Page:Natural History (1848).djvu/142

132 brain is not correspondent to that of the skull; for in the latter are several great cavities, occupied only by air-cells of thin bone; and thus enlarged surface is afforded for the attachment of the muscles needful to move the proboscis and lower jaw, without increasing the weight of the head, already sufficiently burdened with the massive tusks, and fleshy trunk. There are no incisors in the lower jaw. The mamme are two, situated on the breast: the young, one of which only is born at a time, suck with the lips, and not with the extremity of the proboscis, as has been erroneously supposed.

But a single living genus belongs to this family; but there is a fossil animal, the Mastodon, which resembled the Elephants in most respects, with some important peculiarities in the structure of the molar teeth. One species,—the remains of which are found in great abundance, and in a wonderful state of preservation, scattered over the prairies of North America,—equalled the Elephant in size, and surpassed it in the massiveness of its proportions.

The proboscis of this sagacious animal demands our first notice. This wonderful organ, which confers upon the Elephant much of the versatile power of the human hand, is composed of an immense number of small muscles variously interlaced, so as to produce the powers of extension, contraction, and motion, in all directions. Cuvier computes the number of muscles having distinct action in this organ, as not far short of