THEIK FOOD. 



283 



and of less elevation, than in the Asiatic species. The discs 

 of wear, instead of the narrow transverse bands seen in the 

 latter, exhibit the well-known rhomboidal expansion charac- 

 teristic of the species. Instead, therefore, of being adapted 

 to contuse and triturate the branches and twigs of trees, they 

 are better suited for squeezing and crushing leaves, and suc- 

 culent stems or roots. The habits of the animal, as observed 

 by travellers, are in accordance with these indications. Be- 

 sides browsing on the foliage of the Mimosas and Acacias, 

 which aboiuid in Southern Africa, they tear up the trees of 

 certain species of these genera by the roots, aided, according 

 to Pringle, by their tusk, used as a crow-bar (?), and they 

 devour the succulent parts of these roots in the inverted 

 trees. 1 Burchell mentions a small species of Prosopis, P. 

 Elephantorhiza, as yielding a favourite food to the Ele- 

 phant ; 2 and the succulent ' Spekboom ' Portulacaria Afra, 

 or ' Tree Purslane,' is noticed by most travellers as yielding 

 another. 



That the African Elephant, such as we now see it, for- 

 merly extended to the South of Europe, has been put beyond 

 question — 1st, by the researches of Lartet upon remains 

 found in the neighbourhood of Madrid; 3 2nd, by the remains 

 discovered by Baron Anca in the cave of San Teodoro in 

 Sicily; 4 3rd, by a molar from Grotta Santa, near Syracuse, 

 described by the Canon Alessi, 5 and identified by myself; 

 and lastly, by a molar exhumed by M. Charles Gaudin, in 

 1858, in a cave near Palermo. The last specimen has lately 

 been transmitted to me for examination, and it proves that 

 the African Elephant existed in that island as the cotempo- 

 rary of the two extinct species of Hippopotamus of the 

 Sicilian caves. The reputed cases of molars of the African 

 Elephant, from the Valley of the Rhine, described by Gold- 

 fuss, I believe to be spurious fossils, after having submitted 

 them to a careful examination. 6 Captain Spratt, R.IST., the 

 indefatigable explorer of the Hydrography and Geology of 

 the Mediterranean, has, as already stated, lately discovered 

 in Malta numerous remains of a surprisingly small fossil 



1 Cited in the ' Library of Entertain- 

 ing Knowledge.' Menageries, vol. ii. p. 

 36. 



2 Acacia Elephantina,'Bmrch. 'Travels 

 in South Africa,' vol. i. p. 236. Ele- 

 j)hantorhisa Burchcllii, Benth. 



3 Comptes Eendus. 22 fev. 1858. 

 Tom. xlvi. 



4 Bullet. Soc. Geol. de France. 2e 

 Ser. t. xvii. p. 684. PI. xi. figs. 5 & 6. 



5 Atti dell' Aecad. di Scienz. Natur. 

 torn. vii. p. 223. 



6 Nova Act. Acad. Natur. Curios., torn. 

 x. PI. xliv., and torn. xi. p. 2, PI. 

 lvii. fig. 1. A specimen of a reputed 

 fossil molar, of E. Africanus priscus, in 

 the Museum of Kudolstadt (Schwarz- 

 burg), direct testimony to the authenticity 

 of which was borne by tho finder when 

 the case was investigated on the spot by 

 Sir Charles Lyell, proved, on examination 

 in London, to be of a recent African 

 Elephant. 



