242 



ELEPHAS PRIMIGENIUS. 



more or less worn, within a space of 4*5 inches, yielding an 

 average of *45 inch to each. The typical characters of E. 

 primigenius are most distinctly shown in the thin transverse 

 attenuated plates of enamel, free from any tendency to crimp- 

 ing. The matrix is of a fine greyish-yellow sand, full of 

 grains of pyroxene. It was found on Monte Sacro, near Ponte 

 Nomentano, and is preserved in the Museum of La Sapienza. 

 The same collection contains several other specimens of the 

 same form, of which I find detailed descriptions in my notes. 

 But the great mass of the Elephant molars contained in the 

 collections of Professor Ponzi and Signor Ceselli, and in the 

 Roman museums generally, belong to Elephas antiquus, 1 

 which occurs alike in the older Pliocene deposits of Rignano, 

 and in the volcanic gravels of the Campagna. Here, there- 

 fore, we have unquestionable evidence that E. primigenius 

 inhabited Central Italy, when the extinct Latian volcanoes 

 were in full action. There are no data for correlating with 

 precision this epoch with that of the Norfolk ' Forest-bed,' 

 but it reaches as far back nearly as the close of the Pliocene 

 period. 



On the other hand, in the Alpine valley of the Chiana, in 

 Tuscany, I met with decisive evidence that E. primigenius 

 had survived in Italy down to a comparatively modern period. 

 The Museum of Arezzo contains a mutilated cranium of this 

 species, presenting all the basilar portion from the occipital 

 condyles on to the incisive bones, both the maxillary bones, 

 together with the palate and the two last true molars in situ, 

 on either side, of an old animal. The specimen exhibits the 

 most typical characters of the Mammoth throughout. The 

 same collection includes lower jaws, detached molars, an 

 entire humerus, and a radius and ulna of the same form. 

 Some of these remains were very fresh-looking in colour, 

 although adhesive to the tongue. Along with them, in 

 the same turbary deposit, were found eight frontal frag- 

 ments with the horn-cores of Bos primigenius and three of 

 Bison priscus ; and in the University Museum of Bologna,, I 

 saw an undoubted skull of Cervus euryceros (the Irish Elk), 

 from the same localities in Yal di Chiana. It is worthy of 

 remark, that in no one of the Italian museums, from Naples 

 to Turin, did I detect a trace of Rhinoceros tichorhinus, 

 although with an eye specially directed in search of it. I 

 carefully examined Monti's lower jaw, referred to by Cuvier, 

 as being of that species, 2 and I can affirm, with confidence, 



1 ' I did not find a single tooth of E. 

 antiquus in the whole palseontological 

 collection of the Florence Museum. 

 (Letter to M. Lartet, Florence, July 17, 

 1856).— [Ed.] 



2 Oss. Fossiles, 4to. torn. ii. p. 73. 

 Tab. ix. fig. 10. Prof. Capellini oblig- 

 ingly gave every facility for the examina- 

 tion of the specimen, by removing the 

 enveloping matrix. 



