UNGULATES. 
526 
a tooth is represented in the accompanying woodcut, and will be seen to be 
composed of a number of low roof-like transverse ridges (in this case six), separated 
by open valleys. When unworn, as on the right side of the figure, such ridges are 
crowned by a number of small tubercles; but the effect of wear, as shown in the 
three ridges on the left side of the figure, is to perforate the enamel of which the 
ridges are externally composed, and thus to reveal an elliptical surface of ivory 
surrounded by a narrow border of enamel. In the figured tooth the valleys 
between the ridges are completely open and devoid of cement, but in the teeth of 
other species of nearly similar type they contain a certain amount of this 
constituent. Now it only requires that the ridges in a tooth like that of Clift s 
elephant should be greatly increased in height, with a concomitant diminution of 
their basal width, which would 
admit of a greater number being 
borne in the same length of space, 
and by the intervening valleys 
being completely filled with 
cement, to produce a tooth like 
that of the Indian elephant. In 
such a tooth, as shown in the 
figures on pp. 525 and 528, the 
ridges have become so tall as to 
assume the appearance of thin 
and nearly parallel plates, with 
their investing enamel thrown 
into a series of fine plications, 
or puckers; and the intervening 
valleys have become so deepened and narrowed, that their contained cement 
is also in the form of exceedingly thin plates. When worn, as in the figure on 
p. 528, such a tooth presents on its surface a series of very narrow ellipses of 
yellow ivory, surrounded by an elevated rim of the harder white enamel, marked 
by its characteristic puckers; while between the ellipses of enamel-bordered ivory 
come the layers of cement. The succession of layers in such a tooth is therefore 
arranged in the following order, viz. cement, enamel, ivory, and so on. The worn 
crown forms a slightly convex or concave surface, marked by transverse ridges of 
different degrees of hardness and height, and thus yields a masticating instrument 
of the greatest power and efficiency. 
In their food, elephants are strictly herbivorous, subsisting 
chiefly upon roots, twigs, leaves, and young shoots of trees, or grass 
and other herbage; such food being conveyed to the mouth by the aid of the flexible 
trunk, which is admirably adapted for such a purpose, as it is for drawing up 
water. There is, however, much popular misapprehension as to the other uses of 
the elephant’s trunk, in regard to which a few words are expedient. In addition 
to its use as a purveyor of food and water to the mouth, the trunk is the organ of 
touch and smell, and is altogether extremely delicate and sensitive. When any 
danger is impending, elephants, except in some cases when charging an enemy, 
invariably curl up the trunk out of harm’s way. In regard to the alleged 
A LEFT UPPER MOLAR TOOTH OF CLIFT’S ELEPHANT (| liat. size). 
Habits. 
