FALCONER ON THE AMERICAN FOSSIL ELEPHANT. 
55 
don of North America,’ has figured three specimens, selected by him 
as representing the principal varieties of fossil Elephant, occurring in 
the United States. One of these, of which I possess a cast, (op. 
citat. pi. xxviii. A. p. 162.) is the Alabama tooth, stated to have been 
found in the neighbourhood of the Gulf of Mexico. It consists of 
the middle portion of an enormous last upper molar, right side, well 
advanced in wearj the anterior part supported on the large front 
fangy had been ground down by use, and the posterior third wanting. 
The fragment exhibits eight complete ridges and the half of a ninth 
in front. Of these, three anterior are worn into continuous trans¬ 
verse discs which are open, but without mesial expansion. They 
bear a close resemblance in general contour and in the sweep of the 
secondary curves of the enamel-plates to those of the Bollaert molar 
described above, as figured in the c Geologist.’ It is difficult to 
measure the amount of crimping on these plates from a cast. Dr. 
Warren describes the enamel-edge as slightly undulating; but his 
figure represents them to be distinctly and closely festooned as in 
the molars of the existing Indian Elephant. The fourth ridge has 
the digital terminations semi-confluent into the three distinct discs ; 
the fifth into four ; while the three last ridges are nearly intact. The 
digitations of the latter are very thick, and do not exceed four or five 
in number, while commonly, in E. primigenius , they are slender and 
numerous. In illustration of the difference, I may refer to pi. xxviii. C. 
of Dr. Warren’s work, representing a huge upper molar of E. grimi - 
genius from Zanesville, in Ohio, in which the corresponding ridges 
exhibit the ringed tips of ten slender digitations. The cement filling 
the valleys is partly removed by decay and denuded on the sides of 
the crown, in the Alabama tooth, so that the character is somewhat 
disguised ; but the discs of wear appear to rise in successive steps as 
described above of the Darien molar ; bearing in mind that the one 
is an upper and the other a lower molar. 
The following are the principal dimensions supplied by the cast: — 
Length of the molar measured at base . 7.0 
Do. of the 8 posterior ridges at base of crown 6.6 
Width of crown at 8rd ridge . . 4.6 
Greatest do. behind . . . 4.9* 
Height of the last ridge (intact) . . 8.0 
The above dimensions give an average of eight-tenths of an 
inch as the thickness of the ridges, a proportion which, I believe, is 
never attained in the true Mammoth. With the reserve dictated 
by the defects of a cast, and balancing all the characters, I am led to 
regard the Alabama molar as being of E. Colnmbi. Dr. Warren 
appears to have considered it as an extreme variety of JS. primigenius. 
The only other dental remains of this species which I have seen 
* Dr. Warren states the length to be seven and the width four and a half inches. 
The cast may give a line or so of excess; but the crown with its coat of cement 
must have exceeded 5 inches in width. 
