96 ME. A. L. ADAMS ON THE OSTEOLOGY OF 



eroded by decay, its length is entire and is 1*9 inch; breadth of mid shaft 1 inch; 

 depth of ditto 0-6 inch ; distal articulating surface 1 by 0-9 inch, the same bone in 

 the fore foot of the Oxford-University-Museum skeleton being 2'5 inches, and in the 

 hind foot 2*1 inches, thus indicating an individual about 3 feet in height. 



To match this diminutive bone there is the first phalanx PI. XX. fig. 16, and almost 

 difac simile represented by Busk '. The two are, indeed, so alike that, were it not for 

 the one having been found in the Benghisa Gap and the other in Zebbug cave, they 

 might, as regards dimensions and characters, have belonged to the same individual. In 

 skeletons of recent Elephants of the stage of growth where their bones could in any 

 way come up to the dimensions of those I am describing, they are so diminished by 

 the shrunken cartilage of their extremities as to be scarcely true exponents of the 

 original member. 



The remarkable contrast between these small foot-bones and the first, second, and 

 fourth metacarpals shown in Plate XXI. figs. 4-6, and described at page 76, leads me 

 to believe that the former (Plate XIX. figs. 6 & 7) might belong to the hind, and not 

 the fore foot. 



I shall now describe phalangeal bones referable to the third metacarpal and third 

 metatarsal bones composing A series, there being no specimens apparently assimilating 

 to the members of B series. 



PI. XX. fig. 8 shows the three phalanges of the third finger as they were found in 

 situ in Mnaidi-a Gap '. The dimensions of all the other numerous specimens are very 

 nearly equal, although from different situations. The maximum admeasurements of the 

 first phalanx, shown in PI. XX. fig. 8, which is the largest, are — length 2 inches, 

 breadth (middle of shaft) 1-4, proximal articulation 1-7 by 1-2, distal articulation 1-3 

 by 0-8 inch. 



Four specimens of the mid and ungual phalanges give about the same dimensions as 

 are shown in the fig. 8. 



In comparison with the same bones in the Sumatran, B.M., the above greatly 

 resemble them in outline : but as the metacarpal articulation of the proximal phalanx 

 is almost quadrangular in the African, and almost oval in the Asiatic, there is a pro- 

 nounced leaning towards the former in the fossil. Thus the Sumatran is 2-5 inches in 

 length, but its proximal articular aspect is only 1-4 by 1-1. Relatively the digit was 

 about the average dimensions I have assigned to that of the large form, whose height was 

 about 6-5 feet at the withers. No doubt the largest form, indeed perhaps all the Maltese 

 elephants, displayed, as surmised from the long bones of the limbs, a relatively greater 

 bulk to height than is observed in recent species, and also in the Mammoth. 



A more slender first and second phalanx is represented in PI. XX. fig. 12, which I 

 suppose may have been the corresponding bones of the hind foot of an elephant even of 



' Trans. Zool. Soc. vi. pi. 51. fig. 41. 



' Figs. 8 & 9 were found together, and probably belonged to the same individual. 



