THE MAIiTESE FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 45 



equal to those of an Asiatic Elephant's lower jaw holding the second true molar in 

 full wear. 



Summary. — The above data with regard to the cranium support the inferences drawn 

 from a study of the molars. As regards characters, it seems that the posterior contour 

 of the lower jaw, in the smaller form at all events, partook much of that of the African, 

 but was similar to the Asiatic in the chin, which was truncated, with a high diasteme, 

 and scarcely any rostrum. As regards dimensions, if the comparison between the jaws 

 and recent species is of any value, it appears that the lower mandible of the smaller 

 form attaraed the dimensions of that of the Asiatic where the last milk-molar is in full 

 wear, and that the lower mandible of the largest form often equalled that of a full- 

 grown but small individual of the recent Elephants holding the second true molar, 

 which would ordinarily give a height of nearly 5 feet to the former, and about 7 feet to 

 the latter. 



III. Stylo-htoid. 

 A remarkably interesting specimen, to all appearance of an adult state of growth, is 

 represented by PI. XV. fig. 10 (natural size). It is the left stylo-hyoid of a very small 

 elephant, and was found in Benghisa Gap. As compared with similar bones of the 

 recent species in the British Museum and Royal College of Surgeons, the above differs 

 widely in dimensions. Of a skeleton of the Asiatic Elephant, No. 707/* of the Osteo- 

 logical Catalogue of the British Museum, where the last milk-molar is in full wear, 

 and the tusk protruding 7 inches beyond the alveolus, the entire length is 5-5 inches ; 

 the cranial facet is 0-5 by 0-2 inch, the latter in fig. 10 being 0-5 by 0-3 inch. The 

 greatest breadth of fig. 10 at a is 0-7, that of the above being 1 inch. Altogether in 

 comparison there is a marked difl^erence in dimensions; and when we know that fig. 10 

 could not have belonged to a foetal individual, it will be conceded that its owner muot 

 have been a diminutive form of Elephant. The specimen difiiers from the two instances 

 above recorded in the prominence of the ridge at a, the relatively shorter neck at b, a 

 larger cranial facet, and the rounding of the long arm, which is flat in the Asiatic 

 Elephant. 



IV. Vektebkal Column. 



The mature bones referable to the vertebral column are divisible into two groups 

 easily determinable on the score of size. I shall describe only such as indicate by the 

 complete consolidation of epiphyses that they belonged to adult, if not aged, elephants. 



1. The only specimen of an atlas is represented in PI. XIII. figs. 1, la, & lb, which, 

 in comparison with the fragments in the Zebbug collection, assigned by Busk to the 

 Elejjhas melitensis and E. falconeri, gives the following data. I have also placed in the 

 Table measurements of the atlas of a very young Asiatic Elephant, by way of contrast, 

 to show the diminutive dimensions of the owners of the Maltese atlases. 



