THE MALTESE FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 107 



pletely ossified, with bold and determined facets and rugosities of old bones'. PI. XX. 

 figs. 18-22 and PI. XXI. fig. 7 represent what may be considered as belonging to the 

 large, intermediate, and pygmy elephantine foot-bones, with which they agree in the 

 size and configuration of their articular surfaces. 



Summary. — A survey of the long bones of the feet furnishes data even more con- 

 vincing than those of the tarsus and carpus. The first toe of a large, an intermediate, 

 and a dwarf Elephant is well represented, the gradations being not altogether in size, but 

 also in characters, which seem to stamp a distinctness between the two larger forms 

 at all events, whilst the smallest and intermediate appear to resemble each other. The 

 second toe of the largest form is proven by numerous examples showing much the 

 characters of the Asiatic, whilst a smaller and distinct type is African in aspect, as 

 demonstrated by a comparison of PI. XX. figs. 12 & 17. We have seen much individual 

 variability in each of the larger forms ; and now, by comparing the second metatarsal 

 (PI. XX. fig. 3) with the second metacarpal (PI. XXI. fig. 4), it will be seen, according 

 to data furnished by recent individuals, that full-grown individuals of the pygmy form 

 ranged from 2 feet up to the minimum dimensions of the intermediate form, which, 

 again, attained the dimensions of the large form, which in no instance, as far as my 

 collection extends, exceeded 7 feet in height. The third toe repeats the conditions just 

 stated ; and the fourth comprises a complete series of nearly all dimensions, from the 

 smallest to the largest ; whilst the fifth shows the three gradations very pointedly, the 

 two extremes being more or less alike in character, and assimilating to the African, 

 whilst the intermediate would seem to lean towards the Asiatic ; but there are so many 

 perplexing discrepancies that I feel quite unable to reconcile the characters of the digital 

 elements of the Maltese and recent species whilst remains of other extinct species are 

 too few and they are generally undetermined. 



XIV. Recapitulation. 



I shall now in conclusion briefly recapitulate the leading facts, and the inferences 

 I have been enabled to draw from them. 



In the first place, it is clear that all the species of Maltese fossil Elephants lived 

 together; for, although certain localities produced more remains of one species than 

 another, all were more or less mingled and in close proximity, and showed by their 

 aspects and the geological conditions around them, that they had for the most part 

 been swept into the hollows and rock-rents through turbulent agency of water. These 

 facts have been clearly proved in my work referring to my explorations in the Maltese 

 ossiferous deposits'. Along with the Elephant-bones indications were found of the 

 presence of Carnivora, only, however, by a single tooth and marks of fierce gnawing on 



' The seeamoid bones are seemingly not ossified completely until the true molars are in vrear. In 707/;, 

 B.M. (frequently referred to here), with its last milk-molar in full wear, they are mere centres of ossification 

 in shapeless masses of cartilage. ^ Oj). cit. p. 161. 



p2 



