243 



ELEPIIAS PRIMIGEXIUS. 



are too valuable to have been left by man to decay along 

 ■with tbe skeleton of a domesticated Elephant. In the synop- 

 tical table appended to niy Memoir on the ' Species of Mas- 

 todon and Elephant, &c.,' the Khanoos fossil form is ranged 

 between E. Indians and E. primigenius, under the provisional 

 name of E. Armeniacus. 1 Captain Spratt, whose indefati- 

 gable labours along the shores of the Mediterranean and 

 Black Sea have been productive of such valuable and varied 

 results, ascertained that remains of a fossil Elephant had 

 been discovered on the banks of the Bosphorus ; but the 

 species has not as yet been determined. I have entered on 

 such detail on this point to direct attention to an imperfectly 

 explored region, which promises to yield important results. 2 



The northern shores of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof 

 have yielded indications of the remains of fossil Elephants, 

 the specific identification of which remains to be determined. 

 Lartet refers to molars of E. meridionalis? as having been 

 dug up in the trenches before Sebastopol; 3 and Huot 

 mentions the discovery of Elephant bones at Sympheropol, 

 which he assigns to E. primigenms, employing the term in 

 the loose comprehensive sense in which it used to be applied 

 to all fossil Elephants met with over the European area. 4 

 The same remark applies to the Mammoth remains men- 

 tioned by the authors of the ' Geology of "Russia,' as occur- 

 ring in the stratum of 'clay-drift' which rests upon the 

 Miocene steppe limestone at Taganrog, on the shores of the 

 Sea of Azof. 5 It is greatly to be desired that the species of 

 Elephant occurring in these cases should be accurately ascer- 

 tained. The fact, that so eminent a Proboscidean authority 



1 Quart. Jonrn. Geol. Society, 1857, 

 vol. xiii. p. 319. [See antea,\>. 14. — Ed.] 



2 The ' Khanoos ' and Bosphorus 

 fossil Elephants appear to furnish an ex- 

 planation of the statements of Pausanias, 

 respecting the gigantic bones of Geryon, 

 and large horns ( Elephant -tusks) found 

 near the banks of the Hyllus, in Upper 

 Lydia; and of the colossal bones of the 

 Indian Orontes, together with a gigantic 

 horn, brought to light by digging a deep 

 canal, when a Roman Emperor tried to 

 pass a fleet to Antioch up the Orontes. 

 Eor the former case, vide Pausan. Attic. 

 Lib. i. cap. xxxv. ; and for the latter, 

 idem. Arcad. Lib. viii. cap. xxix. Also 

 Cuvier, Oss. Foss. 4to. torn. i. p. 152, 

 3rd Edit. 



3 Bullet. Societ, Geolog. de Prance, 

 3d Ser. (1859) torn. xvi. p. 500. 



4 Demiiloff's ' Voyage dans la Russie 

 Meridionale,' &c. torn. ii. pp. 457 and 

 564. 



5 Op. cit. vol. i. p. 502. The authors 

 of this great work appear to consider 

 the Taganrog deposit in question, which 

 they term 'Clay-Drift,' or 'Mammoth- 

 Drift,' to be identical with the ' Mam- 

 moth-Drift ' of Central and Southern 

 Russia, and to have been a result of 

 submergence, like that of the Lowlands 

 of Northern Siberia, when Mammoth 

 bones were transported into its estuaries. 

 But it still remains to be proved that 

 the Arctic Ocean of the Glacial period 

 ever invaded the Aralo-Caspian province 

 of which the Sea of Azof was a part. 

 We have the high authority of Woodward 

 for the fact that the Aralo-Caspian basin 

 contains only a single species {Cardhim 

 edule, var. rusticum) common to it and 

 the White Sea. (' Manual of Mollusca,' 

 p. 431). Huot considered the Crimean 

 deposits, yielding Elephant remains, to 

 be of freshwater origin. 



