THE ORIGIN OF ELEPHANTS 



The history, suggested above, of the gradual 

 production of the elephant in the later ages of 

 the world's history from a long-jawed creature 

 has been wonderfully confirmed by the dis- 

 coveries made in Egypt within the past four 

 years by my friend Dr. Andrews, who is one of 

 the staff of the Natural History Museum. Dr. 

 Andrews was in Egypt four years ago on account 

 of his health and joined a party of the officers 

 of the great survey of Egypt, organized by Lord 

 Cromer, in a visit to the Great Western Desert, 

 the rainless, sandy waste lying west of the Nile, 

 not very far from what is now called the Fayum, 

 and where in Roman days was the great Lake 

 Meris — now dried up to a mere brine-pool, in 

 the salt water of which the freshwater fishes of 

 the Nile still live. The surveying party in- 

 tended to determine the geological age of these 

 sands, which stretch for hundreds of miles, often 

 rising into cliffs which are cut sharp by the 

 wind and show horizontal stratification. Some 

 fragments of bone had been recorded from this 

 region twenty years ago by the traveller 

 Schweinfurth, and Dr. Andrews, who is a 

 special expert and authority in the interpreta- 

 tion of fossil bones, was hopeful of securing 



123 



