THE MALTESE FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 83 



less oblique than iii the recent species. With reference to the astragaloid facets, and 

 particularly the inner, which is the last to become ossified in the genus, there are seem- 

 ingly no differences between the adult recent and the extinct. The figure of Blainville 

 showing, as Busk remarks, the inner facet in both the astragalus and calcaueum divided 

 into two, in what must have been a full-grown African Elephant, seems an accidental 

 irregularity, as that of 708 h, British Museum, sho\\'s no division whatever. The dimen- 

 sions of fig. 5 ae ars follows : — 



Length 3-9' inches, height 2-7 inches, upper articular surface 2-6 by 3-0 inches, outer 

 facet 2-4 inches by 1-3, inner facet 1-9 by 1 inch, peroneal 1-4 by 0-7, cuboidal2 by 0-8. 



2. The less perfect specimen (b) of the left foot of a somewhat larger individual is 

 precisely of the same form, the only determinable difference being a proportionally 

 larger fibular facet, which is 1-5 by 1-1. The line of junction of the distal epiphysis is 

 here more patent than in the other. 



Navicui-ARE. — By way of comparison between old and young bones so as to enable 

 me to determine the following imperfect specimens in my collection, I find, as regards 

 the Indian Elephant, that, in common with the other parts of the skeleton, the 

 naviculare of the adult has the facets more defined, with adventitious rugosities exter- 

 nally, whereas the latter are wanting in young bones. This leads me to divide the 

 Maltese naviculares into old and young, or large and small, of which there are three 

 gradations and five specimens. 



The naviculare, like certain other foot-bones, is completely ossified in the Elephant 

 at an early age, so that, but for such characters as the above, we might be apt to ascribe 

 young bones to the small forms of Elephant ; and therefore I feel that much care is 

 requisite in determining the two naviculars shown in PI. XVII. figs. 7 and 8. This is 

 not the case, however, with the three larger specimens illustrative of the largest 

 Maltese elephant, of which I shall now define the characters of its navicular from 

 two (right and left) nearly perfect and one mutilated left specimen from Mnaidra Gap. 

 The latter, however, is the largest of the three ; and its characters comply with the data 

 just advanced, and indicate an individual fully 7 feet at the withers. The cup shows a 

 well-defined brim, with the usual incidental rough exterior of the old bone in contradis- 

 tinction to the absence of adventitious surfaces in the young and, perhaps, adolescent 

 Elephants. The maximum thickness is 1 inch ; the calcaneal facet is 1 by 0-5 inch 

 (precisely the same as obtains in the Sumatran, B. M.). From the abraded state of the 

 bone, the other facets are not clearly defined ; but, in comparison with the astragals de- 

 scribed, this naviculare might have belonged to the largest, and thus somewhat exceeded 

 the next, which is represented in PI. XVII. fig. 1, being one of a pair which seemingly 

 belonged to the same individual, as both were met with in very close proximity. 

 Indeed, as regards relation, astragalus PI. XVI. fig. 1 and its compeer of the opposite 



' As compared with the King's-CoUege specimen referred to, these two heel-bones are considerably larger ; 

 the length of the former is 3-2 inches. 



m2 



