270 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



manifestly of the African Elephant; and the tooth, from its partially 

 worn condition, is evidently not one that had been naturally shed. 

 Von Baer cites the opinion of liathke, that it may have been derived 

 from a casualty in some travelling- menagerie, but he with reason 

 doubts if an African elephant was ever brought to Dantzic, either 

 during the Roman empire or subsequently. After carefully balan- 

 cing the texture and consistence of the specimen and the circum- 

 stances nnder which it appears to have been found, he could arrive 

 at no satisfactory opinion whether it was really fossil or not, and he 

 leaves the point undetermined. It may be remarked on this head, 

 that the freshness of preservation of teeth and tusks of Elephants 

 discovered in Postpliocene deposits furnishes no argument against 

 their being of really fossil antiquity ; for ivory tusks of the Mam- 

 moth have been found in silt in Britain, in such perfect preservation 

 as to have been fit for turning into chessmen*. I have examined a 

 skull of the Mammoth, discovered in the Lehm of the valley of the 

 Rhine, and now preserved in the Museum at Mannheim, which is 

 quite as fresh, and appears to retain as much animal matter, as 

 crania of existing Elephants that have long been exposed in public 

 collections. It is in a better state of preservation than skulls of 

 domestic animals that have been buried for a long time within the 

 historical period and subsequently disinterred. 



The most characteristic specimen of Elepli. (Lo.vodon) priseiis that 

 has yet been discovered in British deposits is a tooth which was 

 purchased by the late Mr. Konig, then keeper of the Mineralogical 

 and Palseontological Gallery, for the British Museum, of Mr. Ball, 

 a well-known trading collector. It was stated to have been pro- 

 cured from the brick-earth excavations at Gray's Thurrock, in the 

 valley of the Thames — a locality rich in Mammalian fossils, and first 

 brought to notice by the able investigations of Mr. Morris. No pre- 

 cise particulars as to the history of the specimen were ascertained 

 or put on record by Mr. Konig. But on paying a visit to Gray's 

 Thurrock, in company with the late Professor Edward Eorbes and 

 Colonel James, in the summer of 1845, with the express object of 

 examining the association of extinct Mammalia in this very interest- 

 ing deposit, I was informed on the spot that the tooth in question 

 belonged to the skeleton of an Elephant, the greater part of which 

 was found spread out in one place by the workmen, when digging 

 for brick-earth. Most of the bones were destroyed in the operation; 

 but besides this molar, another, belonging to the same animal, was 

 retained by Mr. Meeson, the proj)rietor of the brick-field. 



The specimen (no. 39370t of the Brit. Mus. MS. Cat.) is a last 

 molar, left side, of the lower jaw. The mineral characters, friabi- 

 lity, test by the tongue, colour, dull fracture, and general appear- 

 ance, leave no doubt as to its being a veritable fossil. Mr. Konig, 



* The fossil tusks of the Mammoth form an article of commerce in Siberia, 

 and are largely iisecl in the manufacture of ornaments and statuettes, &c. — Gr. B. 



t This specimen is one of those which the author intended to figure in illus- 

 tration of this paper. It is referred to frequently on pp. 274i & 275 as " the 

 G-ray's Thurrock specimen," and it will probably be ligiu-ed, with other speci- 

 mens, in a future number of the Journal. — Edit. 



