302 OSSIFEEOUS CAVES OP MALTA. 



Last milk molar, upper fragment, showing four ridges. 8. Last milk 

 molar, lower ? with section of three plates, fine. 9. Third milk (last) 

 molar, upper ; six ridges in fragments. 9 a. Much worn fragment of 

 milk molar, three plates remaining. 9 b. Fragment of one semi-plate 

 of ditto. 10. Symphysial portion of right ramus of lower jaw, small, 

 and of young animal, no teeth ; has three mentary foramina in vertical 

 line. 10a. Talon and last plate of milk molar. 11. Penultimate 

 upper right true molar ; found in NW. branch of cave. 12. Last 

 lower molar, found in NW. branch of cave, in colour and mineral con- 

 dition like No. 11. 13. Fragment of posterior half of last lower molar. 

 14. Last lower molar; fine specimen from Branch 'A.' 15. Tusk, 

 fragment from near end ; found with No. 14. 16. Five ridges of germ 

 of a lower true molar ; one intermediate plate wanting to make pieces 

 fit correctly. 17. Anterior fang portion with two ridges of true molar, 

 upper jaw, probably antepenultimate. 18. Middle portion of another 

 true molar, probably antepenultimate. 19. Middle portion, comprising 

 two ridges of germ of lower true molar. 20. Posterior portion of 

 upper molar in germ state, comprising two ridges and talon, and 

 showing marks of gnawing. 21. Another portion of posterior molar, 

 more weathered. 22. Mutilated fragments of a larger sized molar than 

 any of the others.' 



2. Vertebra? of Elephas Melitensis. 



1 College of Surgeons, July 27, 1860. — Examined the small vertebra 

 of the Elephant from Zebbug, and compared it with the fourth, sixth, 

 and ninth vertebras of a young Indian Elephant. None of these have 

 the spinous processes so much reclined, or continued in the same plane 

 as the oblique surfaces. In the somewhat cordate shape of the spinal 

 opening, and in the proportion of the posterior costal depression con- 

 tributed by the transverse processes and centrum, it agrees best with 

 the ninth ; but in the fossil the bridge between the anterior and pos- 

 terior depressions is not so broad. The transverse processes are not 

 quite so transverse as in the fourth and sixth, but are much less in- 

 clined upwards than in the ninth. The anterior articulating processes 

 are near together, and the intervening circular sinus is less marked 

 than in the fourth and sixth ; in this respect the fossil closely resembles 

 the ninth. The sinus between the posterior costal cup and the pos- 

 terior oblique processes, seen sideways, is deep and marked exactly as 

 in the ninth ; in the fourth and sixth it is open and shallow. The 

 posterior oblique articulating surfaces are approximated as in the 

 ninth, and not wide apart as in the sixth, or still more in the fourth ; 

 but there is a raised ridge between them, and not a hollow, as in the 

 fourth, sixth, and ninth. The general form of the body of the fossil 

 is somewhat cordate as in the ninth, and the keel below the body is 

 veiy much as in the ninth. If the specimens in the College Museum 

 are properly numbered, the fossil is a vertebra intermediate between 

 the sixth and ninth, and is most probably the eighth ; the spinous 

 processes at its base being much more like the ninth than the sixth. 

 The dorsal vertebra of the Zebbug Elephant closely resembles in form 

 that figured in Eichwald's paper " De Pec. et Pachyd. reliq. fossil," 

 (Nova Act. Acad. Nat. Curios., vol. xvii. part 2, p. 160. Tab. LIV. 

 figs. 3 and 4.), and referred by him to E. proboletes. The latter, 



