356 THE ELEPHANT. 



The teeth of the elephant are very often found 

 in a fossil state. Some years ago, twa great 

 grinding teeth, and part of the tusk of an elephant, 

 were discovered, at the depth of forty-two yards, 

 in a lead-mine in Flintshire.* 



The tusks of the Mammoth, so often found 

 fossil in Siberia, and which are converted to the 

 purposes of ivory, are generally supposed to be- 

 long to the elephant ; however, the animal must 

 have been much larger in that country than it is 

 found at present, as those tusks are often known 

 to weigh four hundred pounds, while those that 

 come , from Africa seldom exceed two hundred 

 and fifty. These enormous tusks are found 

 lodged in the sandy banks of the Siberian rivers ; 

 and the natives pretend that they belong to an 

 animal which is four times as large as the elephant. 



There have lately been discovered several enor- 

 mous skeletons, five or six feet beneath the sur- 

 face, on the banks of the Ohio> not remote from 

 the river Miume, in America, seven hundred 

 miles from the sea- coast. Some of the tusks are 

 near seven feet long, one foot nine inches in cir- 

 cumference at the base, and one foot near the 

 point ; the cavity at the root or base, nineteen 

 inches deep. Besides their size, there are yet 

 other differences ; the tusks of the true elephant 

 have sometimes a very slight lateral bend, these 

 have a larger twist, or spiral curve, towards the 

 smaller end : but the great and specific difference 

 consists in the shape of the grinding teeth, which 



* Pennant's Synopsis, p. 90. 



