CHAPTER XIY 



THE STORY OF THE ELEPHANTS 



' Yes, where the huntsman winds his matin horn, 



And the couched hare beneath the covert trembles ; 

 Where shepherds tend their flocks, and grow their corn, 



Where fashion in our gay Parade assembles 

 Wild horses, deer, and elephants have strayed, 

 Treading beneath their feet old Ocean's races." 



HORACE SMITH. 



THE science of Palaeontology is always advancing, sometimes by 

 leaps and bounds, at other times slowly but surely. It is our 

 pleasant duty to record here a great step in advance made some 

 seven years ago chiefly by the researches in Egypt of Dr. C. W. 

 Andrews, F.R.S. His discoveries in the district known as the 

 Fayum have enabled him to solve a very important and interesting 

 problem, namely, the evolution of the Elephant, the only living 

 representative of that strange order known to naturalists and 

 palaeontologists as the Proboscidia, because they are all provided 

 with trunks. The relationships of the group are still partly 

 wrapped in mystery, 1 but as if to compensate for this loss, we 

 can now tell how the elephant got his trunk ! We can almost see 

 it growing as we look at those wonderful skulls obtained from 

 Egypt, showing, among other things, the great increase in size 

 which took place. This is surely a great result, the problem of 



1 According to Dr. C. W. Andrews, and others, they seem to be related to the 

 Sirenia or sea-cows, an order very unlike in external appearance, but for all that 

 the anatomist finds certain common characters. 



