THE GEOLOGIST. 



that in September, 1858, Professor Owen had speculated on the possibility 

 of evidences of proboscidean life " at the expense of the still more luxuriant 

 vegetation watered by the Oronoko, the Essequibo," etc. ;* that in districts 

 even more remote than Colombia, Dr. Falconer, on the testimony of M. 

 Lartet,f has arrived at the conclusion that it is possible that E. Oolumbi 

 may have even reached so far south-east as Cayenne, in latitude 4° 56' N«, 

 and longitude 52° 8' W., and that a doubtful evidence of true elephantine 

 remains was discovered by Humboldt in the province of Quito. 



With respect to the "jactitation" and " accommodating arrangements" 

 which Dr. Falconer presumes to exist between Professor Owen and my- 

 self, respecting the synonymy, the simple fact to which I alluded in my 

 paper — that I had examined the tooth in February, 185 S, and when I had 

 arrived at a definite opinion as to its position in the Elephantine series, 

 Professor Owen, in his address to the British Association, thought fit to 

 adopt my name — affords a satisfactory explanation of the alleged dis- 

 crepancy. 



I was necessarily ignorant of the private information placed at Dr. Fal- 

 coner's disposal at various periods of time, ranging from the year 1816 to the 

 present year, by Sir Charles Lyell, M. Humbert, Messrs. Norton, Guild, 

 and others, when my memoir was published. I however made due refer- 

 ence to the milk-molar brought by M. Le Clerc from Texas, now in the 

 Paris Museum, as possibly belonging to the same species as E. Texianus. 

 Two of the specimens from the Huff collection in the British Museum, 

 which I had been inclined to refer "to VJE. primigenius, are considered by 

 Dr. Falconer to belong to JE. Columbi. The other colossal remains are 

 admitted by him to be indistinguishable from JE. primigenius. The spe- 

 cimen ]N"o. 741a, in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, I 

 have examined carefully since the publication of Dr. Falconer's paper, 

 and I have no hesitation in recognizing it as referable to JE. Texianus. 



When speaking of the " Bollaert molar," Dr. Falconer states that " some 

 of the plates show a considerable amount of undulation in the general 

 sweep of the maclicerides, but there is no tendency to the mesial expansion, 

 or outlying loop, seen in Elephas antiquus."% The degree of mesial ex- 

 pansion in JE. antiquus {medio leviter dilatati, Syn. Table) seems to be 

 scarcely defined. According to Lartet,§ who describes E. meridionalis as 

 a separate species, "leur email, irregulierement festonne, offre le plus 

 souvent une expansion mediane simple ou double, qui rappelle, jusqu'a un 

 certain point, les figures rhomboidales que la detrition produit sur les 

 molaires de l'elephant d'Afrique." Lartet, describing the E. antiquus, 

 says, " email moms epais et pins regulierement festonne, avec ou sans 

 expansion mediane." With due respect to Dr. Falconer's elaborate de- 

 scription of this " magnificent morceau," I can detect in the fourth and 

 fifth ridges of the tooth, or the second and third of the seven ridges which 

 are "bounded by highly crimped and thick plates "of enamel," evident 

 traces of a mesial expansion, which may be considered qrro tanto homolo- 

 gous with that of E. antiquus, so far as the definition of a " mesial expan- 

 sion " in that species is capable of comprehension. A slight mesial expan- 

 sion may also be seen in the seventh ridge of the Mexican molar in the 

 College of Surgeons. 



Dr. Falconer's criticisms on the vagueness of the geographical name which 



* Owen, ' Address to the British Association at Leeds/ p. 39. 

 t Falconer, Nat. Hist. Review, p. 60. 

 % Loc. cit. p. 52. 



§ "Sur la dentition des proboscidieos fossiles, et snr la distribution ge'ographique et 

 stratigraphique de leurs debris en Europe." Bull. Geol. 1S59. p. 469. 



