104 BRITISH AND EUROPEAN FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



which, the discs of the worn ridges exhibit a certain amount 

 of expansion. But in this species the ridges are very 

 numerous, elevated, and attenuated, their number, as in the 

 existing Indian Elephant, ranging as high in the last lower 

 molar as from twenty-four to twenty-seven, while in E. 

 priscus they do not exceed twelve or thirteen. These points 

 will be brought out more in detail in the sequel, when treat- 

 ing of these species. 1 



Elephas (Loxodon) priscus occurs in Italy in the Sub-Apen- 

 nine Pliocene strata of the Romagnano ; in England, in the 

 fluviatile deposits of the valley of the Thames, and in unde- 

 termined strata on the coast of Norfolk, but believed to be 

 below the ' Boidder-clay.' I have not observed it among the 

 exposed specimens in the public collections in Paris, nor in 

 any museum in Prance that I have visited. The name is 

 enumerated by Pomel in his ' Catalogue of the Fossil Remains 

 of the Loire and the Alliere,' as having been found in the 

 Plain of Salieve, Collection of Laizer. He describes it briefly 

 as Elephas priscus (Goldf.) : ' Espece ayant les lames de ses 

 molairesdisposeescommedansl'Elephant d'Afrique.' Whether 

 this means the ancient race of the existing species attributed 

 to the valley of the Rhine, or the distinct fossil form, with 

 crescentic discs of wear, I am unable to determine. 



5. E. (Loxodon) meridionalis, Nesti. — Of this species, the 

 materials in European collections, more especially in Italy 

 and England, are fortunately so abundant and perfect as to 

 place its specific distinctness beyond question. But this 

 conclusion has been so long opposed by the highest palseon- 

 tological authority, namely, by Cuvier, De Blainville, and 

 Owen, and the geological inferences involved in it are of such 

 importance that I consider no apology necessary for entering 

 fully upon the evidence bearing on the subject. 



The ' Val d'Arno Superiore ' has, from remote ages, been 

 celebrated for the vast abundance of fossil remains found 

 there. Huge bones and teeth of Elephants were especially 

 numerous. A large collection of these was formed by Tar- 

 gioni Toretti, which ultimately found its way into the Grand 

 Ducal Museum at Florence ; and numerous additions were 

 made by JSTesti, who, in 1808, soon after the publication of 

 Cuvier's ' Memoir of the Mammoth ' (Annales du Museum, 

 torn, viii.), examined the Tuscan Elephantine remains, and 

 was so satisfied of their difference from those of the Mammoth, 

 that he proposed for them two specific designations, namely, 

 Elephas meridionalis and E. minutus. Influenced by the fact 



' In his memoir on E. Columli, written the opinion that Loxodon prisons was 

 five or six years subsequently to that on a form of E. antiquus. — [Ed.] 

 Mastodon and Elephant,Dr. 1\ expressed I 



