2 BKITISH AND EUROPEAN FOSSIL MASTODONS. 



The difficulty with which the Mammalian palaeontologist 

 has to contend in arriving at satisfactory results depends 

 doubtless, in many cases, on the imperfect nature and scanti- 

 ness of his materials. But it is deserving of remark, that 

 the fossil genera and species which are in the most unsatis- 

 factory and unsettled state, as to definition and nomencla- 

 ture, are not those that are the rarest, but often the reverse. 

 Take Mastodon or Rhinoceros, for example, hi which the array 

 and confusion of specific names are signally perplexing. 

 The reason of this apparent anomaly would seem to be 

 this : when the remains are few and seldom met with, the 

 species are usually limited in number, and thus more easily 

 discriminated ; on the other hand, when the remains are 

 very abundant over wide areas, the species are at the same 

 time, as a general rule, numerous : and it is well known 

 among naturalists, that the genera which are the most 

 difficult to disentangle specifically are the most complete 

 and natural, where the species are many, and follow each 

 other with the least amount of difference in serial develop- 

 ment ; or, in other words, where they are most closely allied 

 to one another. 



Remains of either of the Proboscidean genera, Dinotherium, 

 Mastodon, and Elephas, abound in all the Tertiary Forma- 

 tions of Europe, Asia, and America, from the Miocene up to 

 the Post-Pliocene ; they have been the subject of a vast 

 amount of observation, while it is hardly possible to conceive 

 anything more unsettled and opposed than the generally 

 received opinions respecting the species and their nomen- 

 clature in the standard works which are of the greatest 

 authority on the subject. Cuvier, De Blainville, and Owen 

 are agreed in limiting the Elephants and narrow-toothed 

 Mastodons found fossil in Europe each to a single species ; 

 while other palaeontologists consider that the latter group 

 comprises at least three well-marked specific forms, and the 

 former three or four. This palseontological uncertainty has 

 naturally been reflected in systematic works on Geology, 

 wherever the faunas of the Tertiary Formation are referred 

 to, in statements sufficiently startling, which are repeated at 

 the present day. Thus the Miocene Mastodon angustidens, 

 of the Faluns of Touraine, of the Molasse of Switzerland 

 and of the Sub-Pyrenees, as also the Miocene Mastodon longi- 

 rostris of Eppelsheim, are mentioned by Sir Charles Lyell, 

 in the fifth edition of his Manual, 1 under the comprehensive 

 name (on the authority of Owen) of Mastodon angustidens, as 

 occurring in the so-called ' Older Pliocene ' Red Crag, and 



1 Op. cit. p. 156. 



