240 ELEPHAS PRIMIGENIUS. 



for future observation. That the Mammoth existed in 

 Europe long after its emergence from under the sea of the 

 Northern Drift has been clearly established by more than 

 one class of evidence. Abundant remains of the species have 

 been observed in the ' high ' and ' low level gravels ' of river 

 valleys in France and England, the nature and origin of 

 which have been so ably investigated by Prestwich and other 

 observers ; these valleys having been excavated either during 

 or after the rise of the drift-covered land, but mainly after 

 it, when the country was inhabited by the Mammoth, Rhino- 

 ceros tichorhinus, &c, during the decline of the Glacial period. 

 In the Apennine valley of the Chiana in Tuscany, E. primi- 

 genius existed so late as to have been a cotemporary of the 

 Irish Elk (Gervus euryceros), Bos primigenius, and Bison pris- 

 ons, bringing down the period to the very modern date of the 

 superficial marly beds of the Isle of Man. The proofs of this 

 assertion will be given more in detail in the sequel. Setting 

 aside the cave evidence, on which I have dilated elsewhere, 

 there is a specimen of a last lower molar, left side, of a Mam- 

 moth, in the Natural History Museum of Torquay, presented 

 by Mr. C. E. Parker, which, Mr. Pengelly informed me, was 

 dredged up in Torbay, at no great distance from the shore, 

 and probably came out of the well-known submerged ' peat ' 

 or ' forest-bed ' of that inlet. It is exceedingly fresh-looking, 

 with a slight tinge of smut, as if it had lain in a peat-bed, 

 and the surface is entirely free from any incrustation of 

 marine Polyzoa, with which it must have got covered, had it 

 lain long at the bottom of the sea. This peat-bed indicates 

 a subsidence of the land in Devonshire, then peopled with 

 Elephants, of a very modern date, and long subsequent to the 

 period of the raised beach, which is so boldly developed along 

 that part of the coast. 



For a long time I was led to question the occurrence of the 

 true Mammoth in England, anterior to the deposition of the 

 ' Boulder Clay,' in consequence of the questionable nature of 

 the evidence upon which the asserted instances rested. They 

 had either not been observed in situ, or were patched over 

 with recent Polyzoa, showing that they had been dredged up 

 from the bottom of the sea. But I have lately seen abund- 

 ant proof of indisputable authenticity in the collections of the 

 Rev. John Gunn, of Irstead, and the Eev. S. W. King, of 

 Saxlingham, both in Norfolk, besides other cases, that E. 

 primigenius of the characteristic type existed in England be- 

 fore the deposition of the Boulder-Clay. Perfect molars, pre- 

 senting every element for rigorous identification, have been 

 found in the ' Forest-bed ' at the bottom of the section, be- 

 tween Cromer and Happisburgh, 1 on a horizon of fluviatile or 



1 See antea, p. 161.— [Ed.] 



