AQTJITANICLE. 



B. PLATE XXVIII. 



A portion of the outside layer of a Tusk of an Elephant, most probably a Mam- 

 uioth (Elephas primigenius, Blumenbach). An account of its discovery was given 

 by M. Lartet in the ' Comptes Rendus de 1' Academic des Sciences,' 1865. See 

 page 206. It is a thin oblong piece, convex from side to side with the roundness 

 of the tusk, and somewhat concave in the longitudinal direction, owing to its cur- 

 vature. The outer surface presents what at first appears to be a medley of faintly 

 scratched lines ; but, on closer and more careful inspection, they resolve themselves 

 into a characteristic outline of a hairy Elephant, with some of the lines doubled and 

 redoubled apparently by the old artist's repeated attempts to sketch out the main 

 features of his subject. The lofty skull and hollow forehead are recognizable as 

 striking features, characteristic of the Siberian Mammoth at St. Petersburg *, of 

 the skull of the Mammoth from Ilford, Essex, preserved in the British Museum t, 

 and of the Belgian Mammoth at Brussels j. The small eye and long trunk of the 

 Elephant, and the great curved tusks and shaggy hair peculiar to the Mammoth, 

 are easily recognized. The upper and more convex sketch-lines of the back agree 

 with the high withers of the Mammoth ; and the lower and sloping dorsal lines 

 probably had reference, in the draughtsman's mind, to some special attitude of 

 the animal, with which also the outstretched portion of the hind leg, and the 

 elevated tail, may be associated. 



Mr. H. Woodward, E.R.S., F.G.S., has kindly communicated the interesting 

 suggestion that the attitude of the animal, together with the vertical position of 

 the trunk, would well accord with the idea of one of a herd of Elephants coming 

 down by moonlight to drink, and that the confusing double lines might then be 

 explained as an attempt, on the part of the artist, to represent the rest of the 

 herd. In running, or when alarmed, the trunk of the Elephant is always raised. 

 And he adds that there can be little or no doubt that the sketch, rude as it is, 

 was the result of a life-study of the animal, and is consequently of the highest 

 importance as attesting the actual presence of the living Mammoth in Erance 

 when the Caves of Pe"rigord were occupied by Man. 



* See Le Hon's ' L'Homme fossile,' 1867, p. 70, woodcut. 



t Much modern information on the features, distribution, and general natural history of the Mammoth, 

 together with references to other authors, will be found in the Memoirs by Mr. Henry Woodward, F.H.S., of 

 the British Museum, in the ' Geological Magazine,' 1864, vol. i. p. 241, and woodcut ; 1868, vol. v. p. 540, 

 plates 22 and 23 ; 1869, vol. vi. p. 58 ; and 1871, vol. viii. p. 193, pi. 4. 



J See Dr. E. Dupont's ' L'Homme pendant les ages de la Pierre dans les Environs de Dinant-sur-Meuse ' 

 (pi. 2), 8vo, 2nd edit. 1872. 



