EVOLUTION OF ELEPHANTS 345 



extinct elephants by the theory that these animals existed 

 beneath the soil, and were destined by nature to pass their 

 lives in perpetual darkness, but in the course of their sub- 

 terranean burrowings they would ever and anon work their 

 way up to the surface, and when they emerged were in- 

 stantly killed by the light.* Similar notions as to the origin 

 of deposits of fossil ivory have been reported from points 

 near the Chinese frontier where fossil ivory has been found. f 



The Scotchman, John Bell, who accompanied the Russian 

 envoy Ismailov to Pekin in 1719-1722, also gathered up 

 some strange stories regarding the Siberian elephants, 

 which were represented to be amphibious creatures, never 

 to be seen except on the banks of rivers or in marshy land, 

 and that only in the night time or at break of day. If they 

 became aware that they were watched they would imme- 

 diately plunge into the water to hide themselves. J About 

 this time a jpud (36 pounds) of fossil ivory cost but from 

 from three to four rubles,** The report of this journey is be- 

 lieved to have induced Peter the Great to issue, in 1722, 

 his orders to seek for fossil ivory. 



By many the "fossil ivory" of Theophrastus has been 

 not improbably identified with the so-called bone turquoise 

 or odontolite. The description of the appearance of this 

 "fossil ivory" given by the Greek author, "dark blue 

 marked with white," is not inappropriate to the fossil bone 

 or ivory tinged by iron phosphate that goes by the name of 

 "bone turquoise. "§ 



Some idea of the quantity of Siberian mammoth ivory 

 supplied to the London market in 1872 and 1873 may be de- 



*D'Archaic, in Revue den Cours Scientifiques, Vol. I, p. 457. 



tPictet, "Traite de Paleontologie," Vol. I, p. 281. 



JBell, "Travels," Glasgow, 1763, Vol. II, p. 147. 



**Muller, "Sammlungen zur russischen Geschichte," Vol. Ill, p. 561 



§See King, "Natural History of Gems," London, 1867, p. 60. 



