252 PBOBOSCIDIA. 



El. primiyenius. El. 



Ft. In. Lin. Ft. In. Lin. 



Humerus, entire length . . . 4502110 



Circumference at the middle . . .226116 



Ditto at proximal end . . . 350280 



Breadth of distal end . . . 1 2 10 6 



From summit of supinator ridge to end of outer ) , l o fi 

 condyle . . . . .5 



The above gigantic fossil bone was found in 1836, after 

 a very high tide, partially exposed in the cliff, composed of 

 interblended blue clay and red gravel, near the village 

 of Bacton in Norfolk. The outer crust of the bone is much 

 shattered ; it manifests the specific distinction of the 

 humerus of the Mammoth in the relatively shorter propor- 

 tions of the great supinator ridge, as is shown by the last 

 admeasurement, and the bicipital canal is also relatively 

 narrower. 



A portion of a large tibia was obtained from the same bed 

 in 1841 ; this bone likewise is in Miss Gurney's collection. 



A Mammoth's humerus, of dimensions very nearly equal 

 to those of the great specimen in Miss Gurney's col- 

 lection, was obtained under the following circumstances 

 described by Captain Byam Martin. "In 1837, while 

 trawling in mid-channel between Dover and Calais, be- 

 tween the two shoals, called the Varn and Ridge, covered 

 at low tide with twenty fathoms water, a fisherman sud- 

 denly encountered a heavy mass, which proved to consist 

 of enormous bones ; the net broke, but a humerus, which I 

 purchased, was secured."* Such occurrences recall to mind 

 the adventures of the fishermen narrated in the Arabian 

 Nights ; but the fancy of the eastern romancer falls short 

 of the reality of this bawling up, in British seas, of Ele- 

 phants more stupendous than those of Africa or Ceylon. 

 * Loc. cit. p. 162. 



