Dr. C. W. Andreios — Expedition to the Fayum, Egypt. 339 



land tortoise Testudo ammon, a preliminary note ^ on which by 

 Mr. Beadnell and myself has lately appeared. 



Several visits were paid to the lake- beds in the neighbourhood 

 of Schweinfurth's Temple (Qasi'-es-Sagha) and Dime (see map 

 given by Beadnell on p. 55 of this volume), and numerous 

 flint implements such as have been recently described ^ from this 

 locality were collected. In the same beds as these a femur and 

 a posterior molar of an elephant were also found. The femur is 

 that of a very large individual ; it is incomplete at its upper end, 

 the neck having been weathered away. Its length wheia whole 

 was approximately 134 cm. (4 ft. 5 in.), and the diameter of the 

 narrowest part of the shaft 39'5 cm. (15|- inches) ; the diameter of the 

 head was about 17-5 cm. All the characters of the bone point to its 

 belonging to Elephas africaniis, a conclusion confirmed by the tooth, 

 which is a much worn (?) last molar. The occurrence of elephant 

 remains in this locality associated with the flint implements is 

 important, both as extending the known range of the African 

 elephant and also as supplying a strong reason for regarding the 

 implements as being of prehistoric age. Dr. Budge informs me 

 that no representation of the elephant occurs on any of the early 

 Egyptian monuments, which certainly would not have been the case 

 had the artists been familiar with the animal, and it therefore seems 

 that it became extinct in Egypt at some prehistoric period, when 

 also the implements accompanying its remains must have been 

 made. In these beds also bones of Hippopotamus are very common, 

 and those of antelopes fairly numerous; a horn-core of a species of 

 Buhaliis, probably £. lelioel, was found ; remains of this species have 

 been found in tombs at Abadiyeh. 



The physical conditions of the district when the lake spread over 

 a much larger area than at present must have differed considerably 

 from what we now see. In addition to the widespread occurrence 

 of remains of a thick growth of tamarisk bushes, in some places 

 considerable areas are covered with the stumps of fossilised trees, 

 sometimes of fair size. 



Description of two New Species of Mammals. 



One of the most interesting finds made on this occasion is the left 

 maxilla, with the teeth, of a very large hyracoid mammal which 

 must have been about the size of a lai-ge tapir. The maxillary teeth 

 (including the canine) form a continuous, slightly curved series, and 

 increase regularly in size from before backwards. The most notable 

 character of the cheek-teeth, as a whole, is the presence of a well- 

 defined channel for the reception of the crowns of the mandibular 

 teeth, running from end to end of the molar and premolar series, 

 and dividing their crowns into approximately equal inner and outer 

 portions. Part of the outer side of m. 1 and 2 and nearly the 



1 " A Preliminary Notice of a Land Tortoise," by C. "W. Audi-ews & H. J. L. 

 Beadnell, Survey Department, Cairo, 1903. 



2 H. J. L. Beadnell, "Neolithic Flint Implements from the Northern Desert of 

 the Fayum, Egypt" : Geol. Mag., Dec. IV, Vol. X (1903), p. 53, Pis. III-IV. 



