Page:Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man.djvu/458

438 species of elephant, E. mirificus, Leidy, and E. imperator, have been obtained from the Pliocene formations of the Niobrara Valley in Nebraska, one of which, however, may possibly be found hereafter to be the same as E. Columbi, Falc. A remarkable dwarf species also (Elephas Melitensis) has been discovered, belonging, like the existing E. Africanus, to the group Loxodon. This species has been established by Dr. Falconer on remains found by Captain Spratt, R.N., in a cave in Malta. How much the difficulty of discriminating between the fossil representatives of this genus may hereafter augment, when all the species with their respective geographical varieties are known, may be inferred from the following fact:—Professor H. Schlegel, in a recently published memoir, endeavours to show that the living elephant of Sumatra agrees with that of Ceylon, but is a distinct species from that of Continental India, being distinguishable by the number of its dorsal vertebræ and ribs, the form of its teeth, and other characteristics. Dr. Falconer, on the other hand, considers these two living species as mere geographical varieties, the characters referred to not being constant, as he has ascertained, on comparing different individuals of E. Indicus in different parts of Bengal (in which the ribs vary from nineteen to twenty), and different varieties of E. Africanus. An enquiry into the various species of the genus Rhinoceros, recent and fossil, has led Dr. Falconer to analogous results, as might be inferred from what was said in Chapter X. (p. 173), and as a forthcoming memoir by the same writer will soon more fully demonstrate.

Among the fossils brought in 1858 by Mr. Hayden from