ELEPHANTS. 



543 



into any particulars with regard to the mode of employment of elephants in tiger- 

 hunting, would, however, be entirely beyond the scope of a work on Natural 

 History. 



m m th ^" S being extremely closely allied to the living Indian species, 



the extinct elephant of the Pleistocene deposits of Europe and 

 Northern Asia, commonly known as the mammoth (E. primigenius), may be 

 conveniently noticed in this place. So close, indeed, is the relationship between 

 the mammoth and the Indian elephant, that it may be a great question whether 

 they are anything more than varieties of one single species, specially modified for 

 the climates of their respective habitats. It is true that the tusks of the mammoth 

 are much more curved upwards than are those of the Indian elephant, and assume 

 a spiral curvature ; while the plates of the molar teeth are narrower and more 

 numerous. These, however, are differences which scarcely constitute more than a 

 well-marked variety ; and it is noteworthy that when we reach the warmer regions 

 of Asia Minor, the place of the mammoth was taken during the Pleistocene period 

 by an allied species known as the Armenian elephant (E. armeniacus), which had 

 molar teeth intermediate between those of the former and those of the living 

 Indian elephant. In Siberia, where its carcases have been found preserved in the 

 frozen soil, the body of the mammoth was covered with a thick coat of brownish 

 woolly fur, among which were a number of longer bristly black hairs ; but it is 

 by no means certain that the animal was thus protected from cold in the more 

 southern and warmer portions of its habitat. Apart, however, from this, the 

 discovery alluded to on p. 529, that the Indian elephant retains traces of a woolly 

 covering similar to that of the mammoth, shows that in this respect there is no 

 essential difference between the two forms ; and indicates that the development or 

 loss of the hairy coat was entirely due to climatic conditions. 



The mammoth is found in great abundance in Siberia, its remains becoming 

 more numerous the further north we proceed. In Northern Europe, with the 

 exception of the district to the East of the White Sea, it is, however, rare or 

 unknown ; none of its remains having been discovered in Norway, and but few in 

 Denmark and Sweden. Although rare in Scotland and Ireland, mammoth-remains 

 are extremely common over the greater part of England, and a large area of 

 Central Europe. They abound in France and Germany, and in Italy extend as far 

 south as Rome, but according to Sir H. H. Howorth are unknown southward of 

 the Pyrenees. Great numbers are dredged from the Dogger Bank in the North 

 Sea. From Eastern Asia the mammoth travelled across what is now Behring 

 Strait into Alaska ; but in the United States, and extending as far south as Texas 

 and Mexico, the place of the mammoth was taken by a closely-allied species or 

 variety, known as the Columbian elephant (E. columbi). 



That the mammoth lived in Siberia in the area where its frozen remains are 

 found, may be considered certain ; and there is considerable evidence to indicate 

 that the climate of these regions was far less inclement than it is at present. 

 This, however, only renders it the more difficult to account for the manner in which 

 its remains were — as they must have been — frozen up in the soil immediately after 

 death. Sir H. Howorth calls in the aid of a sudden cataclysmic change from heat 

 to extreme cold ; but it is somewhat difficult to accept such a theory. However, 



