332 ON TIIK FOSt^IL BOXES OF FACH YDERMATOUS QUADRUPEDS. 



fact, that the shape of this animal's feet is a decided refutation of this 

 conjecture. 



M. de la Coudreniere observing, in an account of Greenland, that 

 the savages of that country pretended to be in possession of a black 

 hairy animal corresponding in shape with the bear, and measuring 

 thirty-six feet in height, referred to this animal not only the mastodon, 

 but also the fossil elephant or mammoth, which he confounded with it*. 



Most probably too, it is this confounding of the tv/o species which 

 has led Mr. Jefferson to tliink, that it is only in the central regions of 

 the frigid zone that the mammoth arrives at its full growth, as those 

 countries lying immediately beneath the equator, are of all others 

 peculiarly adapted for the growth and maintenance of the elephant. 

 Regardless of these hypothetical ideas, I shall proceed to the examina- 

 tion of the bones of the mastodon; and according to my usual practice, 

 I shall commence with the teeth. 



1. The Jaw -teeth. 



Of these we have, at setting out, to determine the form, the differ'- 

 ences, the succession, and the number. 



Their most striking characteristic is their shape. 



Their crov/n in general approaches more or less to the rectangular 

 figure. 



It is composed of but two substances : the interior, called the bony, 

 or more properly the ivory substance, and the enamel. The latter is 

 very thick ; there is not any of that third substance so remarkable in 

 the elephant, and v.'hich has received the appellation of cement or 

 cortical. 



The crown is divided by furrous, or a species of very open vallies, 

 into a certain number of transverse hills ; each of these hills is itself 

 divided by a slope into two thick obtuse points, irregularly shaped like 

 quadrangular pyramids somewhat rounded. The crown then, pro- 

 vided it has not been worn, is rough v/ith thick denticuli disposed in 

 pairs. 



There is a wide difference between these and the teeth of the 

 carnivorous animals^ which present us with nothing more than a prin- 

 cipal longitudinal blade serrated like a saw. 



On the whole, there is only a slight difference of proportion between 



these transverse hills divided into two points, and the small transverse 



walls with the blade divided into many tuberosities, of the teeth of the 



elephant. The only difference is, that the latter form hills more 



: numerous, more elevated, more delicate, and separated by vallies nar- 



y^ 'rower and deeper : but an essential difference is contained in this, that 



, in the elephant these vallies are entirely filled by the cortical, while in 



!^', 'the mastodon they are not filled by any substance. From this it 



' * ^results, that the crown of the elephant is very soon rendered flat by 



detrition, while nevertheless it always continues to be transversely 



furrowed, - w^hile that of the mastodon has long been covered with 



papillse, as detrition at first merely produces shapes like lozenges in 



those Kills J and that, when it has become quite flat by the complete 



* Physical Journal, vol. xix, p. 363. f Jefferson, p. 106. 



