124 BRITISH AND EUROPEAN FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



the incisive alveoli is presented by Colonel Baker's huge cra- 

 nium in the British Museum, of the form named E. (Stegodon) 

 Ganesa in the ' Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis.' If the outline- 

 profile (PI. II. fig. 12) of this species be compared with 

 that of the Mammoth (fig. 20), it will be seen that the plane 

 of the incisives in the former is continuous with that of the 

 frontal, with a tendency to obliquity forwards. The alveoli 

 are parallel in this form, as in the Mammoth. 



In E. meridionalis the incisive alveoli are also much elon- 

 gated ; but, hi stead of being parallel, in all the large crania 

 they diverge from the sub-orbitary foramina on to their ex- 

 tremity, where the divergence becomes sudden and as marked 

 as in the African Elephant. 



In the huge cranium No. 5 of the enumeration above, the 

 width of the incisive bones at their distal end reaches the enor- 

 mous spread of 39£ inches (Nesti). The inter-alveolar fossa, 

 deep below the nasal aperture, soon becomes shallow and dis- 

 appears entirely near the extremity of the bones, where an 

 osseous plateau is interposed between the alveoli. This di- 

 vergence of the incisive sheaths is seen in the Florentine 

 specimen, represented by Cuvier in fig. 2 of PI. IX. of the 

 Elephants, in the 'Ossemens Fossiles.' In the Mammoth 

 they are parallel and approximated, with an interposed fossa, 

 throughout. 



The only exception to the character here indicated that I 

 observed in the Museum of Florence is presented by the 

 cranium No. 9 of the above list, in which the tusks are com- 

 paratively small, indicating a female, and the specific identity 

 of which was not well determined. In it the incisive sheaths 

 are long, and, if not parallel, they are but slightly divergent, 

 although more dilated than in the Mammoth. 



a. Lateral aspect. — When the head is rested on the plane 

 of the molars, and regarded sidewise, the following points 

 are observable : — 



1. The short extent and concave arc of the surface between 

 the vertex and the point of the nasal bones. In E. primi- 

 genius the brow is also concave ; but the. curve is, gentle and 

 distributed over a long surface, whereas in E. meridionalis it 

 is shorter and more pronounced. The concavity is much 

 greater than is represented in fig. 16 of PI. II., copied from 

 Nesti's side-view of cranium No. 3 of the list, and it is still 

 more pronounced in cranium No. 4, in which it approaches 

 the concave arc presented by E. (Euelephas) Hysudricus (fig. 

 17 of PI. II.) The upper occipital plane, as defined by 

 the outline of the occipital bosses, meets the frontal plane 

 nearly at a right angle, while the lower occipital plane joins 

 on with the former at an open angle, somewhat resembling 



