THREE BXTIXCT .SPECIES OF ELEPHANT. 



237 



towards the Indian type. In order to make this plain, it will be as well to point out 

 one or two of the differences which exist in this part of the skeleton between the two 

 existing species. In the first place, as above remarked, the inner and posterior angle of 

 the neck in the African Elephant descends evenly till it is lost, below the level of the 

 dental foramen, in the general surface of the ramus; at most it exhibits, in older 

 animals, a slight roughness about the level of the dental foramen. But in the Indian 

 Elephant, of all ages, this border or angle, at about the level of that foramen pro- 

 jects into a distinct sort of crochet, which, as it were, protects the dental foramen from 

 behind. 



This striking difference of form, seen on viewing the ascending ramus of the mandible, 

 between the Indian and African species, is shown in the accompanying woodcuts *, 



The tr. d. of the neck at the smallest part, as compared with that of the condyle, 

 is rather less in the African than in the Indian species. In two specimens in which 

 the comparison was made, the tr. d. of the head in the Indian Elephant was 4", 

 and that of the neck l"-9 ; whilst in the African the head was 3"-7 in tr. d., and the 

 neck l"-5. In general form also, a considerable difference may be remarked. Viewed 

 laterally, the ascending ramus in the African Elephant is more rounded than in the 

 Indian, in which it is comparatively straight in the vertical direction. The coronoid 

 process rises much higher, in fact nearly to the level of the condyle, in the Indian 

 Elephant ; and its anterior border is nearly vertical, which in the Afi-ican overhangs 

 very much, and is at the same time much thicker and rougher, whilst it descends very 

 rapidly from the condyle to a level considerably below it. A strikuig difference is also 

 seen in the configuration of the dental foramen. In the Indian Elephant this orifice 

 looks, as it were, directly upwards, owing to the distinct elevation of the inner border, 

 which forms, in fact, a sort of spine or projection opposite to the posterior crochet 

 above described, the border of the opening between these two points being interrupted 

 by a deep angular notch. In the African Elephant the dental foramen, which is pro- 



* A. E. imlicus. B. E. dfricanus. 



2 L 2 



