252 



FOSSIL ELEPHANT, OR MAMMOTH. 



Europe. The one is named the small, the other the gi- 

 gantic tapir, and both have been found in different parts 

 of France, Germany, and Italy. 



Elephant 9 or Mammoth. 



Of this genus two species are at present known as in- 

 habitants of the earth. The one, which is confined to 

 Africa, is named the African elephant ; the other, which 

 is a native of Asia, is named the Asiatic elephant. Only 

 one fossil species has hitherto been discovered. It is the 

 mammoth of the Russians. It differs from both the existing 

 species, but agrees more nearly with the Asiatic than the 

 African species.* Its bones have been found in many 

 different parts of this island ; as in the alluvial soil around 

 London, in the county of Northampton, at Gloucester, 

 at Trenton, near Stafford, near Harwich, at Norwich, in 

 the island of Sheppey, in the river Medway, in Salisbury 

 Plain, and in Flintshire in Wales; and similar remains 

 have been dug up in the north of Ireland. Bones of this 

 animal have been dug up in Sweden, and Cuvier con- 

 jectures that the bones of supposed giants, mentioned by 

 the celebrated Bishop Pontoppidan as having been found 

 in Norway, are remains of the fossil elephant. Torfaeus 

 mentions a head and tooth of this animal dug up in the 

 island of Iceland. In Russia in Europe, Poland, Germa- 

 ny, France, Holland, and Hungary, teeth and bones of 

 this species of elephant have been found in abundance. 

 Humboldt found teeth of this animal in North and South 

 America. But it is in Asiatic Russia that they occur in 

 greatest abundance. Pallas says, that from the Don or 

 the Tanais to Tchutskoinoss, there is scarcely a river the 



* These three species are well distinguished by the appearance of the 

 surface of the grinding teeth, as is shown in plate second. 



