﻿ELEPHAS ANTIQUUS— INTRODUCTION. 



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correct. At the same time, considering the smooth, narrow, and aggregated disks of 

 the Mammoth and the Arctic distribution of the animal, and that, in all probability, pine 

 and other trees of woody fibre constituted the staple food of the denizens of the boreal 

 regions, it seems that the fluted enamel would have been better adapted for the attrition 

 of the twigs of timber trees and such like evergreen forest vegetation of high latitudes. 



The evidences on which the presence in Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits, both in 

 Great Britain and elsewhere, of the so-called Elephas antiquus have been hitherto con- 

 fined, as far as the former is concerned, to England and Wales, whilst molars, appa- 

 rently undistinguishable from remains found in British strata, have been identified by 

 competent observers from similar formations in Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, 

 Switzerland, Italy, and Sicily. 



Reverting to the distribution of the species in the British Islands, there is no evidence, 

 therefore, as far as is known to me, of any remains of Elephas antiquus having been met 

 with in Scotland or Ireland ; indeed, the cavern deposits of Kirkdale and Settle Caves 

 of Yorkshire mark the northern limits at present. The molars on which its specific 

 characters are chiefly established have therefore been discovered throughout England and 

 Wales, from Yorkshire to the English Channel, and from Wales eastward to considerable 

 depths on the sea-bottom of the German Ocean. 



Stratigraphically the evidences of the existence of the species have been obtained 

 from the pre-glacial deposits of the coast of Norfolk and Suffolk, and from more recent 

 river and estuarine beds, and from cavern and fissure deposits. Before proceeding to an 

 enumeration of the particular localities from whence remains have been determined, it 

 appears necessary to observe that, although abundant traces of this form of Elephant have 

 been met with in England, it would seem from exuvise that the species was par excellence 

 South-European ; at all events, negative testimony points to the fact that, whereas its 

 congener, the Mammoth, has left unmistakable proofs of its residence in the boreal regions 

 of the Old and New Worlds, not a single instance of the existence of the so-called 

 E. antiquus has yet been adduced from any continent or locality north of the 54th 

 parallel of latitude in North-Western Europe ; moreover, although there are cogent proofs 

 of the Mammoth having ranged as far south as Spain and Central Italy, it would seem 

 that the E. antiquus was the more common. At the same time, as in not a few instances 

 in England, the elephantine remains of continental collections have been erroneously 

 ascribed to the Mammoth. Indeed, little has been added since Falconer's time to our 

 knowledge of the European distribution of the species I am now considering ; inasmuch 

 as palaeontologists have been slow to admit that the evidences furnished by the teeth 

 were sufficient to separate the aberrant from the typical molar, which, until Falconer's 

 differentiation, had been considered to be only varieties of that of the Mammoth. 



It appears from the evidences adduced in connection with the Pre-glacial deposits of 

 the east coast of England and the river deposits of Northern Italy that the Elephas 

 antiquus and Elephas meridional is were contemporaneous, whilst, on the other hand, us 



