56 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
were some mutilated specimens of adult molars in the Musee Aca- 
demique of Geneva. They were brought from Mexico, by M. H. de 
Saussure. fCo account of them, so far as I am aware, has as yet 
been brought out; and the notes which I took were of a general 
character, without entering on details. They agreed, in all their 
leading characters, with the Georgian form from the Brunswick 
Canal in presenting comparatively broad ridges, separated by wider 
intervals than in the Indian Elephant, but attaining less elevation 
than in the latter; the enamel plates well crimped, and the discs of 
wear open. They impressed me, at the time, as being distinct alike 
from the Indian Elephant and from Id. antiquus, and still more 
distinct from the Mammoth. The same collection contained the cast 
of a magnificent specimen of an adult lower jaw of Mastodon 
Andium , invested with a very massive and elongated incisive beak, 
deflected downwards, and retaining the basal section of one very 
large incisor. The original was stated to have been found near 
Tlascala, and it appears to be the adult mandibule of the same form, 
which yielded the younger specimen figured and described by 
Laurillard in d'Orbigny’s Y r oyage. 
The materials above described, supply only two entire teeth, both 
being of the lower jaw, i.e. a penultimate milk-molar (m. m. 3), from 
Texas, and an antepenultimate true molar (m. 1) from Mexico, the 
former showing eight ridges, and the latter twelve ; but as these two 
agree in the number of their ridges with the corresponding tooth of 
the Indian Elephant and Mammoth, and as they exhibit the same 
series of progressive increments, the complete ridge-formula is in¬ 
ferred to have been thus r — 
Milk Molars. True Molars. 
^4, 8, 12? 12, 16, 20—? 
4, 8, 12, : 12, " 16, 20—P 
The last true molars, above and below, commonly present from 
twenty-two to twenty-four ridges in the Indian Elephant and 
Mammoth. It remains to be seen, whether, taking into account the 
greater thickness of these ridges in Id. Columbi , they ever exceeded 
twenty in that species. 
The species clearly belonged to the group Jduele'phas, and in so 
far as the dental characters go, its nearest affinity was with the 
existing Indian Elephant, occupying a position in the series between 
it and JE. antiquus. It differs from the latter by the absence of the 
constant mesial and sub-angular expansion of the discs of wear, 
common to it in a minor, and to the African Elephant in a major 
degree. The difference from the Indian Elephant is less considerable, 
consisting chiefly in the enamel-plates being less strongly crimped, 
and in the discs of wear being more open. Judging from the tri¬ 
turating characters of the molars, so far as the analogy of the living 
species will help us, the food of Id. Columbi was probably like that of 
the Indian species, consisting of branches, twigs, and leaves of 
certain trees, with reedy grasses, and other similar vegetable matters. 
