388 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT 



The great development of the tusks in the immediate 

 predecessors of the Indian elephant, strictly so-called, is 

 shown in the skull and mandible of Elephas (Stegodon) 

 Ganesa (Gaut and Falconer), now in the British ^luseum of 

 Natural History. This came from the Lower Pliocene 

 formation of the Siwalik Hills, India, and the tusks project 

 9 ft. 9 in. beyond the sockets. 



The lessons in elephant morphology to be learned from a 

 study of the exceptionally well-preserved remains of the 

 Beresovka mammoth, an examination of which has greatly 

 enlarged our knowledge of the probable appearance of the 

 Elephas primigenius of the north, have been of great value 

 in the branch of palaeontology. No one was in a better 

 position to pursue this study than was one of the zoological 

 preparators of the Petrograd Imperial Academy of Sciences, 

 E. V. Pfizenmayer, who was chosen as one of the members 

 of the expedition sent out by the Academy to examine 

 and secure the valuable find.* Unfortunately, owing to the 

 carelessness shown by the original finders of this mammoth 

 in failing to protect the flesh from decomposition, the hairy 

 covering at first to be observed had to a great extent disap- 

 peared when Doctor Pfizenmayer first saw the remains. 

 Enough hair was left, however, either attached to the skin, 

 or scattered over the earth about the remains, to enable 

 him to come to the conviction that nothing pointed to the 

 existence of a true mane, although about the neck the hair 

 may have been a trifle longer than on the other parts of the 

 body ; its colour must have been a rusty brown. The most in- 

 teresting results of the investigations of Doctor Pfizenmayer 

 regard the form and setting of the tusks of the northern 

 mammoths. In the case of this specimen from the Bere- 



*E. Pfizenmayer, "A contribution to the morphology of the mammoth, Elephas primi- 

 genius Blumenbach; with an explanation of my attempt at a restoration," trans, from 

 the Transactions of the Petrograd Academy of Sciences, Smithsonian Report for 1906, 

 pp. 321-333; with one plate. 



