82 FAUNA ANTIQUA SIVALENSIS. 



It is not figured among the sections in PL III., F.A.S. In onr 

 view, tlie tooth represented in Ph XXXIX. fig. 6, of Mr. Cliffs 

 memoir in the ' Geological Transactions,' under the name of 

 MastodonElephanto'icles, and the palate specimen represented in 

 PL XXXVI. of the same memoir, under the name of If. latidens, 

 heloug to this species.^ The reasons for this opinion will be 

 given along with the detailed description of the species. 

 The peniiltimate and antepenultimate molars in the upper 

 jaw have only six transverse ridges, continuous and chevron 

 shaped, with numerous mammillai, as in E. insignis and 

 E. Ganesa ; but the cement does not fill up the interspaces of 

 the ridges, being reduced to a comparatively inconsiderable 

 qiiantity in the bottom of the hoUows. E. Cliftii, in the 

 reduced number of the coronal ridges, and in the other cha- 

 racters of the teeth, appears to constitute the dental link 

 which forms the immediate passage from Elej^has into Mas- 

 toclon. Mr. Clift, in reference to his M. Eleplianto'ides and 

 M. latidens, has jiistly remarked that, ' On an examination of 

 the structure of the teeth, this discovery ' (viz. of these two 

 species) 'will be found to have still higher claims to attention; 

 for it illustrates the gradual shades of difference by which 

 nature passes almost imperceptibly fi'om one form to another, 

 and helps to fill up the interval which has hitherto separated 

 the mastodon from the elephant.'^ 



The three species last described, along with E. insignis, 

 constitute a peculiar section of Elephas, of nearly equivalent 

 value to the section which includes E. primigenius, E. Indicus, 

 and E. Hysudricus. That they belong to Elephas proper, 

 rather than to Mastodon, is clearly indicated by all the prin- 

 cipal characters of the teeth : viz. the crowns are divided 

 into many transverse ridges, consisting of numerous mam- 

 millse resemblmg the digital terminations of the plates in the 

 Indian elephant ; the hollows are occupied by a more or less , 

 abundant layer of cement ; and, as in the typical elephants, 

 there is no appearance of the longitudinal cleft along the 

 axis, which, in almost all the species of Mastodon, bisects the 

 crown into lateral divisions. The same direction of afiinity 

 is indicated by the characters presented by the crania. 



We here take leave, for a time, of the proper elephantine 

 forms; and from this point the complexity in the molars 

 gradually diminishes till they assimilate to the character ex- 

 hibited by the ordinary Pachydermata. 



Pig. 2 of PL VI. (PL in. fig. 8, P.A.S.) shows a section of 

 another of the specimens described in Mr. Cliffs memoir 



> Geol. Trans. 2nd Ser.vol. ii. . 369. 2 jjem, loc. cit. . 370. 



