226 



ELEPIIAS COLUMBI. 



The following are the principal dimensions supplied by the 



cast : — 



Length of the molar measured at base, 7'0 in. Ditto of the 8 posterior ridges 

 at base of crown, 6-6 in. Width of crown at 3rd ridge, 4-6 in. Greatest ditto 

 behind, 4'9 in. 1 Height of the last ridge (intact), 8'0 in. 



The above dimensions give an average of eight-tenths of 

 an inch as the thickness of the ridges, a proportion which, I 

 believe, is never attained in the true Mammoth. With the 

 reserve dictated by the defects of a cast, and balancing all 

 the characters, I am led to regard the Alabama molar as 

 being of E. Columbi. Dr. Warren appears to have considered 

 it as an extreme variety of E. primigenius. 



The only other dental remains of this species which I have 

 seen were some mutilated specimens of adult molars in the 

 Musee Academique of Geneva. They were brought from 

 Mexico by M. H. de Saussure. No account of them, so far 

 as I am aware, has as yet been brought out ; and the notes 

 which I took were of a general character, without entering 

 into details. They agreed, in all their leading characters, with 

 the Georgian form from the Brunswick Canal in presenting 

 comparatively broad ridges, separated by wider intervals 

 thau in the Indian Elephant, but attaining less elevation than 

 in the latter ; the enamel-plates were well crimped, and the 

 discs of wear open. They impressed me, at the time, as being 

 distinct alike from the Indian Elephant and from E, antiquus, 

 and still more distinct from the Mammoth. The same col- 

 lection contained the cast of a magnificent specimen of an 

 adult lower jaw of Mastodon Andium, invested with a very 

 massive and elongated incisive beak, deflected downwards 

 and retaining the basal section of one very large incisor. 

 The original was stated to have been found near Tlascala, 

 and it appears to be the adult mandible of the same form, 

 which yielded the younger specimen figured and described by 

 Laurillard in d'Orbigny's ' Voyage.' 



The materials above described supply only two entire 

 teeth, both being of the lower jaw, i.e. a penultimate milk 

 molar (m.m. 3) from Texas, and an antepenultimate true 

 molar (m. 1) from Mexico, the former showing eight ridges, 

 and the latter twelve ; but as these two agree in the number 

 of their ridges with the corresponding tooth of the Indian 

 Elephant and Mammoth, and as they exhibit the same series 

 of progressive increments, the complete ridge-formula is in- 

 ferred to have been thus : — 



1 Dr. Warren states the length to be 

 seven, and the width four and a half 

 inches. The cast may give a line or so 



of excess ; but the crown with its coat of 

 cement must have exceeded 5 inches in 

 width. 



