The American Museum Journal 



Volume XVI 



DECEMBER, 1916 



Number 8 



Kunz' on Ivory and the Elephant 



By W. D. MATTHEW 



THE chapters in Dr. Kunz's new 

 book of most interest to stu- 

 dents of natural history are 

 those deahng with the sources of ivory, 

 with modern elephants and with the 

 evolution of the Proboscidea. It will 

 be a surprise to many readers to learn 

 how considerable a proportion of com- 

 mercial ivory has been derived from the 

 fossil mammoths of the islands north 

 of Siberia, of the possibilities of Alaska 

 as a source for (fossil) ivory — and one 

 may add, the possibilities of future 

 exploration in the Canadian Arctic 

 islands. 



The author describes at some length 

 the habitat and characters of the modern 

 Asiatic and African elephants, devotes a 

 chapter to elephant hunting, and another 

 to the elephant in history, citing numer- 

 ous c^uaint descriptions and cin-ious 

 legends from classical and medipeval 

 writers. Other chapters, no less in- 

 teresting, deal with the sources and 

 qualities of ivory and the methods of 

 working it. There are numerous illus- 

 trations, a few of which are reproduced 

 here, of notable carved pieces. 



The chapter upon the e^•olution of 

 the elephant is a brief account of the 

 principal discoveries taken up in order 

 of their geological age, and illustrating 

 the successive stages in the evolution of 



1 Kunz, George F., Ivory and (he Elephant in Art, in 

 Archxology, and in Science. Doubleday Page & Co., 

 Garden City, New York, 1916. Pp. i-xxvi, 1-527 

 with numerous illustrations. 



elephants from primitive tapir-like ani- 

 mals of the early Tertiary. This interest- 

 ing chapter in evolution is in large part a 

 result of discoveries of the last few years. 

 It has been briefly summarized by 

 Andrews,^ Lull,^ Barbour,^ and Matthew,^ 

 from whose accounts and illustrations 

 Dr. Kunz has drawn, and to which he 

 has added a number of recent discoveries. 

 This chapter might very well, as a re- 

 viewer in the A ^'^^^ York Times remarked, 

 be extended into a book of itself. It is 

 one of the most impressive records of 

 the evolution of a race of animals. 



The elephant is not only the largest 

 of land animals but it is quite as singular 

 and extraordinary in comparison with 

 other quadrupeds as any of those strange 

 extinct types which writers are so fond 

 of calling "grotesque" and "bizarre." 

 It stands off by itself in a separate order 

 from all other living mammals, and the 

 extreme specializations seen in its trunk, 

 its tusks and grinding teeth, the propor- 

 tions of its limbs and character of its 

 feet, are as different from the ordinary 

 run of quadrupeds as one could well 



1 Andrews, Chas. W., 1903. On the Evolulion of the 

 Proboscidea. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, Vol. 196, pp. 93- 

 118; 190S, Guide to the Elephants, Recent and Fossil 

 etc. Rritish Museum (Natural History), London. 



2 Lull, R. S., 1908. The Evolution of the Elephant. 

 Amer. Jour. Sci., Vol. XXV, March. 



3 Harbour, E. H., 1915. Prehistoric Elephants in 

 the Morrill Collections. Sunday Slate Journal, 

 Omaha, Jan. 3, 1915. 



< Matthew, W. D., 1915. Mammoths and Mastodons. 

 Amer. Museum Guide Leaflet No. 43, Nov. 1915; 

 Climate and Evolution, Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci., Vol. 

 XXIV, pp. 171-318. 



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