232 



I'HOHOSCIDIA. 



other shows only nine plates in the same extent of grind- 

 ing surface. 



Some palaeontologists have viewed these differences as 

 indications of distinct species of Eleplias. But the vast 

 number of grinders of the Mammoth from British strata 

 which have been in my hands in the course of the last three 

 years, have presented so many intermediate gradations, in 

 the number of plates, between the two extremes above cited, 

 that I have not been able to draw a well-defined line between 

 the thick-plated and the thin-plated varieties of the molar 

 teeth. And if these varieties actually belonged to dis- 

 tinct species of Mammoth, those species must have merged 



African Elephant. 



nat. size. 



Asiatic Elephant. 



