SUCCESSIVE MAMMALIAN FAUNAS 197 



northern Asia, which came in by way of Alaska, where Bering 

 Land (as we may call the raised bed of Bering Sea) connected 

 it with Asia. The fMammoth was abundant in Alaska, 

 British Columbia and all across the northern United States 

 to the Atlantic coast. Hardly any fossil mammal is so well 

 known as this, for the carcasses entombed in the frozen gravels 

 of northern Siberia have preserved every detail of structure. It 

 is thus definitely known that the fMammoth was well adapted 

 to a cold climate and was covered with a dense coat of wool 

 beneath an outer coating of long, coarse hair, while the con- 

 tents of the stomach and the partially masticated food found 

 in the mouth show that the animal fed upon the same vegeta- 

 tion as grows in northern Siberia to-day. The grinding teeth 

 were very high,' cement-,covered, and composed of many thin 

 plates of enamel, dentine and cement, and were closely similar 

 to those of the existing Indian Elephant {E. maximus). In size 

 this is the smallest of the three Pleistocene species, 9 feet at 

 the shoulder. The fMammoth was not pecuUar to Siberia 

 and North America, but extended also into Europe, where it 

 was familiar to Palaeolithic Man, as is attested by the spirited 

 and lifeUke carvings and cave-paintings of that date. Thus, 

 during some part of the Pleistocene, this species ranged around 

 the entire northern hemisphere. 



Closely related to the fMammoth and in some cases hardly 

 distinguishable from it, is the fColumbian Elephant (E. 

 '\columbi) which, however, attained a considerably larger size, 

 as much as 11 feet, rivalling the largest African elephants of 

 the present time. The head was very high and had a cxiriously 

 peaked appearance, and the tusks in old males curved inward, 

 overlapping at the tips. From the likeness in teeth and 

 skeleton to the fMammoth, it may be inferred, though some- 

 what doubtfully, that the fColumbian Elephant was clothed 

 with hair, but not so heavily as the fMammoth, which was 

 a northern species, the Columbian form replacing it southward, 

 and ranging over the whole United States, including Florida 



