1834.] On the Climate of the Fossil Elephant. 23 



the Rhone is minutely told ; and yet, though the army remained four 

 days upon the snow ; though Hannibal himself is said to have told one 

 of his Roman prisoners, that he had lost 36,000 men, besides a vast num- 

 ber of horses and other beasts of burden; though he is represented by 

 his adversary Scirio, before the engagement on the banks of Tesino 

 (Ticinus), as having lost two-thirds of his horse and foot in the passage 

 of the Alps, yet nothing is said about the elephants, until the battle of 

 Trebia, when, owing to the severe fatigue, and long exposure to a snow- 

 storm, great numbers of men, cattle, and almost all the elephants perish- 

 ed. Shortly afterwards, we read of a pitiable destruction of men and 

 cattle in the attempt to pass the Apennines, and that here also seven of 

 the elephants, which had hitherto survived, were lost. One only was 

 left in crossing the marshes of the Arno in the ensuing spring. 



Thus, it appears, that these animals, who had the disadvantage of being 

 born in a climate far to the south, and not even reared in a domestic 

 state, endured the extreme cold and privation consequent on the passage 

 of the Alps late in the autumn, and a winter campaign succeeding it. 

 Now the elephant, though capable of sustaining great burdens, is said to 

 bear long marches and scarcity of food very indifferently. These two 

 causes, therefore, must have contributed in a great degree to their loss. 



Hannibal recruited his army with men and cattle in the countries he 

 passed through, and was thus enabled to proceed ; but we have no ac- 

 count of what proportions of the original expedition, which left the 

 shore of Africa, were living at the time of crossing the marshes of the 

 Arno, and what had perished. In the absence of this, we can only 

 guess at the different capacities of man, the horse, the ox, and the ele- 

 phant, to endure fatigue and cold. Yet did we know nothing of this 

 last, except from the history above alluded to, we could hardly doubt, 

 but that, if gradually inured to a colder climate, in a succession of 

 generations, it would easily bear any temperature above the freezing 

 point. 



The freezing point, however, would of necessity set a limit to the 

 existence of any animal of the size and structure of the elephant. In a 

 country occasionally subjected to heavy falls of snow, which remained 

 unthawed upon the ground for several days, such a creature would be 

 unable to move about in search of food, and must consequently perish. 

 On this account, the elephant of Siberia could not have lived in a very 

 severe climate, notwithstanding its long hair and mane. 



It is singular, that the ancients should have had a tradition of an 

 animal somewhat similar, not maned indeed, but crested : " Mirum unde 

 cristatos Juba tradiderit" is the expression used by Pliny in speaking of 



