THREE EXTINCT SPECIES OF ELEPHANT. 285 



" 2. Permanent Incisors. — The collection contains numerous fragments of Elephants' 

 tusks, for the most part amorphous pieces or splinters of the outer layers, many of them 

 bearing distinct marks of having been gnawed, but indicating tusks of very considerable 

 diameter and out of all proportion to the small Zebbug molars. These fragments, which 

 appear to indicate another and larger species of fossil Elephant, will be noticed in the 

 sequel. 



" There is only one determinable specimen which will admit of being referred to the 

 smaller form, and that only conjecturally. It consists of a portion of the distal end of 

 a slightly curved tusk, about 5 inches in length. The greater part of the outer layer, 

 which is weathered of a greyish tint, has disappeared by dislamination. The but-end 

 yields a round section slightly compressed at the sides. The outer layer is smooth, and 

 throughout a line of thickness shows no appearance of engine-turning. Beneath it the 

 ivory surface is very distinctly channelled longitudinally and regularly ; and thus the 

 section inwards to the cone exhibits very distinct engine-turning, more pronounced even 

 than is commonly seen in proboscidian tusks, the inequalities being nearly as marked as 

 in a tailor's thimble. The specimen tapers to a conical point. The dimensions are : — 



Length 5"-0 



But-end l"-15xl"-l 



This tusk would correspond in size with the true molars of the Malta form *. 



very closely, both in size and proportion, ■n'ith the Maltese fossil. This circumstance may perhaps render it 

 doubtful whether the latter really belongs to either of the dwarf Elephants, and may not rather belong to the 

 largest extinct form. 



* It is a rather curious circumstance that the specimen above described by Dr. Falconer, and which, from some 

 words vrliich I have omitted, he seems either to have had or to have intended to have figured, was not to be 

 found in Captain Spratfs collection when it came into my hands; nor is there any figure of it to be found. 

 But, strangely enough, another permanent tusk of precisely corresponding dimensions, and with a ticket upon it in 

 Dr. Falconer's handwriting, " Elephas melitensis, tusk, Zebbug Cave," is in the collection ; it is the one figured 

 in PI. LII. fig. 48. The specimen, as will be seen, is far more perfect than that described by Dr. Falconer ; 

 but in dimensions and all other characters (excepting colour, which is mottled with brown and black instead of 

 being " grey ") the two so fully accord that we might almost suppose that the missing specimen and the one ex- 

 tant in the collection may have belonged to the same individual. It is true that the specimen figured in PI. LII. 

 has been broken across ; but the fracture, instead of five, is more than seven inches from the truncated extremity, 

 and probably fuUy eight inches from the entire conical point, which is stated to have existed in the missing 

 specimen. And it should be noted that the fractured surface at the apex is not a recent one ; so that the speci- 

 men cannot be the one described by Dr. Falconer with the point subsequently broken off'. In the presence, 

 therefore, of this more complete specimen of an obviously similar tusk, the loss of the one described by Dr. Falconer 

 will be the less felt. In the existing specimen the outer layers, as will be seen in the figure, are detached 

 towards the point, exposing a subjacent surface very strongly suleate ; and at the fractured end the coarse 

 engine-turning described by Dr. Falconer is plainly visible. The diameters of the tusk, at the distance of 5 inches 

 from the estimated real point, are 1"-1 x 1", or very nearly the same as those given by Dr. Falconer, whilst an 

 inch or so lower down they exactly correspond, viz. 1"-15 x l"'l ; and this is the greatest diameter down to the 

 alveolar end, the maximum circumference being 3"'5 The extreme length of the specimen measured along the 

 outside curve is about 10"'5, to which may be added, to complete the point in its imtural state, about another 



2 r2 



