40 



ELEPHANTS. 



Pier- as grinding organs. The great size, and especially height, of 

 30^32. ^ ie crown gi yes tnem a prolonged period of wear, while the 

 Table- num erous alternating plates of enamel, dentine, and cement, 



cases of different degrees of hardness, ensure that the grinding 

 1 719. 



Fig. 28. 



Grinding surface of molar tooth of the Mammoth (Elephas primigenius), 

 showing some still unworn posterior plates. About f nat. size. 



surface will remain sufficiently rough for its purpose through- 

 out the period during which the tooth remains in use. The 

 Mammoth was a very widely-distributed form, being found all 

 over Northern Europe, Asia, and America, and it seems to 

 have been particularly abundant in Siberia and the islands to the 

 north, where remains occur in great abundance, and whence 

 the tusks are actually exported for commercial purposes. The 

 extinction of the Mammoth appears to have been a compa- 

 ratively recent event, and in Siberia portions of carcases with 

 the skin and flesh in good preservation are found in the frozen 

 tundras. An instance of this kind is illustrated by drawings 

 and photographs on the pillar between pier-cases 3132. In 

 this instance the animal seems to have fallen into a hole and to 

 have died in its efforts to scramble out. The mouth was found 

 still filled with the grass on which the animal was browsing at 

 the time when it met with the accident. This individual, 

 restored and mounted in the, attitude in which it was found, 

 is now exhibited in the Imperial Academy of Sciences at 

 St. Petersburg. This specimen, with many others, shows that 

 the Mammoth was covered with a reddish-brown wool and long 

 dark hair, while the tail ended in a large tassel of hair. A 



