196 HISTORY OF QUADRUPEDS. 



providential order of that dispensation, which, to an 

 animal of such unequalled powers, has added a dis- 

 position so mild and tractable. What ravages 

 might we not expect from the prodigious strength 

 of the Elephant, combined with the fierceness and 

 rapacity of the Tiger ! 



We cannot close our account of the Elephant, 

 without taking some notice of the teeth of that 

 animal, which have been so frequently found in a 

 fossil state in various parts of the world. Some 

 years ago, two great grinding teeth, and part of the 

 tusk of an Elephant, were discovered at the depth 

 of forty-two yards, in a lead mine, in Flintshire, 

 lying in a bed of gravel : the grinders were almost 

 as perfect as if they had been just taken from the 

 living animal; the tusk was much decayed and very 

 soft. Near the banks of many rivers in Siberia, 

 large tusks and teeth have been frequently dug up, 

 which were formerly attributed to a creature call- 

 ed the Mammoth ; but they are now universally 

 believed to have belonged to the Elephant. The 

 molares or grinders are perfectly the same with 

 those of the present race; but both they and the 

 tusks are much larger: some of the latter have 

 been known to weigh four hundred pounds ; and 

 grinders of the weight of twenty-four pounds have 

 not unfrequently been discovered. One of these 

 was taken from a skeleton of the same head in 

 which the tusks were found : and as the ivory of 

 the latter was in every respect the same as that 

 generally known, and made use of for the purpose 

 of useful and ornamental works, we cannot deny 

 our assent to the opinion of those who suppose 

 them to have been once parts of the animal we have 

 just described. Tusks of a prodigious size, teeth,. 



