192 BRITISH AND EUROPEAN FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



The three first Dr. Eugenic Sisrnonda refers to Unio pictorum., 

 Helix lactea, and Paludina lenta, as the nearest approxi- 

 mation ; and the Clausilia he considers to he an undescrihed 

 species, which he has named Clausilia Mastodontofila. By the 

 kind permission of Professor Angelo Sisrnonda, I was enabled 

 to examine the Elephant remains minutely. The most im- 

 portant of these was a lower jaw showing both rami, and the 

 greater part of the beak of the symphysis, with the penulti- 

 mate and last molars both present on the right side. The 

 last true molar exhibited only eleven plates, besides the front 

 and back talons, with the distinctive characters of Loxodon 

 meridionalis strongly marked, namely, the low cipher of the 

 ridge-formula, very thick unplaited enamel, and the ridges, 

 where intact, comparatively low, i.e. their height not much 

 exceeding the width of the crown. At another point in the 

 same stratum, near San Paolo, the railway excavations 

 brought to light abundant remains of E. {Euelephas) antiquus ; 

 among these were the last upper and last lower molars of the 

 same individual, a large adult. They all presented in a 

 marked manner the character of this species, namely, 

 numerous plates, high and approximated as in the Indian 

 Elephant, the enamel much crimped, the discs of wear 

 showing a tendency to angular expansion in the middle. 

 The upper molars, although partly mutilated behind, still 

 presented nineteen plates, of which the intact ones attained 

 seven and a half inches of vertical height, with a width of 

 three and a half inches to the crown. The right lower molar, 

 although mutilated, still showed twenty plates. Another 

 huge detached specimen of the last upper molar, right side, 

 from another animal, although not quite entire in front, 

 presented twenty-four plates, with the enormous height of 

 eight inches, the worn surface of the crown showing all the 

 distinctive characters of the species. 1 These teeth agreed in 



1 This specimen was carefully ex- 

 amined and described by Dr. Falconer 

 in July 1856 (see page 187). Five years 

 later, in April 1861, lie again examined 

 this specimen, and made the following 

 . note : ' The huge last upper molar (No. 7 

 blue ticket of Museum Catalogue), which 

 in my old notes I had taken for a certain 

 E. antiquus, strikes me now with consi- 

 derable doubt. The old description in my 

 old notes holds good generally ; but the 

 following points now strike me : ( a) the 

 enormous width of crown — nothing like 

 it do I ever remember in E. antiquus ; 

 (i) enamel grooved on the cement side, 

 but very little true crimping, and that 

 only near the middle ; (c) no true mesial 



expansion into angular loops, but a little 

 widening, with more crimping ; (d) the 

 discs not so wide as in Indian elephant 

 or in E. antiquus — not much wider than 

 in some varieties of E. primigenius ; (e) 

 no marginal reflexion of the cornua of 

 the discs ; (/) the enamel-plates thicker 

 than in E. primigcnius, but not so thick 

 as in E. antiquus. On the whole, this 

 specimen reminds me of some of those 

 doubtful ones which I saw at Rome with 

 Sigs. Ponzi and Ceselli, and with Carlo 

 Strozzi at Leghorn and Pisa, coming 

 very near to E. Armeniacus, and left 

 undecided.' On the same date, the fol- 

 lowing note is entered in the Note-book : 

 ' On going over the elephant molars and 



