THE MALTESE FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 85 



a dividing ridge, below which is the horizontal facet for the calcaneum, the maximum 

 breadth of which is 2 inches. 



2nd. A similarly mutilated, but much smaller, right cuboid from the same locality 

 shows the. entire navicular and fourth metatarsal and also the internal surfaces, the 

 portions containing the calcaneal and fifth metatarsal facets being lost. 



At a glance one might be disposed to place the last specimen among the young bones, 

 only that the facets are pronounced ; however, if it is that of an adult, it must have 

 belonged to a very small individual. Its characters are pointedly the same as noted 

 in fig. 4. 



In the first place, as far as the outline is preserved, the two specimens show much the 

 same configuration in contradistinction to the next specimen, from which they appear to 

 differ in several particulars. For example the rounding-off"of the angles and general rough 

 and irregular outline distinguish fig. 4 from fig. 5, the margins of which are far more 

 prominent. Thus the two former may assimilate to the recent species ; but which in 

 particular cannot, unfortunately, be ascertained, from the fragmentary condition of the 

 specimens. The length of the internal side in fig. 4 is 2'4 inches ; and here, instead of 

 the facets being two as usual in cuboids of recent Elephants, also in that of the next to 

 be described, the entire upper half of the internal surface is occupied by the cuneiform 

 articulation, with deep excavations on the lower part. The na^dcular facet is oval, 

 instead of being quadrilateral as in fig. 5; its height is 1-1 inch, and the breadth 0-9. 

 The fourth metatarsal surface is 1'2 by I'l inch. The latter dift'ers also from that 

 of fig. 5 in its more oval outline and flat surface. 



It seems, from a comparison between the afore-mentioned skeleton of the African 

 Elephant and numerous specimens of the Indian, that their cuboids diff'er consider- 

 ably, whilst in the former the external is the longest side, the internal next, and the 

 base the smallest. In the Indian the latter is also the smaller, but the two other 

 sides are about equal. I do not know, however, how far the above would be borne 

 out by an equal amount of instances of African cuboids, which, unfortunately, are not 

 at present forthcoming in collections. 



B Type. — The perfect and very characteristic cuboid (fig. 5) would seem to differ in 

 these respects from both recent species, presenting nearly the form of an equilateral 

 triangle ; and although there are no adventitious rugosities on the sides, still the facets 

 are so sharply defined on the anterior and posterior surfaces, that one can have little 

 hesitation in pronouncing the bone to be that of a full-grown individual. The figure 

 represents the naviculare facet below, with the calcaneal above, and its abnormality, 

 to which I shall refer presently. The following are its dimensions — upper surface 

 2-6 inches, internal 2'6, external 2'5, calcaneal facet (c) 2 by 1-2. The naviculare 

 (to), owing to the more triangular configuvation of the bones as compared with recent 

 species, is more erect than is apparently the case in them or in any fossil cuboid 

 I have examined; its height is 1'6 inch, and breadth !•!. 



