MAMMALIAN LIFE OF THE QUATERNARY. 565 



This ancient Elephant was over twice the weight of the largest 

 modern species, and nearly a third taller. The body was covered 

 with a reddish wool and long black hair. One of the tusks measured 

 twelve and one half feet in length ; it was curved nearly into a circle, 

 though a little obliquely. The remains are exceedingly abundant at 

 Eschscholtz Bay, near Behring Straits, where the ivory tusks of 

 ancient generations of elephants are gathered for exportation. At the 

 mouth of the Lena, one of these animals was found, at the beginning 

 of this century, frozen and encased in ice. It measured sixteen feet 

 four inches in length, to the extremity of the tail, exclusive of the 

 tusks, and nine feet four inches in height. It retained the wool on its 

 hide, and was so perfectly preserved that the flesh was eaten by the 

 dogs. 



The common Rhinoceros was the R. tichorinus. It spread from 

 England to Siberia. A frozen specimen was found near Wilui, in 

 Siberia, in 1772. It had a length of eleven and a half feet, and was 

 a hahy species. 



The Irish Deer (Cervus megaceros), was another of the gigantic 

 species. Skeletons have been found in marl, beneath the peat of 

 swamps, in Ireland and England, and fragments in the bone-caverns. 

 The height, to the summit of the antlers, in the largest individuals, 

 was 10 to 11 feet; and the span of the antlers was 10 feet, and in one 

 case over 12 feet. 



The Elephant has in all twent3*-four teeth (grinders), but usually only eight at a time, 

 two in each side of each jaw. The new teeth come up behind, and push the others for- 

 ward and out; and thus there is a succession until the last has grown. Another Ele- 

 phant of the era was the E. antiquus Falc. Both the E. antiquus and E. Africanus 

 Cuv. have been found on Sicily. Besides the common hairy Rhinoceros tichorinus, the 

 R. hemita-chus Falc. occurs in the British and French bone-caves. One of the Cham- 

 plain oxen, the Aurochs, still lives under the protection of the Russian Czar; and the 

 other, Bison priscus Ow., or Urus, was alive in the time of the Romans. 



Many species of the present day were associated with the extinct 

 kinds ; as is exhibited in the list of species from Kent's Hole. 



2. America. — America in the Quaternary era was inferior to 

 Europe in the number of its Carnivores, but exhibited the gigantic 

 feature of the life of the time in its species. 



In North America, the mammals included an Elephant, E. Ameri- 

 canus Dekay, as large as the European, besides the Asiatic E. primi- 

 genius Blum., in the more northern latitudes ; a Mastodon, M. Ameri- 

 canus Cuv., of still greater magnitude ; Horses much larger than the 

 modern ; species of Ox, Bison, Tapir, gigantic Beavers, species of 

 Dicotyles (related to the Mexican Peccary) ; also animals of the Sloth 

 tribe, of the genera Megatherium, Mylodon and Megalonyx, of great 

 size, compared with those now living. Among Carnivores, there were 



