58 
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,t has arrived at the conclusion that it is possible that E. Columhi 
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, 1858, 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, Humbert, Messrs. Norton, G-uild, 
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 re^er to E. prim/(/enias, ave considered by 
Dr. Falconer to belong to E. Columhi. The other colossal remains are 
admitted by him to be indistinguishable from E. primigenius. The spe- 
cimen No. 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 E. Texianus. 
When speaking of the " BoUaert molar," Dr. Falconer states that "some 
of the plates show a considerable amount of undulation in the general 
sweep of the maclicBrides, but there is no tendency to the mesial expansion, 
or outlying loop, seen in Elephas ayvtiqiiusJ'X The degree of mesial ex- 
pansion in E. antiquus {medio leviter dilatati, Syn. Table) seems to be 
scarcely defined. According to Lartet,§ who describes E. ineridionalis 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 I'elephant d'Afrique." Lartet, describing the E. antiquus, 
says, " email moins epais et plus 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 pro 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. 
X Loc. cit. p. 52. 
§ " Sur la dentition des proboscidiens fossiles, et sur la distribution geographique et 
stratigraphique de leurs debris en Europe." Bull. Geol. 1859, p. 469. 
