FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 45 



of them exceedingly young, and that they were found inter- 

 mingled with the bones of many other land-animals, such as 

 oxen, deer, and horses. 



In consequence of the abundance of these bones, the cabinets 

 of natural history in Tuscany are altogether filled with them. 

 As Hannibal, after the battle of Trebbia, crossed the Apen- 

 nines, and traversed the whole length of the Vale of Arno, to 

 march against the consul Flaminius at Arezzo, as he halted for 

 a short time near Fiesole, and then must have passed under 

 Arezzo, and pursued his course along the Vale of Chiana, 

 to arrive between Cortona and the Lake Thrasymene, it 

 was natural enough to consider the first bones of elephants dis- 

 covered in these districts as the remains of those which were 

 attached to the Carthaginian army. This opinion has been 

 maintained by Stenon, a learned Dane, in his treatise, " De 

 Solido intra Solidum contento." But, according to Eutropius, 

 Hannibal brought only thirty-seven elephants with him into 

 Italy ; and we are informed by Polybius, that they all perished 

 from the effects of cold, after the battle of Trebbia, with a 

 single exception. Livy, who is more minute in his accounts, 

 tells us that Hannibal had eight remaining after that engage- 

 ment, seven of which died very shortly, during the vain at- 

 tempt of that general to cross the Apennines in winter. But 

 both authors agree, that, in spring, when he descended into 

 the marshes of the Lower Arno, he had but a single elephant, 

 on which he himself was mounted during that severe march, 

 in which he lost his eye from a defluxion. 



Now, it is very clear that this single elephant could never 

 have supplied the immense quantity of bones that are scattered 

 through Tuscany. Besides, there are as many bones found of 

 the rhinoceros and the hippopotamus as of the elephant, confus- 

 edly intermingled in the same strata ; and, consequently, we 

 can never believe that the elephantine remains are derived from 

 animals employed in war. 



We may also observe here, that those bones are found usually 



