188 BRITISH AND EUROPEAN FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



3 inches long, eight vertebra, one humerus, tibias, fibulas, &c. ; also a 

 tusk 8 feet long and 23 inches in circumference. These specimens were 

 obtained from Brackelsham Bay. 



In the Museum at Syracuse there is a tusk of Elephas antiquus, 

 7 feet long, and rounded in section. It was found 100 metres above the 

 mouth of the Amasses (?). 



In the Norwich Museum there is a superb lower jaw specimen of 

 E. antiquus, with the anterior portion of both sides entire, and a tooth 

 on each side. It was obtained from the jetty at Cromer, 15 feet below 

 ground, and was presented by W. H. Windham, Esq. 



Height of jaw in front to alveolar margin, 11*5 inches. Ditto behind, at rise of 

 coronoid, 8 - inches. Height of symphysial aperture, 6 - 5 inches. Width of ditto, 

 above, 3' inches, expanding below to 3 - 4 inches. 



It is truncated off very vertically in front, with the beak directed 

 down, but broken off. It has a thick rugous rim below the symphysial 

 aperture. Very large foramina, about one-third below the alveolus. 



The anterior part of the tooth is worn off, the fang remaining. In- 

 cluding fang-portion, the extreme length of tooth of right side is about 

 11 inches; width in front, 3'5 inches. Contracts a little backwards; 

 shows thirteen or fourteen plates remaining, some three or four worn 

 off. The plates very much undulated, as in Mr. Folger's specimen, and 

 no loop in the middle ; the discs of uniform width across, but a little 

 nexuous towards the horns ; very concave in plane of wear, and the 

 great wear on the inside. The teeth exhale a strong animal odour in 

 burning.] 1 



VII. Geological Age of Fossil Elephants. 2 



In the preceding details I have dwelt at great length on 

 the characters presented by the molar teeth in the fossil 

 Elephants, in comparison with those of the cranium or of the 

 rest of the skeleton. In the fossil mammalia generally, the 

 characters yielded by the skulls are of the highest import- 

 ance in defining the genera and species ; and so they would 

 be among the Proboscidea, if attainable. But while geologists, 

 everywhere in the gravels and fluviatile or lacustrine beds of 

 the newer Tertiaries, meet with the fossil grinders of Ele- 

 phants, crania presenting determinable characters are exceed- 

 ingly rare. This arises from the very incompact and cancellar 

 structure of the great mass of the skull in these animals, 

 whence it arises that while the bones of the head rapidly dis- 

 integrate and crumble to pieces, the hard and solid grinders 

 are preserved. Although many thousands of Mammoth 

 grinders, derived from numberless individuals, have been 

 discovered over the broad area of Europe, in the superficial 

 deposits, I know only a single instance of a well-preserved 

 cranium of this species (Euelephas primigenius) occurring hi 

 any of the great European Museums out of Russia, namely, 

 at Mannheim, on the Rhine. Another cranium, but con- 



1 See page 176, note 1.— [Ed.] 2 See page 76, note 1. — [Ed.] 





