280 OX THE FOSSIL BONES OF PACH YDF.RMATOUS QUADRUPEDS. 



Hernandez * and Joseph Acostaf are the principal naturalists, pro- 

 perly so called, that speak of them. 



We are prevented from applying all these accounts to the elephant, 

 by the circumstance, that they may be referred with equal plausibility 

 to the bones of the mastodon, which are much more common in Ame- 

 rica than those of the elephant, and the teeth of which, bearing a 

 stronger resemblance to those of man, may have served more easily to 

 create the illusion. 



Unfortunately, not one of those who have transmitted these accounts, 

 has taken the trouble to give drawings of them, or to annex a few 

 words indicative of their various species. Indeed, this fact alone is 

 sufficient to annihilate the whole tribe of their supposed giants. 



This enumeration of the places where the fossil bones of the elephant 

 have been found, is the result of an investigation, which the time de- 

 manded by my anatomic labours, properly so called, has not permitted 

 me to render as perfect as I could have wished. I have no doubt it 

 would have swelled to still greater length if 1 had had time to examine 

 with more care the works of naturalists, travellers, and topographers, 

 with the journals and the collections at the Academy. But it is already 

 in length sufficient to give an idea of the prodigious quantity of these 

 bones yielded by the earth, and of the vast quantities which might 

 have been obtained if the excavations had been multiplied, or if those 

 which were undertaken had been conducted by men of science. 



Additions to this Article I. 



The abundance of curious objects which are continually pouring in 

 upon me is to me a sufficient proof that, spite of the efforts of geolo- 

 gists, this department of science has been barely glanced at, and that 

 we may every moment expect to see the earth produce new species 

 still more extraordinary than any that have been as yet extracted from 

 her bosom. 



As I have already remarked, it is quite impossible for me to specify 

 all the discoveries of the bones of elephants which are being made every 

 day and in every country ; but I cannot forbear mentioning three heads 

 of this species, which are in the Museum of the Grand Duke of Tus- 

 cany, and which have recently been exhumed in that country. Two of 

 these heads were exhumed in November, 1822. 



France. — Towards the close of the autumn of 1824, they discovered 

 near Lyons, on the road which separates the Rhone and the Saone, in 

 the commune of Calvire, seven feet and a half below the surface, many 

 bones of the elephant, a shoulder two feet and a half long, a tibia of 

 the same length, the head of a thigh, the two branches of the lower 

 jaw, each containing two teeth. A letter from M. Bredia, con- 

 taining an account of this discovery, has been inserted in many of the 



* History of New Spain. 



■f Natural History of India, book iv, c. xxx. 



X We annex the additions placed successively at the end of the volumes of the 

 quarto edition, the details of which did not reach Cuvier until after the publication of 

 his chapter on elephants. We shall observe the same arrangement with respect to 

 the other additions. — Editor. 



