108 
ORKOTAL ARTICLES. 
number. Taking the penultimate, as in the case of the Indian Ele¬ 
phant, the worn surface of the crown would show sixty-four alterna¬ 
tions of unequally hard materials. 
Although agreeing in this essential respect, there are important 
differences in the mechanical disposition of the plates. In JS. primi- 
genius the molars are shorter for the number of their constituent 
ridges, and their crowns are also, both absolutely and relatively, 
broader than in the Indian species. The alternate successions of 
cement, enamel, and ivory, are therefore more attenuated and more 
condensed, and a larger number of them enter into the surface of 
that part of the tooth which is in wear. Lartet fixes the number of 
ridges that may be in active use at from twenty to twenty-three in a 
length of about 9|- inches (0.24 met.) ; while in the adult Indian Ele¬ 
phant the number of bands in the same length is usually about sixteen. 
Eut the great difference lies in the mechanical properties of the 
enamel plates. Instead of being thick and robust, with close-set and 
regular undulations, or zig-zags, as in the Indian species, they are 
thin and parallel, the projecting edges running either straight across, 
or if there is a tendency to undulation, it is but slight, fine, and in¬ 
constant ; occasionally, even, there is irregular angular expansion, or 
flexuosity in the edges of discs that are worn low down; but, as a 
general rule, the plates are straight, and free from waviness. It is 
this character which involves the greater width of the molar crowns 
in the Mammoth: if the undulations of the Indian Elephant were un¬ 
folded, the crown-plates would in that species be as broad as on the 
fossil one. Another difference is, that these plates are higher in the 
Mammoth. In the Texan specimen of an upper molar, mentioned 
above (p. 58), they attain the enormous height of nearly eleven 
inches. 
The triturating surface of the crown in the active molar presents 
another and very significant difference. Instead of the terraced in¬ 
equalities, seen in the molars of E. Columbi and E. Indicus , as des¬ 
cribed above, the worn surface in the Mammoth is nearly flat; the 
enamel-edges rising but a very little above the ivory and cement. 
This is a constant character of Mammoth-molars of all ages, and of 
all regions, whether from the pre-glacial ‘Eorest Bed’ of the Norfolk 
coast, from the volcanic gravels around Home, from the superficial 
gravels of England, from the frozen soil at the mouth of the Lena, 
from Eschscholtz-bay, from the swamps of the Ohio, or the prairie 
lands of Texas. In fact, the normal condition of the molar crown of 
the Mammoth resembles that of the Indian Elephant, which has been 
fed in captivity, but without the distorted arrangement of the plates 
seen in the latter. This observation, so far as I am aware, has not 
been made before; and the fact will explain the reason why I have 
entered so much in detail into the cause of the unnatural condition in 
the captive Asiatic species.*' 
* The distorted condition of the molars of the subjugated existing species, is 
occasionally seen, although very rare, in the teeth of the Mammoth. A line example 
