ELEPHANTIDjE 427 



the elephants mutually assist each other, and that several engage 

 together in the work of overturning a large tree." 



Extinct Species of Elephant. Abundant remains of Elephants are 

 found embedded in alluvial gravels, or secreted in the recesses of 

 caves, into which they have been washed by streams and floods, or 

 dragged as food by Hyaenas and other carnivorous inhabitants of 

 these subterranean dens. Such remains belonging to the Pleistocene 

 and Pliocene periods have been found in many parts of Europe, 

 including the British Isles, in North Africa, throughout the North 

 American continent from Alaska to Mexico, and extensively dis- 

 tributed in Asia, where the deposits of the sub-Himalayan Siwalik 



FIG. 184. Restored skeleton of the Mammoth (Elephas primigenius). From Tilesius in 

 Mem. Acad. Imp. Sc. St. Petersbmirg, vol. v. (1815). s, Scapula ; h, humerus ; r, radius ; u, ulna ; 

 c, carpus ; rs, ischium ; /, femur ; t, tibia ; fi, fibula ; ta, tarsus. 



Hills, and equivalent deposits in the Punjab, Perim Island, 1 and 

 Burma, belonging to the earliest Pliocene, are rich in the remains 

 of Elephants of varied form. These species are chiefly known and 

 characterised at present by the skulls and teeth ; some of the latter 

 resemble the existing Indian and some the African type, but the 

 majority are between the two, and make the distinction between 

 the two existing species as of generic importance quite impractic- 

 able. Others again approach so closely in the breadth and coarse- 

 ness of the ridges and paucity of cement to Mastodon as to have 

 been placed by some zoologists in that genus. These form the 

 subgenus called Stegodon by Falconer, and may be regarded as a 

 distinct group of the genus. 



1 In the Gulf of Cambay, not the island of the same name in the Red Sea. 



