THE MALTESE FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 107 
pletely ossified, with bold and determined facets and rugosities of old bones’. Pl. XX. 
figs. 18-22 and Pl. XXI. fig. 7 represent what may be considered as belonging to the 
large, intermediate, and pygmy elephantine foot-bones, with which they agree in the 
size and configuration of their articular surfaces. 
Summary.—A survey of the long bones of the feet furnishes data even more con- 
vincing than those of the tarsus and carpus. The first toe of a large, an intermediate, 
and a dwarf Elephant is well represented, the gradations being not altogether in size, but 
also in characters, which seem to stamp a distinctness between the two larger forms 
at all events, whilst the smallest and intermediate appear to resemble each other. The 
second toe of the largest form is proven by numerous examples showing much the 
characters of the Asiatic, whilst a smaller and distinct type is African in aspect, as 
demonstrated by a comparison of Pl. XX. figs. 12 & 17. We have seen much individual 
variability in each of the larger forms; and now, by comparing the second metatarsal 
(Pl. XX. fig. 3) with the second metacarpal (Pl. XXI. fig. 4), it will be seen, according 
to data furnished by recent individuals, that full-grown individuals of the pygmy form 
ranged from 2 feet up to the minimum dimensions of the intermediate form, which, 
again, attained the dimensions of the large form, which in no instance, as far as my 
collection extends, exceeded 7 feet in height. ‘The third toe repeats the conditions just 
stated; and the fourth comprises a complete series of nearly all dimensions, from the 
smallest to the largest; whilst the fifth shows the three gradations very pointedly, the 
two extremes being more or less alike in character, and assimilating to the African, 
whilst the intermediate would seem to lean towards the Asiatic; but there are so many 
perplexing discrepancies that I feel quite unable to reconcile the characters of the digital 
elements of the Maltese and recent species whilst remains of other extinct species are 
too few and they are generally undetermined. 
XIV. RECAPITULATION. 
I shall now in conclusion briefly recapitulate the leading facts, and the inferences 
I have been enabled to draw from them. 
In the first place, it is clear that all the species of Maltese fossil Elephants lived 
together ; for, although certain localities produced more remains of one species than 
another, all were more or less mingled and in close proximity, and showed by their 
aspects and the geological conditions around them, that they had for the most part 
been swept into the hollows and rock-rents through turbulent agency of water. These 
facts have been clearly proved in my work referring to my explorations in the Maltese 
ossiferous deposits*. Along with the Elephant-bones indications were found of the 
presence of Carnivora, only, however, by a single tooth and marks of fierce gnawing on 
1 The sesamoid bones are seemingly not ossified completely until the true molars are in wear. In 707h, 
B.M. (frequently referred to here), with its last milk-molar in full wear, they are mere centres of ossification 
in shapeless masses of cartilage. ? Op. cit. p. 161. 
P2 
