220 GREAT ELEPHANT. 



not far from the river Miame, seven hundred 

 miles from the sea coast. Of these the thigh- 

 bones are much thicker in proportion than in 

 the common Elephant : the grinders or side-teeth 

 are very different from those of the Elephant, 

 and, instead of having a flat top with numerous 

 transverse scores, as in that animal, are pretty 

 deeply lobed, like the teeth of carnivorous ani- 

 mals : the tusks bear a great resemblance to those 

 of the common Elephant, but have an inclination 

 to a spiral curve towards the smaller end*: in 

 their common texture they perfectly resemble 

 common ivory. It seems, therefore, extremely 

 clear that this animal must have been a species 

 differing from the common Elephant, but greatly 

 resembling it. Whether it may yet exist in any 

 of the unexplored parts of the globe, must be left 

 to future investigations to determine. These bones 

 are not peculiar to the northern regions of Ame- 

 rica, but have also been found in Siberia, in Peru, 

 and in the Brasils ; and it has been remarked that 

 they are found at greater depths than the remains 

 of the common Elephant, in strata, which are sup- 

 posed to have been the ruins of the old world, 

 after the event of the deluge. ■ 



The Elephant brings only one young at a time: 

 very rarely two : the young are about three feet 

 high when they are first born ; and continue grow- 



* The tusks of the common Elephant have sometimes not only 

 an inclination to a spiral bend, but are actually twisted into two or 

 three spiral curvatures, as in that described and engraved in Grew's 

 Museum Regalis Societatis j and which is now preserved in the Bri~ 

 tish Museum. 



