Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-11-23
LAUSANNE. Switzerland,

not Forthcoming. IL is taken for grant
ed that the baby specimens are not
alive, but long time dead. In the
state OF bones. One version adds.
while trench digging in the Danube
basin" and another attributed to the
oligocene."
1t is one more novelty of trench
digging. During the four years of
war there was unprecedented dig
ging. Not only the fighting from
tiers were trenched. with second.
third. fourth and fifth lines of
trenches to fall back on. but prac-
tice digging and use of trenches went
on in every country of the world.
Many queer things were discovered.
but nothing SO complete. satisfying
and curious as find after find OF
ancient elephant bones and fossils
in Egypt, England. Malta, Cyprus,
France. India, Austria and Alsace. In
England, for example, they found the
first elephant teeth ever recovered,
"in that country at any rate" in
actual association with the skeleton.
In India scientists go around with
bags full of trench teeth" previously
testifying of epochs and strata. In
a word, the prehistoric story Of the
elephant family is almost completed.
n \ Y
The trench poodles" Of Austria
will be a whooping novelty. The
oligocene period. to which they are
attributed. dates back to the year
u r. 1Ia f1~
had been found In it-"their fortunes
during the oligocene remain un-
known, unless certain strata of doubt
full age in the Vienna basin are to
be referred to it," These words, by
. coincidence. were written by Henry
Knipe, F. l.. S.. shortly before the
war, and he referred them to the
miocene-half a million years nearer
to us, and bigger and better elephants.
Now, is 1t possible that baby race
of elephants, heretofore unsupported,
was perfecting itself for near mill
lion years, and growing smaller, neat
err, poodle dog SIZE" veritable chill
dren's pets? Trench digging near the
Suez canal would seem to confirm 1t.
There. in Egypt, the Anzacs are
claimed to have come on "diminu-
tive" developments from the "primi-
tive" beats of moeris and catalogued :
by their experts rs baby elephants
Of the late eocene," say, BIC. 100000.
The beasts of moeris'' are the
founders OF the family. Their bones
were first discovered about 1901 by
DR.. Andrews in the Fayum desert of
Egypt, near Lake Moeris. They stood
about three feet at the shoulder and
were long enough In the neck to get
their heads to the ground. modern
elephant would be ashamed of them.
What's the trunk for? These inter-
esting quadrupeds had sloping faces.
unlike the almost vertical face of the
living elephant: but the bones of the
skull had fallen into position pc
culiar to proboscideans, and there
was the beginning of trunk. The
cheek teeth were much of the pattern
of later elephants. Certain Of the
incisor teeth in the upper jaw were
developed into small tusks, and on
the front part of the lower jaw a
rival pair of tusklike teeth protruded.
You see the beginning. Tusks
against tusks. Which will win out
the lower or the upper sets?
II 81 y
Already in the mid eocene. say. BIC.
100000. the beasts of moeris wan
dered about in herds. were at home in
the water. subsisted chiefly on marsh
vegetation, had we'll developed brains
for their size and their intelligence
was probably much above the average
of their time. What did they do for
themselves with it? Why. they de-
veloped bigger. for one thing, as is
positively known, under the familiar
name OF palaeomastodons. Around
the year BIC, 100000 they stood
fully six feet at the shoulder The
lower jaw had been elongated consid-
erahiy and terminated in improved
tusks. used for digging, and uproot-
ing purposes, as begun by their moeris
ancestors
Clothes make the man.
Tusks and trunk make the elephant.
Now. get this: A queer problem
presented itself. Which?
Both! replied the elephant
He made good. but it became Ar af-
fair Of time and expense. The length
ening of the lower jaw was to sorii; 4
co. ,,,,1r