43 
<®n|[tttat Articles. 
YI. — On the American Fossil Elephant oe the Regions 
BORDERING THE GULF OP MEXICO, (E. Columbl , Ealc.) ; WITH 
General Obseryations on the Lining and Extinct Species. 
By H. Falconer, M.D., F.R.S., &c. (With Plates I. and II.) 
Contents: 
1. Introductory Remarks, 
2. Dentition of E. Columbi. 
3. Range of Habitat and Geological 
Position of E. Columbi 
4. Associated Possil Mammalia. 
5. Synonymy of American Possil 
Elephants. 
6. Range in Time of the Mammoth. 
7. Its earliest Head-quarters. 
8. Persistence of its Distinctive 
Characters. 
9. Unity or Plurality of Species 
of existing Indian Elephant. 
10. Asserted occurrence of Mas¬ 
todon in Australia. 
11. Food of Living and Extinct 
Elephants. 
(#) Of the Indian Elephant. 
(b) Of the African Elephant. 
(c) Of the Mammoth. 
§ 1. Introductory Remarks. 
My first knowledge of this form dates from the year 1846, when Sir 
Charles (then Mr.) Lyell submitted to me, for examination, some 
fossil mammalian remains, which he had brought with him on his re¬ 
turn from his second visit to America A They formed part of a 
collection which had been exhumed in 1838-89, in digging the 
Brunswick Canal, near Darien in Georgia. A selected series of 
these remains was presented by Mr. Hamilton Couper, the disco¬ 
verer, to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, where 
they were identified by Dr, Harlan, some of whose determinations 
were corrected by Professor Owen, and those of the latter more re¬ 
cently by Dr. Leidy. The locality and the details of the case have 
been described, first by Mr. Hamilton Couper,f and afterwards from 
personal observation by Sir Charles Lyell. The specimens brought 
by the latter included some fragments of the molars of a fossil Ele¬ 
phant, which, after careful examination, I satisfied myself belonged 
to a species wholly distinct from the prevailing fossil form of North 
America, namely, E. primigenius ; my attention having been at the 
time closely directed to the study of the Proboscidia, fossil and 
recent. This determination I communicated to Mr. Lyell, who, 
naturally swayed in his decision by the opinions then prevailing, and 
his estimate of the turning weight of authority, adopted for the 
Brunswick Canal form, the name of E. primigenius , with the com¬ 
ment, that the species ranged from the Alatamaha in Georgia, to the 
polar regions, and thence through Siberia to the South of Europe; 
while I applied to it, in my notes of a systematic classification of the 
Proboscidia, the designation of E. Columbi , after the great discoverer; 
* Second Visit to N. America, 3rd edit. 1855. Vol. i. p. 347. 
f Proceedings Geol. Society, 1843. Vol. iv. p. 33. 
