THE MAMMOTH. 193 



men of science. To the latter, however, one of its many points 

 of interest is that palaeontology may be said to have been founded 

 on the Mammoth. Cuvier, the illustrious founder of the science 

 of organic remains, was enabled, by his accurate and minute 

 knowledge of the structures of living animals, to prove to his 

 astonished contemporaries that the Mammoth bones and teeth, 

 so plentifully discovered in Europe, were not such as could have 

 belonged to any living elephant, and consequently that there 

 must have existed, at some previous period in the world's history, 

 an elephant of a different kind, and quite unknown to naturalists. 

 This was a new idea, and accordingly one that met with opposition 

 as well as incredulity. 



It was thought in those days that whatever animals lived in the 

 past must have resembled those now inhabiting the world, and 

 the idea of extinct types unknown to man, and unknown to the 

 regions where their bones were found embedded below the soil, 

 was of so novel and startling a character as to appear incredible. 

 Besides, the Mosaic account of Creation made no direct reference 

 to extinct animals, and therefore the notion was not to be 

 entertained. 



It is amusing to note the devices to which people resorted in 

 order to combat this revolutionary teaching. Thus, when Cuvier 

 first announced the discovery of the fossil remains of the elephant, 

 hippopotamus, and rhinoceros in the superficial deposits of con- 

 tinental Europe, he was gravely reminded of the elephants intro- 

 duced into Italy by Pyrrhus in the Roman wars, and afterwards 

 in the Roman triumphal processions or the games at the Colosseum. 

 It was only by means of minute anatomical differences that he 

 was able to show that the bones and teeth of these elephants 

 must have belonged to a species unlike those now living. But 

 these differences proved too subtle for even scientific men to 

 appreciate, so slight was their knowledge of anatomy compared 

 with his ; so that they were either disallowed or explained away. 

 But he was not to be beaten, and appealed to the fact that 



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