OF SCOTLAND. 
6^ 
ihe coVer of the rocks, where they were found, was not of 
the old, but of the recent alluvial cover • the offensive smell, 
and dark-coloured earth, proved the one point ; and the 
marine shells the ©ther. Hence, the tusk now before the 
Society, and those found at Kilmaurs, must have been de-^ 
posited under circumstances totally different, and at periods, 
in my opinion, very remote froni each other. 
Further, as the dark colour of the earth, and the offen- 
sive smell, where the bones were found, support the con- 
clusion that the entire animal had been deposited there ; 
and as we know that, some years ago, the entire body of 
an elephant was found in a mass of ice in Siberia, and 
in such a high state of preservation, that the hair remained 
On the skin,---and the flesh of it, when thawed by the sun, 
was readily eaten by the dogs, — the hair was short, partly^ 
long, and partly woolly, altogether different from that of 
the present elephants found in Asia and Africa; and as 
the bones of the elephant are found frequently in the great 
bed of the London clay, at a considerable depth under the 
surface, may we not, with reason, infer, that a species of 
elephant did once exist in northern latitudes, and in Great 
Britain, whose habits suited a northern climate — and that 
the tusks found at Cliftonhail and Kilmaurs did belong to 
this species ? This conclusion appears to be still further 
supported by the fact, that the tusk found at Cliftonhail 
differs from the present elephants'* tusks brought to this 
country, in having a deep hollow at the small end. This 
may possibly be accidental ; but t am inclined to regard it 
as characteristic * for, some years ago, I had an opportuni- 
ty of examining above a hundred tusks of the common ele- 
phant, in the possession of Mr Joseph Gurney, ivory- 
merchant, Sheffield, the whole of which had the ordinary 
obtuse point, and not one of them presented any hollow at 
the small end. I may take this opportunity of mentioning; 
VOL.- IV,- E' 
