334 Mr. Ranking on the Remains of Elephants 



forcing pump to impel water up the pipe E, and in this mode 

 of employing it, a larger portion of water ascends into the 

 receptacle R. 



It is thus explained. When a current of water is urged 

 along the pipe S, it is partially checked when the piston A is 

 depressed, and working as an ordinary pump, but entirely 

 stopped provided the piston- valve be kept closed : in either case 

 the momentive force of the water expands in every direction, 

 and the column of fluid in the rising pipe C D is put in motion, 

 but more considerably in the latter condition, in consequence 

 of the stoppage of the water being more complete. 



No doubt the effect of the engine would be increased if the 

 upper pump were removed, and a single valve, contained in an 

 air-chamber, placed near the bottom of C D. 



Nov. 21th, 1828. 



Remarks on some Remains of Elephants, lately found on the 

 American Shore in Behring's Straits, by John Ranking, 

 Esq. 



" Two tusks of the mammoth were brought home by Captain Beechey. 

 they are in fine preservation, and not bent in one direction, but twisted 

 spirally like the horns of some species of cows. The smallest is quite 

 entire, and is nine feet nine inches long ; the largest, which wants a small 

 part of the point, must have measured originally twelve feet. Professor 

 Jameson stated to the Wernerian Society, that the mammoth to which 

 the largest belonged, must have been fifteen or sixteen feet high *, and 

 consequently larger than the elephant, which is of the same species. Tliey 

 •were found on the west coast of America, near Behring's Straits, at 

 Escholz Bay, latitude 66°, in a bluff or mountain of ice, which has been 

 described by Kotzebue : it is one hundred feet high. 



* Neither the height of this animal (which is conjectm-e only), nor the 

 length of the tusks, can be deemed as marking a difference from modern 

 elephants, which are known of fourteen feet, (Ency. Brit. " Elephas.") 

 Coryate mentions them at Delhi thirteen and a half feet high. Fitch, at 

 Pegu, saw some nine cubits in height, (Purchas, vol. v. p. 503.) A tusk 

 is described of the length of fourteen feet, in the possession of a mer- 

 chant at Venice ; and another at Amsterdam, v/hich weighs three hundred 

 and fifty pounds. — (Rees's Cyclopaedia, art. *' Ivory.") 



