ITS CHARACTERISTIC ANIMALS. 
185 
found in various parts of Europe, — in Russia, in 
Germany, in Spain, and in Italy. The latter 
were readily accounted for by the theory that 
they must be the remains of the Carthaginian 
elephants brought over by the armies of Hanni- 
bal, while it was suggested that the others might 
have been swept from India by some great flood, 
and stranded where they were found. It was 
Cuvier, entitled by his intimate acquaintance 
with the anatomy of living animals to an authori- 
tative opinion in such matters, who first dared to 
assert that these remains belonged to no elephant 
of our period. He rested this belief upon struct- 
ural evidence, and insisted that an Indian ele- 
phant, brought upon the waves of a flood to Si- 
beria, would be an Indian elephant still, while all 
these remains differed in structure from any spe- 
cies existing at present. This statement aroused 
research in every direction, and the number of 
fossil Mammalia found within the next few years, 
and proved by comparison to be different from 
any living species, soon demonstrated the truth 
of his conclusion. 
Shortly after the discovery of fossil elephants 
had opened this new path of investigation, some 
curious bones were found by some workmen in 
the quarries of Montmartre, near Paris, and 
brought to Cuvier for examination. Although 
few in numbers, and affording but very scanty 
