220 PROBOSCIDIA. 
Elephant at Maghery, eight miles from Belturbet in the 
county of Cavan, and similar evidences of the Elephant 
have since been discovered in other localities of Ireland, 
where the armies of Cesar never set foot. Some other 
hypothesis must therefore be resorted to in order to ex- 
plain these phenomena. 
Observation, the basis of all sound hypotheses, has shown 
in the first place that the remains of the Klephants which 
are scattered over Europe in the unstratified superficial 
deposits called ‘ Diluvium, ‘ Drift,’ ‘Till,’ and ‘ Glacio-dilu- 
vium,’ as well as those from the upper tertiary strata, are 
specifically different from the teeth and bones of the twe 
known existing Elephants, H/ephas indicus and El. afri- 
canus. This fundamental fact, when first appreciated by 
Cuvier, who announced it in 1796, opened to him, he says, 
entirely new views of the theory of the earth, and a rapid 
glance, guided by the new and pregnant idea, over other 
fossil bones, made him anticipate all that he afterwards 
proved, and determined him to consecrate to this great 
work the future years of his life. 
The differences which the skull of the fossil Elephant 
presents as compared with the recent species are, the more 
angular form-and relative shortness of the zygomatic pro- 
cesses; the longer, more poiited and more curved form 
of the postorbital process ; the larger and more prominent 
tubercle of the lachrymal bone; the greater length of the 
sockets of the tusks; the more parallel position of the 
right and left sockets of the grinders, making the anterior 
interspace and channels at the junction of the rami of the 
lower jaw proportionably wider than in the existing Ele- 
phants. Of these characteristics, I have verified the last- 
mentioned instance, taken from the lower jaw, by observation 
of English specimens; they are well displayed in the lower 
