1-20 BRITISH AND EUROPEAN FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



Museum, figured by Owen. 1 They never present the pro- 

 nounced arc, sometimes amounting to three-fourths of a 

 circle, which is seen in large tusks of the Mammoth, nor the 

 double or spiral curve so characteristic of the latter species. 

 When attached to the cranium, they are often found in the ma- 

 trix, lying flat, and curved horizontally outwards like a sickle, 

 in the Theristocaulodon-fa.sh.ion so grotesquely represented by 

 Koch in his fanciful restorations of the "North American 

 Mastodon. This I believe to be an accident, 2 after the de- 

 composition of the soft parts, from torsion of the tusks within 

 their alveoli, in consequence of the excessive weight of the 

 extruded portions. It occurs only in the largest specimens, 

 and the tusks have been restored in this position in some of 

 the crania in the Florentine Museum. In one enormous skull, 

 a late acquisition, there is but a single tusk, on the right 

 side. On the left, the alveolus is in a great measure filled 

 up, but not withered, which would indicate that the left tusk 

 had been lost late in life. The borders of the incisive sheaths, 

 in this case, diverge widely apart and suddenly. In the 

 Indian Elephant, the tusks are sometimes broken with prodi- 

 gious violence in combats between savage males, and the 

 fracture may take place either within or outside the alveolar 

 sheaths. My colleague, Sir Proby Cautley, has witnessed 

 an accident of the kind in an Elephant-fight at Kotah, in 

 Central India. 



The tusks attain an enormous size, commensurate with the 

 colossal stature and bulk of this species. In a huge male 

 cranium, having the zygomatic arches entire, they measure 

 outside the incisive sheaths 24 inches in girth. A detached 

 fragment of another tusk measures about 25^ inches ; the 

 section is nearly circular. A polished frustum of another 

 yields upwards of 27 inches in girth, being an average 

 diameter of 9 inches. The section varies between round and 

 elliptical. In a finely preserved cranium, in which the tusks 

 are entire, they measure 6 feet 9 inches, including the alveolar 

 portion, with a diameter of 5 inches. Cuvier gives the di- 

 mensions of only a single Tuscan tusk, namely, 6 feet 8 inches 

 long. A specimen of fossil tusk from Rome, presented to the 

 Paris Gallery by the Due de la Eochefoucault and M. Des- 

 marets, measures fully 28 inches in girth (vide Cuv. Oss. Foss. 

 torn. i. p. 173). It is probably of E, meridionalis. 



In varieties of one of the living species, the tusks are known 

 to vary so considerably in their contour and in direction that 

 no absolute distinctive characters can safely be founded upon 



1 British Fossil Mammalia, p. 298, I Warren's ' Mastodon giganteus,' BostOD, 

 fig- 102. 1852. 



2 



See the frontispiece and p. 88 of j 



