388 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT
The
great development of the tusks in the immediate predecessors of the
Indian elephant, strictly so-called, is shown in the skull and mandible
of Elephas (Stegodon) Ganesa (Gaut and Falconer), now in the British
Museum of Natural History. This came from the Lower Pliocene formation
of the Siwalik Hills, India, and the tusks project 9 ft. 9 in. beyond
the sockets.
The
lessons in elephant morphology to be learned from a study of the
exceptionally well-preserved remains of the Beresovka mammoth, an
examination of which has greatly enlarged our knowledge of the probable
appearance of the Elephas primigenius of the north, have been
of great value in the branch of palaeontology. No one was in a better
position to pursue this study than was one of the zoological
preparatore of the Petrograd Imperial Academy of Sciences, E. V.
Pfizenmayer, who was chosen as one of the members of the expedition
sent out by the Academy to examine and secure the valuable find.*
Unfortunately, owing to the carelessness shown by the original finders
of this mammoth in failing to protect the flesh from decomposition, the
hairy covering at first to be observed had to a great extent
disappeared when Doctor Pfizenmayer first saw the remains. Enough hair
was left, however, either attached to the skin, or scattered over the
earth about the remains, to enable him to come to the conviction that
nothing pointed to the existence of a true mane, although about the
neck the hair may have been a trifle longer than on the other parts of
the body ; its colour must have been a rusty brown. The most
interesting results of the investigations of Doctor Pfizenmayer regard
the form and setting of the tusks of the northern mammoths. In the case
of this specimen from the Bere-
*E. Pfizenmayer, "A contribution to the morphology of the mammoth, Elephas primi-genius Blumenbach;
with an explanation of my attempt at a restoration," trans, from the
Transactions of the Petrograd Academy of Sciences, Smithsonian Report
for 1906, pp. 321-333; with one plate.
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