CHAPTER VII. 



ELEPHANTS. 



" Th' unwieldy elephant, 



To make them"mirth,Iuf f d all his might, and wreath'd 

 His lithe probofcis." (P. L. iv. 345.) 



elephant family runs far back into 

 the pliocene age. It attained a large 

 range in poft-pliocene times. At 

 prefent, it is well known, we poflefs 

 two main branches of the ftem in the Indian and 

 African elephants, which are well marked off from 

 each other. The latter kind is not now tamed, 

 but it is fuppofed that the elephants ufed by the 

 Carthaginians were of this fpecies. Singularly 

 enough, the extinct probofcideans alfo fall under 

 two divifions, the elephant proper, of which the 

 mammoth (elephas primigenius} is the type ; and 

 the maftodon, diftinguifhed by its udder-like teeth, 

 adapted for bruifing coarfer vegetable fubftances, 

 and the prefence of two tulks in the lower jaw 

 of both fexes. Species of the maftodon lived in 

 Europe, Auftralia, and America. Owen's M. 

 Anguftidens has been found in our English Crag, 



