ELEPHANT AND MASTODON. 3 



genera ; others have gone the length of breaking up Mastodon 

 into two genera ; while M. de Blainville has reverted to the 

 opinion of some of the earlier observers, that the so-called Masto- 

 dons and Elephants are but modifications of one common type, 

 differing so little from each other that all the species may, with 

 proprietv, be included within the limits of a single genus. A 

 still greater, and vastly more important difference of opinion has 

 prevailed, regarding the number and characters of the species : 

 for, while the conflicting views respecting the generic distinctions 

 concern little more than the principles of systematic classification, 

 the accurate determination of the fossil species affects the value 

 of facts, which implicate the accuracy of some of the most weighty 

 arguments in the geology of the later tertiary strata, more 

 especially such as relate to the changes of climate which are 

 supposed to have accompanied their deposition, and the extension 

 of the species through a w T ide range of time and space. Cuvier 

 considered all the Elephant remains which have been found in 

 Europe, the north of Asia, and America, whether occurring in 

 the superficial drift of Siberia, or in the tertiary beds of the 

 Val d'Arno, to belong strictly to a single species, Elephas primi- 

 genius. Professor Owen, with all the lights, and wielding every 

 arm of an advanced science, holds the same opinion. M. de 

 Blainville does not think that there are sufficient characters, 

 even for separating the Mammoth from the existing Indian Ele- 

 phant, both of which he appears to regard as varieties of the same 

 species. 1 On the other hand Nesti, after a careful study of the 

 Elephant remains of Italy, during a period of nearly twenty years, 

 upon an ample collection of the best materials in the form of 

 crania, jaws, and teeth, insists upon the specific distinctness of the 

 Tuscan fossil Elephant, E. meridionalis, from the true Mammoth 

 of Siberia. Other palaeontologists have gone so far as to construct 

 ten species out of the single species of Cuvier, founding the dis- 

 tinctive characters upon the differences presented by the molar 

 teeth. A like range of conflicting opinions has prevailed in 

 regard to the Mastodons. Cuvier, Owen, and de Blainville, 



1 De Blainville, Osteographie; Elephants, p. 222. 

 B 2 



