278 MR. BTISK ON THE REMAINS OF 



the socket of the 3rcl milk-molar. From the size of the bone, it undoubtedly belongs to 

 the largest of the Maltese Elephants. 



2. A second fragment of the mandible is represented in PI. LTI. fig. 4-3. It is also a 

 portion of the anterior part of the right ramus, which is broken across very obliquely 

 from before backwards and downwards, in such a way that the two fractured surfaces are 

 parallel with each other, and portions of the upper and of the lower border of the 

 ramus are left of about the same length. The upper or, rather, anterior border is very 

 acute, and represents a portion of the diasteme immediately anterior to the alveolus of 

 the 2nd milk-molar. Close to the edge, on the external aspect, are three openings, of 

 which the anterior and largest is the mental foramen, and the others also vascular or 

 nervous channels leading into the dental canal, the open orifice of which is seen at the 

 hinder end of the fragment, and is about 0"-25 in diameter. 



The alveolus of the 2nd milk-molar is widely exposed by the fracture, and, as usual, 

 consists of sockets for two fangs. The anterior fang must have been about 0"'6 in dia- 

 meter at the base, and larger than the posterior. Both sockets curve backwards ; but the 

 hinder is much more oblique in its direction than the anterior. In size and form the 

 alveolus would seem to correspond very exactly with such a tooth as is represented in 

 fig. 4, Plate LIII., the penultimate milk-molar, as I should presume it to be, of E. meli- 

 fensis ; but I am by no means certain of this. The thickness of the ramus, opposite to 

 the point of the posterior fang of the penultimate milk-molar cannot be very satisfac- 

 torily determined, but may be estimated at rather more than 1", whilst its height at 

 about the same part was probably 2""5 to 2"'75. 



3. The three remaining portions of the mandible are of much smaller size, and all 

 apparently of uniform character. The most perfect of these is shown in fig. 45, and 

 consists of the entire symphysis with the diasteme ; on each side the entire alveolus of 

 the 1st milk-molar remains, and on the right an indication of that of the 2nd milk-molar, 

 sufficient to show that the anterior fang of that tooth must have been of about the same 

 diameter (0"-6) as that in fig. 43 ; so that there may be reason to presume that the jaw 

 shown in fig. 45 may represent a younger state of the one shown in fig. 43. 



The portions of the two rami were not, I believe, found in connexion ; but there can be 

 little doubt of their belonging to the same indi^'idual ; at any rate they correspond 

 very exactly. The distance from the anterior alveolus to the extremity of the beak, or 

 wliat remains of it, is about I"-7, and the height of the ramus in a vertical line immedi- 

 ately in front of the socket is l"-25, and its thickness about 0''"7. The small mental 

 foramen is quite upon the border of the diasteme ; and on the right side there is only a 

 single secondary foramen behind it, whilst on the left there are two. 



4. The remaining two fragments of the mandible are of particular interest, as showing 

 what appears to me to be a distinction, apparently of specific importance, in that bone, 

 even at a very early period of life, between the two dwarf species. In those specimens 

 referrible to one or other of these smaller forms, which have been already described, I 



