory. 



In both hemispheres the superficial deposits abound 

 with skeletons and parts of skeletons of elephants which 

 are now extinct. An elephant, covered with long, thick 

 hair, and wholly unlike anything now living, was found 

 encased in ice on the coast of Siberia. It was in such 

 a state of preservation that dogs fed upon the flesh, al- 

 though it is probable that it had been there thousands of 

 years. 



The Genus Mastodon comprises extinct Pachyderms, 

 whose remains abound in the superficial accumulations 

 of America, as well as in those of the Old World. In 

 general appearance the Mastodon was much like the 

 elephant, but differed from the latter in the grinders, the 

 crowns of which are studded with large conical points. 

 A skeleton of Mastodon dug up at Newburgh, New York, 

 is seventeen feet long to the tail, which is six feet, and 

 the tusks are nearly eleven feet in length, the whole 

 weighing two thousand pounds. This splendid specimen 

 is in the museum of the late Dr. Warren of Boston. 



RHINOCERID/E, OR RHINOCEROS FAMILY. This Fam- 



