ELEPHANTS. 
543 
into any particulars with regard to the mode of employment of elephants in tiger¬ 
hunting, would, however, be entirely beyond the scope of a work on Natural 
History. 
The Mammoth being extremely closely allied to the living Indian species, 
the extinct elephant of the Pleistocene deposits of Europe and 
Northern Asia, commonly known as the mammoth ( E. primigenius), may be 
conveniently noticed in this place. So close, indeed, is the relationship between 
the mammoth and the Indian elephant, that it may be a great question whether 
they are anything more than varieties of one single species, specially modified for 
the climates of their respective habitats. It is true that the tusks of the mammoth 
are much more curved upwards than are those of the Indian elephant, and assume 
a spiral curvature; while the plates of the molar teeth are narrower and more 
numerous. These, however, are differences which scarcely constitute more than a 
well-marked variety; and it is noteworthy that when we reach the warmer regions 
of Asia Minor, the place of the mammoth was taken during the Pleistocene period 
by an allied species known as the Armenian elephant ( E. armeniacus), which had 
molar teeth intermediate between those of the former and those of the living 
Indian elephant. In Siberia, where its carcases have been found preserved in the 
frozen soil, the body of the mammoth was covered with a thick coat of brownish 
woolly fur, among which were a number of longer bristly black hairs ; but it is 
by no means certain that the animal was thus protected from cold in the more 
southern and warmer portions of its habitat. Apart, however, from this, the 
discovery alluded to on p. 529, that the Indian elephant retains traces of a woolly 
covering similar to that of the mammoth, shows that in this respect there is no 
essential difference between the two forms; and indicates that the development or 
loss of the hairy coat was entirely due to climatic conditions. 
The mammoth is found in great abundance in Siberia, its remains becoming 
more numerous the further north we proceed. In Northern Europe, with the 
exception of the district to the East of the White Sea, it is, however, rare or 
unknown; none of its remains having been discovered in Norway, and but few in 
Denmark and Sweden. Although rare in Scotland and Ireland, mammoth-remains 
are extremely common over the greater part of England, and a large area of 
Central Europe. They abound in France and Germany, and in Italy extend as far 
south as Rome, but according to Sir H. H. Howorth are unknown southward of 
the Pyrenees. Great numbers are dredged from the Dogger Bank in the North 
Sea. From Eastern Asia the mammoth travelled across what is now Behring 
Strait into Alaska; but in the United States, and extending as far south as Texas 
and Mexico, the place of the mammoth was taken by a closely-allied species or 
variety, known as the Columbian elephant (A. columbi). 
That the mammoth lived in Siberia in the area where its frozen remains are 
found, may be considered certain; and there is considerable evidence to indicate 
that the climate of these regions was far less inclement than it is at present. 
This, however, only renders it the more difficult to account for the manner in which 
its remains were—as they must have been—frozen up in the soil immediately after 
death. Sir H. Howorth calls in the aid of a sudden cataclysmic change from heat 
to extreme cold; but it is somewhat difficult to accept such a theory. However, 
