172 FOSSIL ELEPHANT, OR MAMMOTH, IS AN EXTINCT SPECIES. 
era, I shall introduce ray remarks on the evidence of diluvial action 
afforded by deposits of loam and gravel with a short history of the 
remains of this animal, and of the extent to which they occur in 
England; and with respect to the Continent, shall simply refer to 
Cuvier for proofs of their dispersion over every country, and almost 
every valley in Europe and northern Asia, as well as in North 
America. 
The fossil elephant differs from any living species of that 
genus, but approaches more nearly to the Asiatic than to that of 
Africa. Blumenbach has distinguished it by the name of elephas 
primigenius, and Cuvier of elephant fossile. The term mammoth 
(animal of the earth) has been applied to it by the natives of Siberia, 
who imagined the bones to be those of some huge animal that lived 
at present like a mole beneath the surface of the earth. 
It appears from the wonderful specimen that was found entire in 
the ice of Tungusia, that this species was clothed with coarse tufty 
wool of a reddish colour, interspersed with stiff black hair, unlike 
that of any known animal; that it had a long mane on its neck and 
back, and had its ears protected by tufts of hair, and was at least 
sixteen feet high. 
The bones of elephants occurring in Britain had from very an¬ 
cient times attracted attention, and are mentioned with wonder by 
the early historians (see Harrison’s Introduction to Hollingshed’s 
Chronicle, ch. v. p. 17 and 21; also Koger de Coggleshall, as quoted 
by Camden, Collinson’s Hist, of Somerset, vol. i. p. 180, and Plott’s 
Oxfordshire, p. 132 to 139); but their history was never fully under¬ 
stood till the recent investigations of Cuvier. The old and vulgar 
