NOTE ON ELEPHAS MERIDIONALIS. 15 



highly polished, apparently by trituration after deposition, as the 

 polish is absent on the surfaces abutting the blocks of chalk, 

 which are interspersed here and there, and which at first sight gives 

 one the idea of the intervention of a fault ; they had evidently 

 fallen from the massive chalk as the torrent or invading flood 

 passed over. The preservation of the smaller tusk I attribute to 

 the protection it received from one of these blocks falling across it 

 bridge-like instead of upon it. 



The presence of so many Elephantine remains in this limited 

 .space goes far to strengthen the idea that they belong to Eleplias 

 meridionalis, without taking into account the pronounced character 

 of the molars and the tusk which distinguish it from the Mammoth, 

 the limbs and teeth of which, as met with in England, are invari- 

 ably dissociated and isolated ; never found, as in this case, with 

 several of its bones together. 



In the year 1883 a labourer of Mr. Kent's found a molar in the 

 sand-pit from which the previous four had been found in 1813. 

 This tooth had not come into use at the time of the animal's death, 

 for the digitations of the plates are scarcely worn and shew 

 their incipient points. Elephants' molars are not displaced vertic- 

 ally like other mammals, but move forward in the jaw horizontally, 

 pushing on the preceding tooth as plate by plate wears out, and at 

 last taking its place in succession. This second find stimulated me 

 to examine the pit, and I soon found a humerus of gigantic size. 

 After removing the surrounding flints and sand with considerable 

 care I successfully laid bare the bone, portions of which fell to 

 pieces as soon as touched. In hopes of its preservation by douches 

 of liquid gelatine, and a covering of cement, I left it after carefully 

 protecting it with a covering of sacks and hurdles. An inroad of 

 idlers the next day (Sunday) saved me any further trouble, for on 

 my next visit I was pained to find the sacks and hurdles had been 

 removed and not a vestige of the limb remaining all was without 

 form and void. The length of the humerus was nearly four feet, 

 its width at the joint furthest from the shoulder distal end was 

 nine inches. In September, 1887, Mr. Osmond Fisher, who had 



