191 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



MULTUNGULA COIlfillUcd EXISTING ELEPHANTS QUESTION AS TO BISTIXCTXESS OF SUMATRAX SPECIES 



ELEPHANTS IN BORNEO. 



Existing Elephants. — (5Iap 50.) The natural history and distribution of the existing species 

 are not less interesting than those of the fossil. 



It has been ascertained that the African species was not only represented in Europe by the 

 small Malta species, E. Melitensis, but that remains of the existing African species itself (E. 

 Africanus) have been found both in Spain (near Madrid) and at more than one place in Sicily. 

 The identity of the Spanish remains with the African species is given by M. Lartet mth some 

 doubt, but there is none as to that of the Sicilian, which is vouched for by Dr. Falconer himself. 

 Although that species is no longer found wild in Africa north of the Sahara, its absence there is 

 due to man. In former times it undoubtedly extended over the whole of the habitable parts of 

 the Continent. The Romans and Carthaginians got their Elephants from the north of Africa 

 — and numerous coins and medals prove that their domesticated species was the African one, the 

 fonn and size of the ears being a sure indication of the .species. Schlegel suggests that there may 

 be more than one species confounded under the present African form — a north and a south breed. 

 As he says, most animals from the two chief divisions of Africa differ specifically from one another, 

 or at least show differences in size, &c., as, for example, is the case with the Ostrich of Algeria 

 and that of South Africa. This is scarcely a parallel case, however, for the most northerly Elejjhants 

 are not north of the Sahara ; and in any view we must take them as only one until proved to be 

 more. 



If the existing African species extended into Europe there is reason also to believe that 

 the existing Indian species did so likewise — one or two teeth, undistinguishable from those of 

 the Indian species, having been found at the Bosphorus and in Italy. It is an interesting point 

 to be kept in view in future observations, but the evidence in its favour is still too slight to 

 allow this extension of the range of the E. Indicus to be received as more than a possible supposition. 

 The existing range of that species also furnishes matter for inquiry. If only one species is found in 

 Asia, then that species extends tlirough the East Indies, Assam, Burmah, Tennasserim, the Malayan 

 Peninsula, Siam, Cochin China, and Sumatra. It is not a native of Java, and, although found in 

 Borneo, it is more than doubtful whether it is aboriginal in that ishmd or not. 



Until lately it has always been understood and admitted that there was only one Asiatic 

 Elephant, the E. Indicls ; but an attempt has recently been made to separate the Asiatic species into 

 two ; and before discussing the question of distribution, it will be as well to see our way clearly as to 

 w]iat distribution we are speaking of. The two supposed species are, 1, the insuhir, that is, the 



