ELEPHAS 



30 1 



pliocene beds, has molars most like those of the present African 

 species. The tusks of the elephant, like those of the Mastodon, 



Fig. in. 

 Upper molar, Asiatic Elephant. 



consist of true ivory, which shows, in transverse fractures or 

 sections, striae proceeding in the arc of a circle from the 

 d f c 



Fig. 118. 

 Upper molar, African Elephant. 



centre to the circumference in opposite directions, and forming, 

 by their decussations, curvilinear lozenges. This character is 

 a valuable one in the determination of fragments of fossil 

 tusks. 



The tusks of the extinct Elephas primigenius, or mam- 

 moth, have a bolder and more extensive curvature than those 

 of the Elephas indicus ; some have been found which describe 

 a circle, but the curve being oblicpae, they thus clear the 

 head, and point outward, downward, and backward. The 

 numerous fossil tusks of the Mammoth which have been dis- 

 covered and recorded, may be ranged under two averages of 

 size — the larger ones at nine feet and a half, the smaller at 



