PACHYDERMATA. 153 
ing the tusks much longer in proportion, and the lower jaw more 
obtuse. A specimenrecently taken from the ice on the coast of Si- 
beria, by Mr. Adams, appears to have been thickly covered with 
hairs of two kinds, so that it is possible this species may have lived 
in cold climates. It has long disappeared from the face of the 
earth (a). See Cuv. Oss. Foss. tom. I. 
The second genus of the Proboscidiana, or the 
Mastopon, Cuv. 
Has been completely destroyed, nor is there a single individual living. 
It had the feet, tusks, trunk, and many other details of conformation in 
common with the Elephant; but differed from it in the grinders, the 
crown of which, from above the gum, being bristled with large conical 
points, presented, in proportion to their detrition, larger or smaller disks, 
which represented sections of those points.* These teeth, which suc- 
ceed each other from behind, like those of the Elephant, presented also 
so many more pairs of points as the animal was the more advanced in age. 
M. giganteum, Cuv. loc. cit. The great Mastodon, in which the 
sections of the points are lozenge-shaped, is the most celebrated 
species. It equalled the Elephant in size, but with still heavier 
proportions. Its remains are found in a wonderful state of preserva- 
tion, and in great abundance throughout all parts of North America. 
They are infinitely more rare in the old continent. 
M. angustidens, Cuv. loc. cit., or the Narrow-toothed Mastodon, 
whose grinders, narrower than those of the preceding species, when 
worn down formed trefoil-shaped disks, and have thereby been con- 
founded by some authors with the teeth of the hippopotamus, was a 
third less than the great mastodon, and much lower on its legs. Its 
remains are found throughout the greater part of Europe and of 
South America. In certain places, the teeth, tinged with iron, be- 
come of a beautiful blue when heated, forming what is called the 
oriental turquoise (b).+ 
* This conformation, common to the Mastodon, Hippopotamus, Hog, &c., has 
occasioned the erroneous idea of the first being carnivorous. 
+ Other less widely dispersed species have been discovered; see Oss. Foss.: and 
very lately some remarkable ones have been brought from the Burmese empire, a 
description of which we are expecting from M. Buckland, Mast. latidens, M. elephan- 
toides, &c. 
KS (a) Bishop Heber described an Elephant which he saw in the Himalayan 
mountains, about the size of an Ox, and as “shaggy as a poodle-dog.” On the 
Oyster banks off Hasburgh, on the coast of Norfolk, many hundreds of the grind- 
ing teeth of Elephants have been found, nor is there a county in England in which 
such teeth have not at some time or another been detected.— Ene. Ep. 
2S (b) Fragments of the teeth of this animal have been found in Norfolk crag, 
the only instance yet known in Great Britain. The Indians of North America are 
persuaded that the Great Mastodon exists in the living state in the unexplored re- 
gions of that country.x—Ene. Ep. 
VOL. I. M 
