PROBOSCIDEA. 529 



individuals, which are taken chiefly by the assistance of those 

 which have been already tamed. The Indian Elephant is dis- 

 tinguished by its concave forehead, its small ears, and the 

 characters of the molars. The African Elephant, on the other 

 hand, has a strongly convex forehead and great flapping ears. 

 The African Elephant is chiefly hunted for the sake of its 

 ivory, and there is too much reason to believe that the pursuit 

 will ultimately end in the destruction of these fine animals. 

 A great deal, however, of the ivory of commerce comes from 

 Siberia, and is really derived from the tusks of the now extinct 

 Mammoth, which formerly inhabited the north of Asia in 

 great numbers. 



The Elephants are all phytophagous, living almost entirely 

 on the foliage of shrubs and trees, which they strip off by 

 means of the prehensile trunk. As the tusks prevent the 

 animal from drinking in the ordinary manner, the water is 

 sucked up by the trunk, which is then inserted into the mouth, 

 into which it empties its contents. 



Many species of fossil Elephants are known, but the most 

 familiar of them is the Mammoth (Elephas primigenius). This 

 enormous animal is now wholly extinct, but it formerly 

 abounded in the northern parts of Asia and over the whole 

 of Europe. It occurred also in Britain, and unquestionably 

 existed in the earlier portion of the human period, its remains 

 having been found in a great number of instances in connec- 

 tion with human implements. From its great abundance in 

 Siberia, it might have been safely inferred that the Mammoth 

 was able to endure a much colder climate than either of the 

 living species. This inference, however, has been rendered 

 a certainty by the discovery of the body of more than one 

 Mammoth embedded in the frozen soil of Siberia. These 

 specimens had been so perfectly preserved that even micro- 

 scopical sections of some of the tissues could be made ; and 

 in one case even the eyes were preserved. From these speci- 

 mens we know that the body of the Mammoth was covered 

 with long woolly hair. 



Closely allied to the true Elephants are the Mastodons, 

 characterised by the fact that the crowns of the molar teeth 

 have nipple -shaped tubercles placed in pairs. Generally 

 speaking, the two upper incisors formed long curved tusks, as 

 in the Elephants, but in some cases there were two lower 

 incisors as well. The various species of Mastodon all belong 

 to the later Tertiary and Post-tertiary periods. 



The last of the. Proboscidea is a remarkable extinct animal, 

 VOL. n. 2 L 



