166 On the Extinct Species 



X. Additional Facts and Observations, relative to the 

 Extinct Species of American Elephants. In a letter 



from the Editor to Mons. Cuvier, of Paris. 



See First Supplement, p. 22 — 35. 



P. S. I have just learned, that Professor Auten- 

 rieth, of Tubingen, has informed you, that he has found 

 in America some teeth very similar to those of the Af- 

 rican Elephant. I have pretty good reason to believe, 

 that in making this assertion, or statement, the Professor 

 has fallen into an error : for in a letter which he address- 

 ed to me, some years since*, he says, " I have seen, in 

 the collection of Mr. Peale, some molares like the Af- 

 rican elephant's. Are they, he asks, found in America ? ' , 



The molares, to which Mr. Autenrieth alludes, xvere 

 brought from Africa ; and, among the great number of 

 large molares, of various kinds, that have been found in 

 the United- States, I have not seen one that resembles 

 those of the Elephas Africanus. But I do not assert, 

 that such teeth do not exist in America. America still 

 possesses some quadrupeds of the same species as those 

 which are found in Africa ; and i'ew facts in Natural 

 History are better established than this, That many spe- 

 cies of quadrupeds, and other mammalia, were once much 

 more extensively diffused over the earth than they are at 

 present. 



There is a passage in Mr. Catesbv's Natural History 

 ' 'arolina, &.C, which would seem to show, that grind' 



* Dated October, 1 7 



