348 UNGULATES, OR HOOFED QUADRUPEDS 



a single tooth being eleven, while in the Indian Elephant there are 

 as many as twenty-seven. 



Thanks to the researches of many eminent geologists, the 

 ancestral history of the Elephant has been established with won- 

 derful precision. In the Natural History Museum at South 

 Kensington may be traced the story of the evolution of the 

 Elephant, step by step, from its somewhat pig-like ancestor, the 

 Meritherium whose fossil remains were discovered by Dr. Andrews, 

 of the British Museum, in the Eocene and Miocene deposits of the 

 great western desert of Egypt. Next comes the Palaomastodon 

 of the Egyptian Eocene deposits, a creature about the size of a 

 horse, with a long face, and moderately large downward-pointing 

 tusks in the upper jaw, and then the strange-looking Tetrabelodon 

 (Mastodon angustidens) of the Miocene deposits of France, which 

 had a long lower jaw terminating in a short pair of tusks, and a 

 short upper jaw with long, slightly downward- curving tusks ; then 

 the Dinotherium, a mastodon-like creature of the Miocene period 

 of Germany, which had no tusks in the upper jaw, but two huge 

 tusks in the lower jaw, bent downwards, which were probably 

 used for grubbing up roots, etc. The American Mastodon (Mastodon 

 americanus), more closely resembling the true elephants, followed, 

 and finally the hairy Mammoth Elephant (Elephas primigenius), 

 with its shaggy coat and immense upward- and slightly inward- 

 curved tusks. 



The Hyracoidea are an interesting group of small mammals, 

 popularly known as " Conies," and having a singular resemblance 

 to rodents on account of their short ears, greatly reduced tail, 

 and habit of sitting in a squatting attitude. The likeness, how- 

 ever, is only skin deep, for they agree with other Ungulates in 

 structure ; the toes are united by skin to the nails, just as they 

 are in the elephant and rhinoceros, while the molar teeth are 

 bevelled off in a very similar manner to those of the hippopotamus. 

 The Hyrax is limited in its distribution to Ethiopian Africa and 

 Arabia (including Palestine) ; and while some live in rocky ground, 

 others frequent trees, utilising holes in the trunks as sleeping places. 

 The Hyrax Syriacus is the " Coney" of the Bible, and is found from 

 the coast of the Red Sea northwards through Syria, by Lebanon, 

 and southwards into Arabia and Ethiopia. It is a wary little 

 animal, about the size of a rabbit, clothed with soft brownish fur, 



