MAMMOTH, MASTODON, AND DINOTHERIUM. 



291 



the vast accumulation in. the Arctic Sea. It was seen by a mere chance, and must be viewed 

 an example of the method by which animal remains are swept seaward. In all probability, the 

 frozen morass in which it was discovered is as full of Mammoths as the peat-bogs of Ireland are of 

 Irish Elk, and have been the main source from which the Arctic rivers have obtained their supply 

 of animal remains. The remains of the Mammoth are met with in incredible numbere in the river 

 deposits of Middle and Northern Europe, as well as in those of North America, showing that in 

 ancient times the animal ranged over a tract of land extending from the Mediterranean to the Arctic 

 Sea, and from Behriug Strait to the Gulf of Mexico. It is also met with in the caves in Middle 

 Europe, having been dragged into them by the Hysenas, or having fallen a prey to the ancient hunter. 

 We owe, indeed, to the 

 skill of the latter an inci- 

 sive sketch of the animal 

 as he appeared to the 

 inhabitants of Auvergne, 

 in the remote geological 

 period known as Pleisto- 

 cene ; the long, hairy mane, 

 and spirally-curved tusks, 

 are faithfully depicted by 

 the artist, and, were it not 

 for the strange chance 

 which has preserved to us 

 the whole animal in the 

 frozen ice-cliffs of Siberia, 

 would have seemed to us 

 merely imaginative details. 

 In another example, also 

 from the caves of Auvergne, 

 the Mammoth is repre- 

 sented with his mouth open, 

 and his trunk lifted up in 

 the attitude of charging. 



Remains of other extinct species of Elephants are found ; one, which is of exceedingly small 

 stature, standing not much higher than from two and a half to three feet, has been discovered in the 

 bone-caves of Malta. The genus MASTODON, which in many respects resembles the true Elephants, 

 differs from them in the formation of the teeth, the grinders being much simpler, more tubercular, and 

 with crowns free from cement. In most cases, also, there were two small tusks in the lower jaw, as 

 well as those in the upper. In Europe they appear in the Miocene and Pliocene strata, and in 

 America they survived into the Pleistocene. The most extraordinary-looking, perhaps, of the fossil 

 Proboscidea, and that furthest removed from the living Elephants, is the DINOTHERIUM, of the 

 Miocene age. It possessed no tusks in the upper jaw, but its lower jaw was armed with two long 

 curved tusks, projecting downwards. It probably possessed the habits of the Elephant, and these 

 tusks may have been used for uprooting trees, or hooking down boughs, so as to obtain the leaves 



and shoots for food. 



W. BOYD DAWKINS. 



H. W. OAKLEY. 



MAMMOTH (Restored). 



