370 Mr. Clift on the Fossil Remains of two New Species of Mastodon, 



nearest to our specimen, are those figured as the teeth of "divers Masto- 

 dontes* ;" and of these, the last figure referred to in the note forms the nearest 

 approach to the first species which I have to describe. The teeth from which 

 these figures were taken must have been much worn, and the last-mentioned 

 figure, though at first sight it has the appearance of part of a tooth of our 

 M. latidens, will be found nevertheless very different from it on a close exa- 

 mination, not only in the surface presented, but also in its comparative nar- 

 rowness in proportion to its length. The teeth figured by Soemmerring are 

 also deserving of notice f. 



It was, however, reserved for Mr. Crawfurd to make us acquainted with the 

 fact, that the remains of these extinct animals occur in Asia. To add to the 

 interest of this discovery, the two species now about to be recorded are new, 

 differing materially from every species of Mastodon hitherto described. On 

 an examination of the structure of the teeth, this discovery will be found to 

 have still greater claims to attention ; for it illustrates very beautifully the 

 gradual shades of difference by which Nature passes almost imperceptibly 

 from one form to another, and helps to fill up the interval which has hitherto 

 separated the Mastodon from the Elephant. 



On comparing the teeth of our Mastodon latidens with those of the Masto- 

 don of the Ohio (M. giganteum), we shall find the elevated points or ridges 

 in the tooth of the former more numerous, less distant, and the interstices less 

 deep than in those of the latter: in short, we shall observe that the teeth begin 

 to assume the appearance of those of the elephant. On advancing to Masto- 

 don elephantoides, we shall find all these features of similarity more strongly 

 developed :■ — the points and ridges are still more numerous, and the structure, 

 were it not for the absence of crusta petrosa, becomes almost that of the tooth 

 of the elephant. In both, though the teeth are formed upon the principle by 



* Osscm. Foss. PI. 2. fig. 5. PI. 3. fig. 2. and PI. 4. fig. 4. 



t Bcmerkungcn iiber cinige in dcr Naturalicnsammlung dcr k. Akademic d. W. befindliche 

 fossile Ziihne von Elephanten, Mastodonten, Rhinoceros'n und'einem Tapire. Vorgelesen am 

 10. Januar. 1818. von Samuel Thomas von Soommerring. Tab. 1. 2. 



M. Schintz, M.D. in giving fo the Helvetic Society of Natural Science (August 1827) an at- 

 count of the remains of Mammifera discovered in the coal mines of the Canton of Zurich, men- 

 tions "two kinds of teeth of the narrow-toothed mastodon" among those remains; and that 

 " In the coal mine of Elgg, which has been worked about forty years, and of which the gallery 

 is about 300 fathoms long, there have been found fragments of another species of mastodon which 

 does not correspond to any of those described by Cuvier, and which has only a distant resem- 

 blance in form to the great mastodon." — "The large teeth," it is stated, "have always three 

 rows of tubercles, the small two." " — a jaw and some bones of an undetermined species of 

 mastodon taken from a colliery near Buchbcrg " are also mentioned. See the Edinburgh New 

 Philosophical Journal, conducted by Professor Jameson, for Sept. 1828, p. 273, et seq. 



