38 On the Fossil Remains of Elephants, 



Among the large Pachydermata of Norfolk, I have placed 

 the mastodon, which, however, I have done doubtfully, for 

 reasons that will be stated. 



The Elephant, — The fossil remains of this animal are far 

 more numerous than those of the other genera. I believe 

 there were more than one hundred grinders in the collections 

 I examined, and I was infoi-med that the single collection of 

 the Rev. J. Layton, formerly of Catfield, Norfolk, but now 

 removed to Sandwich, contains not less than one hundred 

 grinders of the elephant: very few tusks have been discovered 

 entire, but numerous fragments are constantly found. The 

 bones that are the most common in collections are, as might 

 be expected from their great size, the pelvis and the femur: 

 very few vertebral bones have been preserved. The entire 

 head of an elephant, with the tusks projecting from the sand, 

 was discovered at Cromer u few weeks before I was there ; 

 the boys who found it amused themselves with breaking the 

 tusks, and beating to pieces the skull. The jaws, with grind- 

 ers in them, escaped mutilation, and are now in the possession 

 of Mr. Wyndham of Felbrook Park, where I examined them ; 

 they are of an enormous size. 



Cabinet naturalists might please themselves with the dis- 

 covery of several species of elephants among the remains found 

 in Norfolk ; but I am persuaded that many, if not all, of what 

 would be regarded as specific differences in the form of the 

 grinders, are mere variations, arising from age and the differ- 

 ent stages of developement. In several specimens, the plates 

 or laminae of the teeth, presented, in one part, the character 

 of the Asiatic, and in another part of the same tooth that of 

 the African species. The laminae at one end of the tooth 

 sometimes resembled the pointed tubercles on the tooth of 

 the mastodon. The peculiar mode of dention of the elephant 

 occasions a great diversity of form in the grinder of the same 

 individual; this is so clearly and briefly described by Cuvierthat 

 I will translate the passage : " The distinctive character of the 

 elephant consits in the grinders (machelieres), the body of which 

 are composed of a certain number of vertical laminae, formed of 

 a bony substance enveloped in enamel, and bound together by 

 a third substance called cortical, such as may be seen in the 

 teeth of the guinea pig and other gnawing animals (rongeurs). 

 The grinders of the elephant succeed each other, not by being 

 pushed up vertically like human teeth, but they are driven 

 forward from behind by the new grinder, as the old one 

 wears away. Thus the elephant has sometimes one, and 

 sometimes two grinders in each jaw; that is from four to eight 

 on the whole, according to the epoch of dentition. The first 



rinders have few laminae ; those which succeed them have 



