4 MR. A. L. ADAMS ON THE OSTEOLOGY OF 
calcareous sandstone, and contained red soil and angular fragments of the parent rock 
intermixed with calcareous infiltrations. Here portions of a skeleton of the smallest 
form of Elephant, containing the last true molar én situ, were exhumed. 
The Suantun Fissure (No. 10)! was discovered in 1870, accidentally, when quarrying 
the calcareous sandstone. It was situated within a short distance of Gandia Fissure, 
and seems to have contained precisely similar deposits, with remains (as far as I can make 
out) almost if not entirely belonging to the largest form of Elephant, with traces also of 
the Myoxus’. 
The importance of the discoveries made in the caverns and alluvial deposits of the 
Maltese Islands during the last fifteen years have been fully appreciated by competent 
authorities; and here I feel it a duty to record, as far as my own researches are concerned, 
that the prosecution of my explorations in Malta and the illustrations of this communi- 
cation haye been materially assisted by liberal grants accorded from time to time by the 
British Association for the Advancement of Science. 
Il. Dentition. 
General Remarks. 
The contour and direction of the incisors of the Maltese elephants do not appear to 
differ from each other, nor from what obtains in recent species ; and the characters are 
alike. A transverse section shows the same “‘engine-turning,” whilst the removal of 
the external lamine displays distinct “longitudinal channelling,” as seen in Pl. XI. figs. 
11 & 14. The latter is perhaps more pronounced than usually noticed in other species. 
The transverse section varies between elliptical and round, the former being usually 
observed near the sheaths, the latter towards the middle and distal extremity. 
When a fully developed molar of any of the Maltese fossil elephants is sawn longitu- 
dinally and vertically, it will be found to present the usual succession of compressed 
and elevated ridges, thinning towards their summits, which, in the colline*, are made up 
of several digitations. These vary in number and size according to the circumstance 
whether they happen to belong to thick or thin plated ridges ; in the latter they pre- 
dominate. The ridges of the upper molars are usually straight and upright, and 
remarkable, as in Hlephas antiquus, for their great height, being more than double the 
breadth of the crown. The lower molars, even the last of the series, have their ridges 
sometimes much retroflexed, as for example in Pl. VIII. fig. 9; but this is by no means 
‘ This rock-cavity was explored by Dr. Caruana, F.G.S., and discovered since I left Malta. See Quart. Journ. 
Geol, Soc. vol. xxvi. p. 434, and Author’s work on Malta, p. 169. 
* During the formation of a dock at Valetta a few years since, fossil remains of Cervus dama, and teeth of 
Horse and Fox were discovered in a rock-fissure, and were determined by Mr. Busk, F.R.S. 
* As several terms will be used in the sequel with reference to the enamelled ridges, it is advisable that 
they should be at once known. “ Colline” is applied to the unworn ridge, whether talon or plate. “Ridge” 
includes all the enamel lamine. “ Plate” excludes the “ anterior” and “ posterior talon.” 
