possess a good deal of brains, seems to be shown by the way in which a well-trained animal will obey the slightest sign of the mahout in India. According to Sir Samuel Baker, localities which produce in abundance particular kinds of fruit are remembered, as well as the time at which the fruit will be at its best. Stories of revenge, which are numerous enough, attest, so far as their data are to be accepted as accurate, the power of memory possessed by the Elephant.
In spite of their longevity, however, Elephants, unlike Rome, have not been built for eternity. We can only find two living species; but in past times Elephants were very numerous. They commenced, so far as we know, in the Miocene.
The existing forms are known in a fossil, or at least sub-fossil state, from diluvial deposits; and it is interesting to note that the African Elephant had formerly a wider range than now. Its bones (described as E. priscus) have been met with in Spain and Sicily.
One of the best known of completely-extinct Elephants is the Mammoth, E. primigenius. This great Elephant in most respects more nearly approached the existing Indian Elephant. The teeth have quite as numerous plates. The tusks were enormous, reaching a maximum length of 15 feet; they were much curved upwards as well as outwards. A large tusk weighs as much as 250 lbs. The Mammoth was of exceedingly wide range. Not only was it found in various parts of Europe, but it was especially abundant in Siberia, as is exemplified by the fact that for the last two hundred years as many or more than 100 pairs of tusks annually have been sold from that region. It also occurred in America together with forms at least not far removed from it, such as E. columbianus. Mammoths have been more than once found as entire carcases in the frozen soil of Siberia. The first was discovered in the year 1799, and rescued some years later for the St. Petersburg Museum. This example showed that the Mammoth, unlike existing Elephants, was covered with thick wool mingled with long and more bristly hairs of some 10 inches in length. The softer wool formed a kind of mane beneath the neck, which hung down as far as the knees. Another carcase was discovered later by Lieut. Benkendorf, who did not save it, but was nearly swept along with it into the sea by a flood. These creatures died in the position in which they were found by being bogged when in search of vegetation or water.
