8 



the main trunk, or to any other branch. "With respect to the 

 progenitors of the Proboscidea we refrain," says Oscar Schmidt, 

 "from any conjecture." At present there are only two species of 

 elephant; they are the sole representatives of the order. From 

 them we go back in thought to the Mammoth and other similar 

 forms which preceded it ; thence to the Mastodon of greater 

 antiquity, and as companion to that the earliest and the hugest of 

 them all, although possessing a much shorter proboscis, the 

 Deinotherixnn, once classed among the order Sirenia (Sea-cows, the 

 Dugong, Manatee, &c.) These three genersi: —Beinothemim, Masto- 

 don, Elephas, make up the whole order; the two former are extinct, 

 and the parent stock has yet to be discovered. If anywhere, it will 

 probably be among the bizarre forms with which the Tertiary and 

 Crebaceous rocks of North America appear to be stored. 



I will now illustrate by means of a fsw slides the members of 

 this order, before proceeding to the special part of our subject. 



1. Skull of Dinotherium — dug out at Epplesheim in Hesse 



Darmstadt, 1836. 4^ft long, 6 molars each side — 

 no canines— no incisors above — two developed into 

 down-curved tusks below. No complete skeleton — 

 doubtful about feet. 



2. Deinotherium restored. 



3. Deinotherium. and Palgeotherium — remote ancestor of 



Tapir, Kbinoceros. and Horse. 



4. Mastodon Skeleton. 



5. Mastodon restored — lived on much longer in North 



America — contemporary there with man. Not here. 



6. Slide of teeth. 



7. Mastodon Tooth. 



8. Mammoth and Mastodon — restored. 

 Woolly Rhinoceros restored. 



9. Mammoth Skeleton — frontal skin. 

 10. Mammoth restored. 



Among the immediately pre-historic mammals the figure of the 

 "Mammoth stands out the most conspicuous, and the most familiar 

 to us all. A huge elephant, larger by nearly one half than any 

 .modern form, with tusks attaining sometimes a length of 12 or 

 13 feet. (There is a Mammoth's tusk in the Natural History 

 Museum, London, measuririg 12ft. Gin. long), and sometimes 

 describing a semicircle upwards ; the neck ridged with a mane 

 extending partly along the back ; long shaggy- woolly locks hanging 

 ^t its sides ; the only extinct creature which shares with an ancient 

 rhinoceros the distinction of having been found in the flesh, pre- 

 served with a success that would have shamed the most accom- 



