THE MALTESE FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 103 
The fifth metacarpal is represented by five specimens, nearly all of which are per- 
fect, excepting a few abrasions. They well support the other bones belonging to the 
large and intermediate and pygmy forms, not only in dimensions, but also in general 
characters. 
A Type—There are two fifth right metacarpals, of which Pl. XIX. fig. 11 is the 
more perfect ; they differ in scarcely a line as regards relative admeasurements, and are 
so much like each other in characters that they must have belonged to individuals of 
the same size exactly. 
The length of fig. 11 is 4°5 inches, breadth at middle of shaft 2-1, thickness at mid- 
shaft 1:4, fourth metacarpal facet 1-6 by 0°5, unciform-facet 2 by 1:5, distal articular 
surface 2°6 by 2-2, surface for the first phalanx (fig. 11) a@ to b=1°6 by 1-4. 
The flat upper and outer surface and absence of the compressed sides of the Asiatic 
give quite the characters of the African Elephant to these two specimens, whilst the 
rugosities on their exposed sides and complete anchylosis of epiphyses proclaim them to 
be bones of aged animals. ‘These two specimens equal in dimensions the same bone 
in 26774 Roy. Coll. Surg., also in the skeletons in Guy’s and Royal-Victoria Hospital 
Museums. The Sumatran is longer, being 5 inches ; but its articular facets are quite as 
large, showing that the fossil was altogether a relatively shorter and broader bone, as 
obtains in the African. 
B Type.—The two next might also have belonged to individuals of nearly the same 
dimensions. They are from left feet; and the more perfect is shown in Pl. XIX. fig. 12. 
The differences between them and the two just described are that they are not quite so 
broad in proportion, with sides more compressed, and the shaft rounded instead of the 
determined flattening on the dorsal and plantar aspects. The unciform-surface is more 
concaye, and the distance between the fourth-metacarpal facet and distal articulation 
