236 ON THE FOSSIL BONES OK PACHYDERMATOUS QUADRUPEDS. 



his treatise " On Solids contained within Solids." Nevertheless, an 

 attentive examination of the writers who have described the march 

 of Hannibal should have dissipated this erroneous impression, even 

 before the circumstances in which the bones were found were suf- 

 ficiently made known. 



The fact is, that Hannibal did not bring more than fifty-seven ele- 

 phants into Italy, (Eutropius, chap.vii.), and Polybius tells us they all 

 died of the cold immediately after the battle of Trebbia, with the ex- 

 ception of a single one : Livy, who deals more in details, leaves hitn 

 eight still, seven of 'which died soon after, in the abortive attempt at 

 crossing the Apennines in the winter ; but both authors agree in 

 stating that in the spring, when Hannibal descended into the marshes 

 of the lower Arno, he had no more than a single elephant, upon 

 which the general himself was mounted, during that terrible passage 

 in which he lost an eye. Hence it is very evident, as has already 

 been remarked by Messrs. Targioni and Nesti, that a solitary ele- 

 phant could not have furnished this innumerable quantity of bones 

 which are scattered over all Tuscany; and now that Ave know r that 

 there are almost as many belonging to the rhinoceros and hippopo- 

 tamus as to the elephant, and that they are all three found inter- 

 mixed in the same beds, there is no longer the slightest foundationibr 

 supposing that they are the remains of animals used in war. 



Dolomieu has observed these bones of elephants in their beds. He 

 agrees with Mr. Santi in saying that they are found at the bases of 

 hills of clay, wdiich fill the intervals of the calcareous chains; that the 

 beds that contain them likewise contain woods, some petrified and 

 some bituminous, which he judged to be oak, and which are themselves 

 covered with beds of marine shells, mixed with common plants, and 

 by immense banks of potter's clay. As for those that came under 

 my own observation, they were all in clay hills, rising at least fifty or 

 sixty feet above the level of the plain. 



That part of Italy which lies to the north of the Apennines is not 

 less rich in those productions than the centre of the Peninsula. 



James Blancanus has published an account of some fragments of 

 ivory found at Monte Blancano, near Bologna. 



The jaw described by Aldrovandus *, under the vague denomi- 

 nation of Dens Belltice, the monster's tooth, was most probably found in- 

 the neighbourhood of Bologna. It is still preserved in the museum of 

 the Institute, with several other fragments which I noticed there, par- 

 ticularly two anterior extremities of jaw bones and several under jaws, 

 some with very diminutive, others with larger, rows ; but a part of 

 these was brought from Hungary by Marsigli. It is the more singular 

 that Aldrovandus did not recognize the real character of this tooth ; 

 that, in his work on the antique statues of Rome, he very properly de- 

 fines a fossil jaw bone. 



If there be any of those remains of fossil elephants which carries 



Sempronius, being recalled by Flaminius, bad abandoned Lucca, and that Hannibal, 

 ■wishing to ascend the Arno, did not think it necessary to take Pisa, which very pro- 

 bably was without a Roman garrison. 

 * Treatise on Metals, p. S32. 



