THE MALTESE FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 39 



Now the youngest possible stage of dentition ascribable to fig. 12 is that where the 

 penultimate is rapidly disappearing, and several ridges of the last milk-tooth are in full 

 wear. This condition is closely represented in No. 2667, Eoyal College of Surgeons, 

 showing the cranium of an Asiatic Elephant where the eight anterior ridges of the last 

 milk-molar are in wear, with a fragment of the preceding still remaining. A condition 

 similar to the last is further shown in the well-articutlaed skeleton No. 1602 in the 

 University Museum, Oxford, to which I shall have occasion to allude frequently in the 

 sequel. This specimen gives a height of 3 feet 8-5 inches at the shoulder. In the first 

 the diasteme is 4-3 inches, and height of the alveolar border in front 3-8 inches, thus 

 indicating a jaw of much larger dimensions than fig. 12. 



There is an interesting comparison to be drawn between the above and the fragment 

 (No. 21310) of a lower ramus of the Elephas antigiius in the Palaeontological collection, 

 British Museum. The penultimate milk-molar is in full wear, holding eight ridges in 

 a space of 2-7 inches ; evidently the last milk-tooth was also invaded. The height of 

 the ramus at the alveolar border in front of the former is 3-3 inches. From the front of 

 the penultimate molar to the middle of the gutter 2-7 inches, height at the middle of 

 the molar 2-9 inches, thickness at the same point 1'8, length of the cylindiical canal 

 1-9, height of the alveolus of the three milk-molars 2-8. The diasteme is apparently 

 not so perpendicular as in the fossil. 



Supposing Plate I. fig. 12 is of the same stage of growth, it represents a still more 

 advanced stage of attrition, and therefore the ramus would be progressing iu size ; yet 

 in depth and thickness of the jaw, length of diasteme and symphyslal gutter, the former 

 is considerably the larger, but not more so than should obtain in two Elephants 

 difiering considerably in size. The comparison, however, does not make the owner of 

 Plate I. fig. 12 a pygmy as compared with that of 21310, B.M. 



3. The left lower ramus No. 96 (Plate VI. fig. 4) has lost its condyle ; and the diasteme 

 is broken ofi" close to the front socket a, which is nearly 3 inches in length, with a 

 septum, b, 0-6 inch thick, dividing it from a posterior alveolus, c, about 3-6 inches in 

 length. The greater portion of the coronoid is wanting ; and the jaw in general has 

 been considerably denuded ; so that there are few reliable measurements obtainable. 

 The contour of the lower border is decidedly like the African Elephant, and precisely 

 like figs. 1 & 3, to which reference will be made presently. Whatever molars may have 

 occupied the empty pits, it is clear, from the great thickness of the septum b, that the 

 posterior was in germ. The breadth of the jaw, about the middle of the front alveolus, 

 is 1'6 inch, thus greatly exceeding Plate II. fig. 2 ; indeed, as regards the dimensions of 

 the alveoli, the ramus, PI. VI. fig. 4, might have represented an advanced stage of growth 

 to any of the foregoing, and such as would accommodate the last milk-molar of the 

 smallest form in full wear with the first true molar not yet appearing above the jaw. 

 In all points possible for accurate determination, the above and jaw No. 2668, Eoyal 

 College of Surgeons, above noticed, come close. Here the penultimate is in full wear, 



