42 



ELEPHANTS. 



as grinding organs. The great size, and especially height, of 

 the crown gives them a prolonged period of wear, while the 

 numerous alternating plates of enamel, dentine, and cement, 

 of different degrees of hardness, ensure that the grinding- 

 surface will remain sufficiently rough for its purpose through- 

 out the period during which the tooth remains in use. The 

 Mammoth was a very widely-distributed form, being found all 

 over Northern Europe, Asia, and America, and it seems to 

 have been particularly abundant in Siberia and the islands to the 

 north, where remains occur in great abundance, and whence 

 the tusks are actually exported for commercial purposes. The 



Fig. 29. 



Grinding-surface of molar tooth of the Mammoth (Elephas primigeniui), 

 showing some still unworn posterior plates. About nat. size. 



extinction of the Mammoth appears to have been a compa- 

 ratively recent event, and in Siberia portions of carcases with 

 the skin and flesh in good preservation are found in the frozen 

 tundras. An instance of this kind is illustrated by drawings 

 and photographs on the pillar between Pier-cases 3132. In 

 this instance the animal seems to have fallen into a hole and to 

 have died in its efforts to scramble out. The mouth was found 

 :still filled with the grass on which the animal was browsing at 

 the time when it met with the accident. This individual, 

 restored and mounted in the attitude in which it was found, 

 is now exhibited in the Academy of Sciences at Petrograd, 

 and shows with many others that the Mammoth was covered 

 with a reddish-brown wool and long dark hair, while the tail 

 ended in a large tuft of hair. A piece of the skin with its 



