ELEPHAS PRIMIGENIUS. 231 



the lozenge-shaped plates are always much fewer and 

 thicker than the flattened ones in the Asiatic species, 

 the variation which can be detected in any number of 

 the grinders of the same size is very slight. 



In the molars of the Asiatic Elephant, (fig. 89,) which, 

 besides the difference in the shape of the plates, have 

 always thinner and more numerous plates than those of the 

 African species, a greater amount of variation in both these 

 characters obtains ; but it is always necessary to bear in 

 mind the caution which Cuvier suggested to Camper, that a 

 large molar of an old Elephant is not to be compared with 

 a small molar of a young one, otherwise, there will appear 

 to be a much greater discrepancy in the thickness of the 

 plates than really exists in the species ; and the like caution 

 is still more requisite in the comparison of the molars of 

 the Mammoth (Eleplias primigenius), which, having nor- 

 mally more numerous and thinner plates than in the exist- 

 ing Asiatic Elephant, present a much greater range of 

 variety. 



Of the extent of this variety in the British fossils, some 

 idea may be gained by the fact, that in one private col- 

 lection, that of Miss Gurney of Cromer, of fossil Mam- 

 malian remains from a restricted locality, there are Mam- 

 moth''s teeth from the drift of the adjacent coast, one 

 of which, measuring ten inches nine lines in antero-pos- 

 terior diameter, has nineteen plates, whilst another grinder, 

 eleven inches in antero-posterior diameter, has only thirteen 

 plates. 



A greater contrast is presented by two grinders of the 

 Mammoth from British diluvium in the collection of the 

 late Mr. Parkinson, one of which, with a grinding surface 

 of five inches and a half in antero-posterior extent, ex- 

 hibits the abraded summits of seventeen plates, whilst the 



