12 ELEPHANTS. 



animals in great variety all over the Northern Hemisphere, 

 "wherever suitable deposits for the preservation of their remains 

 occur. At the end of the Pliocene period the group also 

 spread into South America, but at the present day it is totally 

 wanting in the whole Western Hemisphere. 



During the later Miocene and Pliocene periods the head- 

 quarters of these animals seem to have been in India, for it is 

 there that we meet with the greatest number and variety of 

 forms, showing all grades of structure between the Miocene 

 types above referred to and elephants almost like those now 

 existing. From the end of the Pliocene to the beginning o'f 

 the Quaternary Period may be regarded as the time during 

 which the elephants reached their most flourishing condition, 

 both in the number of kinds that existed and in the wide 

 range over which they were spread. After this a gradual 

 decline in the group took place, till, at the present day, it is 

 represented by two species only, the African elephant confined to 

 Tropical Africa, and the Indian elephant found in India, Ceylon, 

 Burma, the Malay Peninsula, and some of the neighbouring 

 islands. But for restrictions placed upon their slaughter, 

 even these la-t remnants of one -of the oldest, and in many 

 ways the most remarkable, groups of mammals would soon 

 disappear, just as has happened, for instance, in the case of 

 the great ground-sloths of South America, the giant lemurs 

 of Madagascar, and the giant marsupials such as Diprotodon 

 in Australia. 



A more detailed account of the changes that the Proboscidea 

 have passed through will now be given, the following animals 

 being selected for description as representing six of the most 

 important of the successive stages at present known : 



1. Moeritherium, Upper Eocene and Lower Oligocene. 



2. PaltPomastodon, Lower Oligocene. 



3. Tetrabelodon angustidens , Miocene. 



4. ,, longirostris, Lower Pliocene. 



5. Stegodon insigms, Pliocene. 



6. Elephas, Pliocene. Pleistocene, and Recent. 



Some reference will also be made to other types, such as 

 Dinotherium and Mastodon. 



