R. S. Lull — Evolution of the Elephant. Ill 



making a charging tusker a most formidable foe. In common 

 with most forest and jungle dwellers, elephants, while rela- 

 tively dull of sight, are keen of scent and hearing, in fact 

 marvelously so, for, as Schillings tells us, they either have an 

 acuteness of some known sense far beyond our comprehension 

 or possibly some other sense unknown to us. The sentinels of 

 the herd stand with uplifted trunk, which emphasizes the 

 value of the sense of smell. 



Elephants rarely breed in captivity, almost all of the tamed 

 individuals having been born wild ; hence artificial selective 

 breeding which has given rise to such valuable results in the 

 betterment of domestic animals is unavailable for the improve- 

 ment of the race. 



The rate of increase is extremely slow, for Darwin tells us 

 that they begin to bear young at thirty years and continue to 

 do so until ninety, during which time six single young are 

 produced on the average. But, to illustrate the necessity of a 

 check upon increase among animals, Darwin says that even at 

 this slow rate the offspring of a single pair would in 500 years 

 amount to fifteen millions, provided they all lived to maturity ! 



Evidences of Evolution. 



The evidences of evolution are threefold : structure, as shown 

 by comparative anatomy, ontogeny or individual development, 

 and phylogeny or racial history. The last paleontology makes 

 known to us. We may, by comparing the structure of a 

 given form with that of other animals, gain an insight into 

 the probable course of modifications which it has undergone 

 in the development of its distinctive features and often a hint 

 at least as to its ancestry and relationship, as in the case already 

 mentioned of the Hyracoidea and elephants. Again, the small 

 hind-limb and hip bones buried deep within the body of the 

 whales and the hip bones alone in the case of the manatee 

 (Sirenia) having no possible function, are indubitable evidence 

 for descent in each case from some land-dwelling quadrupedal 

 type. This has been corroborated in the last instance by the 

 recent finding, in the Eocene of the Egyptian Fayum, of 

 Sirenia with hind limbs. 



Ontogeny. 



Embryology shows us the curious parallelism which exists 

 between the individual's history and that of the race, that of 

 the individual being in most cases a more or less abridged sum- 

 mary of that of its ancestors. 



I have spoken of the shortening and corresponding increase 

 in height of the elephant's skull to provide the leverage 



