World. Amongst these, we
find in Europe the two familiar Pliocene species _E. Meridionales_
and _E. Antiquus_ still surviving, but in diminished numbers.
With these are found in vast abundance the remains of the
characteristic Elephant of the Post-Pliocene, the well-known
"Mammoth" (Elephas primigenius_), which is accompanied in North
America by the nearly-allied, but more southern species, the
_Elephas Americanus_. The Mammoth (fig. 266) is considerably
larger than the largest of the living Elephants, the skeleton
being over sixteen feet in length, exclusive of the tusks, and
over nine feet in height. The tusks are bent almost into a circle,
and are sometimes twelve feet in length, measured along their
curvature. In the frozen soil of Siberia several carcasses of
the Mammoth have been discovered with the flesh and skin still
attached to the bones, the most celebrated of these being a Mammoth
which was discovered at the beginning of this century at the
mouth of the Lena, on the borders of the Frozen Sea, and the
skeleton of which is now preserved at St Petersburg (fig. 266).
From the occurrence of the remains of the Mammoth in vast numbers
in Siberia, it might have been safely inferred that this ancient
Elephant was able to endure a far more rigorous climate than its
existing congeners. This inference has, however, been rendered
a certainty by the specimens just referred to, which show that
the Mammoth was protected against the cold by a thick coat of
reddish-brown wool, some nine or ten inches long, interspersed
with strong, coarse black hair more than a foot in length. The
teeth of the Mammoth (fig.267) are of the type of those of the
existing Indian Elephant, and are found in immense numbers in
certain localities. The Mammoth was essentially northern in its
distribution, never passing south of a line drawn through the
Pyrenees, the Alps, the northern shores of the Caspian, Lake
Baikal, Kamschatka, and the Stanovi Mountains (Dawkins). It occurs
in the Pre-Glacial forest-bed of Cromer in Norfolk, survived the
Glacial period, and is found abundantly in Post-Glacial deposits
in France, Germany, Britain, Russia in Europe, Asia, and North
America, being often associated with the Reindeer, Lemming, and
Musk-ox. That it survived into the earlier portion of the human
period is unquestionable, its remains having been found in a
great number of instances associated with implements of human
manufacture; whilst in one instance