01* (Elcph&s JKeribiomtlis, 



POUND AT DEWLISH, 



WITH A HISTORY OP THE PROBOSCIDIAN FAMILY AND SPECIAL 



REFERENCES TO E. ANTIQUUS AND E. PRIMIGENIUS, WHOSE 



KEMAINS HAVE ALSO BEEN FOUND IN THIS COUNTY. 



By J. C. MANSBL-PLEYDELL, Esq., 

 P.L.S., P.G.S. 



EFORE entering into a detailed account of the 

 discovery of Elephantine remains at Dewlish 

 I propose giving a sketch of the Proboscidian 

 family, from its first appearance to the present 

 time. It includes Deinotherium, Mastodon, and 

 Elephas ; the two first are extinct, the last 



constituted several species, of which two only now exist the 



Asiatic and the African Elephants. 



DEINOTHERIUM. 



The career of Deinotherium was a short one, limited exclusively 

 to the Miocene age. Great Britain, as far as it is known, was 

 not submerged during that age, and formed part of the Continent, 

 hence the remains of Deinotherium have not been met with in these 

 islands. The lower jaw had two powerful tusk-like incisors 

 directed downwards vertically, which were used either in digging 

 up the roots on which it fed, or in mooring itself to the banks of 

 the river it inhabited, for, like the Hippopotamus, it was probably 



