320 Dawkins — On the Age of the Mammoth, 



the last true molar, upper jaw, left side, of the Pre-glacial variety of 

 E. primigenius from the Norwich coast. The summit of the crown 

 presents about eighteen discs of wear, of which the most anterior 

 have been ground down to a common base of ivory : the space 

 occupied by fourteen of these ridges is 7^ inches. The enamel is 

 slightly thick, but the plates are transverse and perfectly free from 

 any appearance of crimping. The characters of this specimen diverge 

 widely from the ordinary form of E. primigenius in the direction of 

 the Indian elephant, but still maintain all the distinctive marks of 

 true Eleplias primigenius. The matrix is indisputably of the forest- 

 bed of tlie Norfolk coast, showing in the fangs a greenish gritty sand, 

 full of sulphur, derived from the iron-pyrites so prevalent in the 

 forest-bed." 



On consulting Professor Sedgwick, in May, 1867, about this tooth, 

 which was presented to the Museum by Miss Ann Gurney, I find 

 that there is no record of its true gisement. It is clear, therefore, 

 that Dr. Falconer was led to consider it of Pre-glacial age because of 

 its correspondence with what he calls " the Pre-glacial variety of 

 Elephas primigenius,''^ in the collections of the Eev. S. W. King and 

 the Eev. John Gunn, and especially from the character of the matrix. 

 Its agreement with the so-called ''Pre-glacial variety" is utterly 

 worthless for the purpose of proving that it is also of Pre-glacial 

 date, because the term itself involves the assumption that a variety 

 of Mammoth lived in Britain during the Forest-bed epoch. We 

 must, therefore, fall back upon the matrix as the only possible guide 

 to the gisement of the remains in the three collections. 



On evidence of this kind Dr. Falconer arrived at the belief that 

 the Mammoth dwelt in Europe before the great refrigeration of our 

 climate in the Boulder-clay period. The two molars in the collec- 

 tion of the Eev. S. W. King, which he himself admitted to be doubt- 

 ful, one pelvis also doubtful, and one molar, picked up on the shore, 

 in the collection of the Eev. John Gunn, together with a second in 

 the Woodwardian Museum, with matrix resembling that of the 

 Forest-bed, led him to infer *' that we have unquestionable evidence 

 that the Mammoth existed in England before the deposition of the 

 Boulder-clay, as the contemporary of Mammalian species, handed 

 down from the Pliocene period," and that, therefore, the animal is 

 *' entitled to the significant name, proposed by Geoffrey St. Hilaire, 

 in one of the bright inspirations of his latter years, of Dicydotherium, 

 as having by a miracle of Providence survived through two epochs." 

 The premises in my opinion do not in the least degree warrant the 

 inference. On the evidence adduced, the very least that can be said 

 is that the case is not proven. 



Nor, indeed, does an appeal to the character of the matrix afford 

 additional probability to the Pre-glacial age of the Mammoth. In 

 the autumn of 1866 the Eev. 0. Fisher, F.G.S., and myself discovered 

 in the village of Walton-on-the-Naze a deposit of red pan, or sandy 

 peroxide of iron, derived from the wash of the Eed Crag, that is 

 assumed to stamp the Pre-glacial age of remains washed up by the 

 sea on the East coast. In it were firmly embedded sundry waifs 



