244 



established the unity of species to which those varieties 

 belong. 



If, on the other hand, the observed varieties in the den- 

 tition of the Mammoth are to be interpreted, as Par- 

 kinson, Nesti, Croizet, V. Meyer and others have done, 

 as evidences of distinct species, we must be prepared to 

 admit not merely three, but six or more distinct species 

 of gigantic Mammoths to have roamed through the pri- 

 meval swamps and forests of England. 



Tusks. All the tusks of the Elephas primigenius from 

 British strata which have fallen under my observation 

 in a sufficiently complete state for the comparison, possess 

 the same extensive double curvature as the tusks of the 

 great Mammoth, from the icy cliff at the mouth of the river 

 Lena in Siberia, which is figured at the head of the present 

 section, and as those brought to England by Captain 

 Beechey from Eschscholtz Bay, which have been figured 

 by Dr. Buckland, and are now in the British Museum. 



They arrange themselves in two groups according to 

 size, the larger tusks averaging about nine feet and a 

 half, the smaller ones from five to six feet in length ; 

 the latter are readily distinguishable by their greater de- 

 gree of curvature from the incompletely developed tusks 

 of the larger kind, when of the same length as the smaller 

 fully developed tusks. It is most probable, therefore, from 

 the analogy of the Asiatic Elephant, that the larger tusks 

 belonged to the male sex, and the smaller ones to the 

 female ; which, however, if this idea be correct, possessed 

 better developed tusks than the female Asiatic Elephant, 

 in which the tusks either do not appear beyond the lip, 

 or project a short way straight down from the mouth, as 

 in both sexes of the variety called ' Mooknah.'* 



* See Corse in Philos. Trans. 1799, p. 208. 



