ELEPHA3 PRIMIGENIUS. 241 



one of the eight fossil species admitted in the compilation 

 of M. H. V. Meyer, has been left scarcely doubtful by 

 Cuvier :* it is founded on recent molars of the Elephas 

 africanus; and the great anatomist alludes to attempts 

 that had been made to palm upon himself such teeth as 

 fossils. I have met with no nearer approach to this 

 nominal species among the numerous British Mammoths' 1 

 grinders that I have examined, than the example just 

 quoted from the brick -earth at Grays ; I need hardly 

 say that I regard it as another of the numerous varieties 

 to which the molars of the Mammoth were subject. 



The clefts that separate the transverse plates are deeper 

 at the sides than at the middle of the tooth in all Mam- 

 moths 1 grinders ; hence the ridges of enamel in a much- 

 worn molar are confined to the outer and inner sides of the 

 grinding surface, which is traversed along the middle by a 

 continuous tract of dentine. The layer of enamel extends 

 along the lateral clefts to this exposed tract, is reflected 

 back upon the opposite side of each cleft, bends round the 

 outer margin of the remaining base of the plate, and is 

 continued into the next cleft, and so on. When the edge 

 of this sinuous coat of enamel is exposed by abrasion of 

 the masticating surface, it describes what Mr. Parkinson 

 has called a " deedalian line," and he has figured two ex- 

 amples of teeth so worn down in the " Organic Remains." "f* 

 An original figure of the grinding surface of one of these 

 molars, which was dredged up from the drift-gravel form- 

 ing the bed of the Thames near London, is given at fig. 

 94. Having noticed the structure in three specimens, Mr. 

 Parkinson conceives it to be characteristic of a distinct 

 species of Mammoth. But the ordinary teeth of the 



* " Ossemens Fossiles," torn. v. pi. ii., Additions, p. 496. 

 t PI. 20. figs. 5 and 7. 



