ITS EARLIEST HEAD-QUARTERS. 247 



of a ravine, about twenty-five feet in height, the section 

 consisting of alternate beds of clay and fluviatile sand, the 

 latter charged with fragments of Dreissena. The bones were 

 in a very friable condition, and the skull crushed and decom- 

 posed ; but Major Garden was able to exhume some portions 

 of tusks six-and-a-half inches in diameter, which in desicca- 

 tion crumbled to pieces. The specimens presented by Colonel 

 Giels to the national collection consist of two last upper 

 molars in fine preservation, and a portion of a lower molar, 

 all apparently of the same individual. These molars strike a 

 practised eye, at the first glance, as presenting something 

 intermediate between the Mammoth and the existing Indian 

 Elephant. The case is of so much interest, thai. I shall 

 venture on some of the details. The left upper molar (m. 3, 

 being No. 32,250 Museum Regist. Palseont. Gallery) is entire 

 from behind the large front fang, the portion borne upon 

 which had been ground down by protracted wear. 1 The 

 anterior part of the crown to the extent of 2*7 inches is 

 also worn out, presenting merely a smooth surface of ivory, 

 behind which there are seventeen ridges and a posterior 

 talon. Of these, fifteen are more or less worn. The anterior 

 nine form transverse narrow discs ; the next six are divided 

 nearly equally by two rather wide longitudinal channels into 

 three divisions, consisting each of a flattened elliptical disc. 

 The transverse discs, in their general character, bear a close 

 resemblance to those of the Indian Elephant, the enamel- 

 plates being rather thick, with very pronounced close-set 

 crimping in the middle, but diminishing towards the comua. 

 These discs are narrower than is commonly seen in the exist- 

 ing species, less open and less parallel across. The crown 

 is broad, and the enamel-plates are high. To render these 

 descriptive details more appreciable and available for com- 

 parison, I append the principal dimensions : — 



Extreme length of crown, 11'75 in. Length of crown-siirfaee in use (partly 'worn 

 out), 9'5 in. Space occupied by the anterior ten discs measured at top of crown, 

 5'7 in. Ditto ditto at base of crown, 6 - l in. Width of crown at 3rd ridge (greatest), 

 4'1 in. Ditto at 11th ditto, 3'7 in. Height of crown at 12th ridge, 7'1 in. 



These Khanoos molars are intermediate in character be- 

 tween the Mammoth and the Indian Elephant, but more 

 nearly allied to the latter. The specimens are in a per- 

 fectly fossilized condition, the ivory being of a salmon 

 colour, with dark mottled patches, like those which ac- 

 company dendritic crystallizations, and they are strongly 

 adherent to the tongue. That they are true fossils is con- 

 firmed by the fact of Major Garden having found the tusks 

 in situ. Elephant tusks, six-and-a-half inches in diameter, 



1 PL x. fig. 3, shows the crown-view of the tooth. — [En.] 



