

THE INDIAN AND AFRICAN ELEPHANT 121 



in the twelfth century B.C., and Egyptian drawings of the 

 eighteenth dynasty show elephants of this species brought 

 as tribute by Syrian vassals. To-day the Indian elephant 

 is confined to certain forests of Hindoostan, Ceylon, 

 Burma, and Siam. The African elephant extended 100 

 years ago all over South Africa, and in the days of the 

 Carthaginians was found near the Mediterranean shore, 

 whilst in prehistoric (late Pleistoscene) times it existed in 

 the south of Spain and in Sicily. Now it is confined to 



X2 



FIG. 12. The African elephant (Elephas africanus) with rider 

 mounted on its back. The drawing is an enlarged representation 

 of an ancient Carthaginian coin. 



the more central and equatorial zone of Africa, and is 

 yearly receding before the incursions and destructive 

 attacks of civilised man. 



At no great distance of time before the historic period, 

 earlier, indeed, than the times of the herdsmen who used 

 polished stone implements and raised great stone circles, 

 namely, in the late pleistocene period, we find that there 

 existed all over Europe and North Asia and the northern 

 part of America another elephant very closely allied to the 



