CHAP. XVII.] 



MAMMALIA. 



227 



the tapirs and camels ; while others once confined to Europe and 

 Asia have found a refuge in Africa, — as the hippopotamus and 

 giraffe ; so that in no other order do we find such striking ex- 

 amples of those radical changes in the distribution of the higher 

 animals which were effected during the latter part of the Tertiary 

 period. The present distribution of this order is, in fact, utterly 

 unintelligible without reference to the numerous extinct forms 

 of existing and allied families ; but as this subject has been suffi- 

 ciently discussed in the Second Part of this work (Chapters VI. 

 and VII.) it is unnecessary to give further details here. 



Order VIII.—PROBOSCIDEA. 



Family 53.— ELEPHANTID.E. (1 Genus, 2 Species.) 



The elephants are now represented by two species, the African, 

 which ranges all over that continent south of the Sahara, and 

 the Indian, which is found over all the wooded parts of the 

 Oriental region, from the slopes of the Himalayas to Cey- 

 lon, and eastward, to the frontiers of China and to Sumatra and 

 Borneo. These, however, are but the feeble remnants of a host 

 of gigantic creatures, which roamed over all the great conti- 

 nents except Australia during the Tertiary period, and several of 

 which were contemporary with man. 



Extinct Elephants. — At least 14 extinct species of Elephas, 

 and a rather greater number of the allied genus Mastodon (dis- 

 tinguished by their less complex grinding teeth) have now been 



