220 PROBOSCIDIA. 



Elephant at Maghery, eight miles from Bclturbct in the 

 county of Oavan, and similar evidences of the Elephant 

 have since been discovered in other localities of Ireland, 

 where the armies of Csesar never set foot. Some other 

 hypothesis must therefore be resorted to in order to ex- 

 plain these phenomena. 



Observation, the basis of all sound hypotheses, has shown 

 in the first place that the remains of the Elephants which 

 are scattered over Europe in the unstratified superficial 

 deposits called ' Diluvium, 1 ' Drift, 1 ' Till, 1 and ' Glacio-dilu- 

 vium, 1 as well as those from the upper tertiary strata, are 

 specifically different from the teeth and bones of the two 

 known existing Elephants, Elephas indicus and EL afri- 

 canus. This fundamental fact, when first appreciated by 

 Cuvier, who announced it in 1796, opened to him, he says, 

 entirely new views of the theory of the earth, and a rapid 

 glance, guided by the new and pregnant idea, over other 

 fossil bones, made him anticipate all that he afterwards 

 proved, and determined him to consecrate to this great 

 work the future years of his life. 



The differences which the skull of the fossil Elephant 

 presents as compared with the recent species are, the more 

 angular form and relative shortness of the zygomatic pro- 

 cesses ; the longer, more pointed and more curved form 

 of the postorbital process ; the larger and more prominent 

 tubercle of the lachrymal bone ; the greater length of the 

 sockets of the tusks ; the more parallel position of the 

 right and left sockets of the grinders, making the anterior 

 interspace and channels at the junction of the rami of the 

 lower jaw proportionably wider than in the existing Ele- 

 phants. Of these characteristics, I have verified the last- 

 mentioned instance, taken from the lower jaw, by observation 

 of English specimens ; they are well displayed in the lower 



