OU IDE 



TO 



ELEPHANTS (RECENT AND FOSSIL) 



IN THE GALLERY OF FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 



THE object of this Guide-book is to give a general account of 

 the Proboscidea or Elephants, referring especially to the various 

 stages they passed through in the course of their evolution 

 from the Eocene period to recent times. 



Fortunately for the present purpose, the British Museum 

 possesses the most extensive series of Proboscidea to be 

 found anywhere, so that, except in very few instances, readers 

 can see in the S.E. Gallery of Geology the actual specimens, 

 or, at any rate, casts of the specimens, upon which the follow- 

 ing descriptions are based, and can to some extent check 

 the accuracy of the various statements for themselves. 



Before proceeding to the description of the animals, it may 

 be advisable to refer to the geological horizons or periods of 

 the Earth's history during which they existed and in the rocks 

 of which their fossil remains are found; for it is necessary to 

 know the order in which the different forms appeared on the 

 Earth, just as in tracing the pedigree of a human family 



