4, ME. A. L. ADAMS ON THE OSTEOLOGY OF 



calcareous sandstone, and contained red soil and angular fragments of the parent rock 

 intermixed with calcareous infiltrations. Here portions of a skeleton of the smallest 

 form of Elephant, containing the last true molar in situ, were exhumed. 



The Shantiin Fissure (No. 10) ' was discovered in 1870, accidentally, when quarrying 

 the calcareous sandstone. It was situated within a short distance of Gandia Fissure, 

 and seems to have contained precisely similar deposits, with remains (as far as I can make 

 out) almost if not entirely belonging to the largest form of Elephant, with traces also of 



the Myoxus ^. 



The importance of the discoveries made in the caverns and alluvial deposits of the 

 Maltese Islands during the last fifteen years have been fully appreciated by competent 

 authorities; and here I feel it a duty to record, as far as my own researches are concerned, 

 that the prosecution of my explorations in Malta and the illustrations of this communi- 

 cation have been materially assisted by liberal grants accorded from time to time by the 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science. 



II. Dentition. 

 General Bemarks. 



The contour and direction of the incisors of the Maltese elephants do not appear to 

 difi'er from each other, nor from what obtains in recent species ; and the characters are 

 alike. A transverse section shows the same " engine-turning," whilst the removal of 

 the external laminae displays distinct " longitudinal channelling," as seen in PL XL figs. 

 11 & 14. The latter is perhaps more pronounced than usually noticed in other species. 

 The transverse section varies between elliptical and round, the former being usually 

 observed near the sheaths, the latter towards the middle and distal extremity. 



When a fully developed molar of any of the Maltese fossil elephants is sawn longitu- 

 dinally and vertically, it will be found to present the usual succession of compressed 

 and elevated ridges, thinning towards their summits, which, in the colline^, are made up 

 of several digitations. These vary in number and size according to the circumstance 

 whether they happen to belong to thick or thin plated ridges ; in the latter they pre- 

 dominate. The ridges of the upper molars are usually straight and upright, and 

 remarkable, as in Elephas antiqims, for their great height, being more than double the 

 breadth of the crown. The lower molars, even the last of the series, have their ridges 

 sometimes much retroflexed, as for example in PI. VIII. fig. 9 ; but this is by no means 



' This rock-cavity was explored by Dr. Caruana, F.G.S., and discoTered since I left Malta. See Quart. Joum. 

 Geol. Soc. vol. xxvi. p. 434, and Author's work on Malta, p. 169. 



^ During the formation of a dock at Valetta a few years since, fossil remains of Cervus clama, and teeth of 

 Horse and Fox were discovered in a rock-fiasure, and were determined by Mr. Busk, F.R.S. 



' As several terms will be used in the sequel with reference to the enamelled ridges, it is advisable that 

 they should be at once known. " CoUine " is applied to the unworn ridge, whether talon or plate. " Eidge " 

 includes all the enamel laminse. " Plate " excludes the " anterior " and " posterior talon." 



