E. S. Lull — Evolution of the Elephant. 187 



The cry of universal distress reached even to the regions of 

 peace in the "West ; when the good spirit intervened to save the 

 unhappy ; his forked lightnings gleamed all around, while the 

 loudest thunder rocked the globe ; the bolts of heaven were 

 hurled on the cruel destroyers alone, and the mountains echoed 

 with the bellowings of death ; all were killed except one male, 

 the fiercest of the race, and him even the artillery of the skies 

 assailed in vain ; he mounts the bluest summit that shades the 

 sources of the Monongahela, and roaring aloud, bids defiance 

 to every vengeance ; the red lightning that scorched the lofty 

 fir, and rived the knotty oak, glanced only on this enraged 

 monster, till at length, maddened with fury, he leaps over the 

 waves of the West, and there reigns an uncontrolled monarch 

 in the wilderness, in spite of Omnipotence." 



Part II. 



The Early Proboscidians. 



Moeritherium. 



The earliest known genus of proboscidians is Moeritherium, 

 a small, tapir-like form, from the Middle Eocene Qasr-el-Sagha 



Fig. 12. Moeritherium skull ; after Andrews ( x \). 



beds of the Fayum in Egypt. This creature was probably a 

 dweller in swamps, living upon the succulent, semi-aquatic 

 herbage of that time. It has little that suggests the elephants 

 of later days and, were it not for transitional forms, would 

 hardly be recognized as a proboscidian at all. However, one 

 can see the beginnings of distinctively elephantine features. 

 The hinder part of the cranium is already beginning to de- 

 velop the air cells or diploe, the nostril opening and nasal 

 bones are commencing to recede, indicating the presence of a 

 prehensile upper lip, and the reduction of the teeth has begun, 

 the second pair of incisors in each jaw being already devel- 

 oped as tusks. Those of the upper jaw were dagger-like, and 



