343 



The females of the East-Indian elephants have but short and small 

 tusks, projecting obliquely 'downwards. The African elephants, both 

 male and female, appear to have large tusks. The degree, and even 

 the direction of the curvature of these tusks, vary considerably. 



M. Cuvier is satisfied, from actual comparison of several skulls of the 

 East- Indian and African elephants, that different specific characters 

 exist in their respective skulls. In the Indian elephant, the top of 

 the skull is raised in a kind of double pyramid ; but, in the African, it 

 is nearly rounded. In the Indian the forehead is concave, and in the 

 African it is rather convex. Several other differences exist, not necessary 

 to be here particularized, which seem to be fully sufficient to mark a dif- 

 ference of species. 



A cursory view is sufficient to enable us to determine that the ordinary 

 fossil teeth of elephants are not of the African species, and it may be fur- 

 ther said, that the greater number of these teeth bear a close resemblance 

 to the East-Indian species, showing, on their masticating surface, bands 

 of an equal thickness through their whole length, and rudely crenulated. 

 So great, indeed, is the resemblance, that Pallas, and most other writers, 

 have considered the fossil elephant as being of the same species with the 



f\ o| rj 4-] ft 



*v**m$. 



That the fossil elephants were specifically different from the Asiatic 

 elephant, M. Cuvier had been long of opinion; and although the obser- 

 vations of his friend, M. Adrien Camper, made him for a time hesitate, 

 he became confirmed in his opinion from the circumstance, that he al- 

 most always found the plates, in the fossil species, thinner, occupying 

 sensibly a less space ; and being, consequently, in greater number, in the 

 same length, than in the recent teeth. From this difference in the thick- 

 ness of the plates, it follows that the number of these plates which are 

 brought into action at once, should be greater in the fossil than in the 

 Asiatic. Mr. Corse observes, that in the latter there are seldom more 

 than ten or twelve in use at once ; but in the fossil teeth, there are fre- 



