STUDIES IN LIFE AND SENSE. 



The witty Dean's lines show at least that the geographers did not 

 mistake the wide distribution of the giant animal in the Ethiopian 

 continent. For, south of the Sahara the territory north of which 

 is zoologically a part of Europe the African elephant is widely 

 found, forming one of the most characteristic features at once of the 

 African landscape and of the Ethiopian fauna, and dividing the 

 sovereignty of the land with the lion himself. 



Turning now to the past history of the elephant race, one may 

 primarily note the more prominent members of the group which rank 



amongst the curiosities 

 of the geologist. First 

 in order comes the ex- 

 tinct Mammoth \\\zEle- 

 phas primigenius (fig. 3) 

 of the naturalist. Of this 

 huge elephant we possess 

 a considerable know- 

 ledge, inasmuch as speci- 

 mens have been ob- 

 tained, literally packed 

 amid the Siberian ice, 

 and so perfectly pre- 

 served that even the de- 

 licate tissues of the eyes 

 could be inspected. This was the case in the famous specimen 

 found in the frozen soil of a cliff at the mouth of the Lena in 1799. 

 The skin of this huge elephant was then seen to be clothed with a 

 thick coating of reddish wool interspersed with black hairs. The 

 skeleton, removed in 1806 by Mr. Adams, and preserved in St. 

 Petersburg, measures 16 feet 4 inches in length, the height is 9 feet 

 4 inches, and the tusks measure each 9 feet 6 inches along their 

 curve. The mammoth's tusks appear to have had a wider curvature 

 (fig. 3) than those of existing elephants ; and probably, like the 

 African species, both male and female mammoths possessed these 

 great teeth. The measurement of mammoth tusks from recent 

 deposits in Essex gives a length of 9 feet 10 inches along the outer 

 curve, and 2 feet 5 inches in circumference at the thickest part. 

 Another specimen weighed 160 Ibs. ; and a dredged specimen taken 

 off Dungeness was 1 1 feet long. The mammoth's tusks have long 

 formed articles of commerce and barter in Siberia ; the ivory, as 

 Professor Owen remarks, being " so little altered, as to be fit for the 

 purposes of manufacture." The mammoth's extensive range forms 

 not the least noteworthy point in its history. It certainly roamed 

 farther abroad, so far as we know, than any other elephantine form. 

 Its remains occur in Britain and in Europe generally ; they have 



FIG. 3. SKELETON OF MAMMOTH. 



