FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 43 



hundred and forty-two. All these, according to Varro, were 

 massacred in the circus, inasmuch as the Romans did not know 

 how to dispose of them. 



Elephants soon came to be very generally exhibited in the 

 circus at Rome. They were sometimes opposed in combat to 

 bulls. Germanicus exhibited some, which danced in a clumsy 

 sort of style, and others were shown in the time of Nero which 

 danced on the rope, and performed many other extraordinary 

 feats of address. It is remarkable also that these elephants 

 were born in Rome, which, as well as the fact of their frequent 

 propagation there, we learn from two very remarkable passages 

 in ^lian and Columella. 



Down to the time of the Emperor Gallienus, the exhibition 

 of elephants was pretty constant at Rome. This prince exhi- 

 bited the last that were introduced in the Roman games. They 

 were ten in number. 



Thus it appears that, at known historical epochs, a consi- 

 derable number of elephants existed in Italy, and in other 

 countries under the dominion of the Romans. It was there- 

 fore not unnatural to attribute the origin of the osseous re- 

 mains of those animals found in such places, to individuals 

 which existed on the soil in authentic periods of history. There 

 is no doubt that some of them may be referred to this source; 

 but, if we consider the usual circumstances under which such 

 remains are found, we shall be inclined to believe that but com- 

 paratively a small number are in this predicament. They are 

 constantly discovered to be intermixed and confused with the 

 bones of the rhinoceros and the hippopotamus, animals which 

 were certainly not transported there by Hannibal or the Roman 

 armies. 



We shall now present the reader with a brief exposition of 

 the principal places in Italy where these bones have been dis- 

 covered. 



The largest tusk was found near Rome, in 1789, by the 

 Duke de la Rochefoucauld and M. Desmaresl. It was ten feet 



