370 



Marvels of the Universe 



ENCKE'S COMET. 



A tail, or a "nucleus." is not an essential detail ol 

 a Comet, as its nature is determined by the shape of 

 the orbit in which it travels. This Comet has a par- 

 ticularly short period of 1,204 days. 



MAMMOTHS AND EXTINCT 

 ELEPHANTS 



BY SIR HARRY JOHNSTON. G.C.M.G. 



The Elephant order came into existence somewhere 

 in North-East Africa, probably in Egypt, arising 

 from a generalized tj'pe of ungulate related to the 

 surviving Hyrax, of African rocks and forests, and 

 even to those strange aquatic mammals, the Manati 

 and Dugong, which still remain as eaters of seaweed 

 and waterside vegetation in the seas and estuaries of 

 the tropical world. The earliest type of Elephant 

 was a creature not much larger than a pig, which 

 developed a very long head and snout, no doubt for 

 the purpose of groping and grubbing after roots 

 along the banks of rivers and devouring on a large 

 scale riverside vegetation. With these habits it 

 gradually developed its front incisor teeth into formid- 

 able tusks, and at last became of the type which 

 we know in a general way as " Mastodon," from the hilly, or nippled, appearance of the surface of 

 its large molar teeth. The Mastodons grew to an enormous size, possibly exceeding in height 

 anything since attained by the True Elephants, and they developed very remarkable tusks. The 



earliest forms had tusks in the lower, as well as 

 the upper, jaw. One branch devoted itself entirely 

 to the development of its lower tusks and became 

 the Dinotherium, a creature which may have sur- 

 vived in Tropical Africa down to the human period, 

 its fossil remains having recently been discovered in 

 East African strata of relatively recent origin. 

 Some people think a Dinotherium still lives in the 

 inaccessible marshes of Lake Bangweulu and the 

 region of the Upper Zambezi, perhaps also in Congo- 

 land, in all of which countries there are traditions of 

 a " Water Elephant." 



The more elephant-like type — Mastodon — spread 

 from the Old World to the New, and grew to a 

 great size in North and South America. This 

 creature may also have lingered in America down 

 to the coming of Man. In Africa, Mastodons (we 

 now know), extended their range as far south as 

 Cape Colony. In Eastern Asia, from out of the 

 Mastodon type grew the True Elephant, which soon 

 attained, like the bigger Mastodons, an almost 

 world-wide range, only the continent and islands 

 of Australasia and Madagascar being without 

 Elephants. The chief region of development for the 



THE COMET OF 1811. 



This Cornel was notable for its extreme brilliancy. 

 It is a curious fact that stars which the slightest fog 

 would conceal shine clearly through millions of miles 

 of the unsubstantial stuff which makes up a Comet. 



Elephant genus was, of course, the Old World, 

 where it exhibits two leading types, which might 



