254? Bulletin de la Societe Imperiale 



which burrows in the ground, and in size surpasses all the 

 creatures living on earth's surface. They administer them 

 medicinally for the same purposes as they do that which is 

 called the horn of the unicorn. A piece given to me by a 

 friend, who said he had received it from a certain Russian 

 prince returned from Siberia, appears to me to be genuine 

 ivory ; and the more skilful tell me that these mammoutovoi 

 are elephants' teeth. So that it appears necessary that they 

 were brought thither by the universal deluge, and in the lapse 

 of time have been more and more covered with earth." The 

 grammarian was right in pronouncing the teeth good ivory, 

 but he erred in presuming them to have belonged to an alien 

 elephant ; for the mammout was certainly a native of Siberia 

 at on6 time, and differs in many particulars from either of the 

 living elephants. It was more nearly allied to the Indian 

 than to the African species, but was of a grosser or more 

 clumsy shape and larger than it, and was covered with hairs 

 of considerable length, as is proved by the portions of skin 

 of an individual discovered by Mr. Adams in the icy banks 

 of the Lena, and preserved in the museum of the Imperial 

 Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburgh. There are likewise 

 many remarkable differences between them in the form of 

 the teeth and jaw. The tusks also were very long, more or 

 Jess bent in a spiral and directed outwards, fixed in sockets 

 of such a great length as would indicate a singular difference 

 in the shape and structure of the proboscis. Of this enormous 

 creature one species only has been generally recognised ; but 

 from a careful examination of the various specimens of the 

 teeth deposited in the museum of the university of Moscow, 

 M. Fischer is induced to suspect that several have been con- 

 founded under one common name. The differences observed 

 in the curvature of the branches of the lower jaw, and in the 

 form and direction of the layers of the crown of the teeth, 

 gave rise to these suspicions; and, in this notice, we have six 

 species characterised, although, it must be remarked, the pro- 

 fessor is aware that the differences indicated may not be really 

 specific. Age has a great influence even on the form of the 

 teeth, particularly in an animal whose dentition is so singular 

 as that of the elephant ; and before the species enumerated 

 below can be considered as established, it will be necessary 

 to contrast perfect jaws, or at least to possess of each species 

 a superior and an inferior molar tooth. 



1. jE'lephas mammoutem. The molar teeth straight, the 

 laminae numerous, narrow, a little raised, narrowly scalloped. 



2. E, panicus. Straight molar teeth, the lamina3 broad, 

 raised, a little scalloped, ' latere longe distinctis.' 



