304 OSSIFEKOUS CAVES OF MALTA. 



is not smooth, but rugged and cancellated. Outline of section is ovoid. 

 Greater diameter of shaft, 1*2 in. ; lesser ditto, at middle, '85 in. 

 Greater diameter of hollow tube, i 53 in. ; lesser ditto, - 33 in.' 



6. Fossil Halitherium, from Malta. 1 

 1 British Museum, December 20, 1862. — Compared the fossil from 

 Malta, having three teeth, with Listriodon and Halitherium. In Lis- 

 triodon the ridges very much as in Tapir ; outside in the upper jaw 

 they are nearly vertical, and the outer point high, with clean transverse 

 ridges. Further, in Listriodon, the ridges of the upper teeth wear ob- 

 liquely in front, the apex being intact, as in Dinotherium ; while in the 

 lower jaw the wear is reversed. In the Malta fossil the wear is hori- 

 zontal. 



' The last tooth agrees very closely with figs. 16, 19 and 20 of Plate 

 1 of Kaup's " Beitrage," on Halitherium. As compared with the skull, 

 the molars of the latter are much worn and very Hippopotamine-like in 

 the discs of wear. The fossil evidently is not of Listriodon, but of the 

 Hug on g family. 



' The cancellar tissue of the bone is very open in the fossil, as in the 

 Cetacea.'' 



7. Notes upon the Zebbug Specimens. March 1862. 



' Eegarded as a whole, they differ in character from the Crendi speci- 

 mens, and appear to belong to an entirely different set of animals. The 

 most interesting of these are a series of Elephant molars, referred to in 

 Captain Spratt's paper, as being of Mammoth. They consist of molar 

 teeth of all ages, from the first milk molar to the last, and many of them 

 are of remarkably small size. Three of them appear to be the last true 

 molar, lower jaw; of these, one, No. 14, is nearly entire, showing nine 

 plates much worn, and the posterior talon. No. 13 (see list at page 

 302), also a back molar, has the grinding plane of the crown of the 

 tooth scooped and obliquely distorted from being worn all on one side. 

 Two of the larger upper molars are nearly entire; one of them, No. 11, 

 is quite entire. There is also one very mutilated fragment of a molar 

 indicating a specimen of a larger size. Among these Elephantine speci- 

 mens there is a fragment consisting of the anterior portion of the right 

 ramus of the lower jaw. There is also a fragment of a tusk about 4^ in. 

 long, and nearly 1 in. in diameter, comprising the terminal portion near 

 the point. Besides the entire molars there are eight or ten fragments of 

 molars consisting chiefly of plates which had not been cemented. One 

 Aveathered specimen of ivory indicates an individual of very consider- 

 able size. The next most interesting amongst the specimens are the 

 humerus and femur of a Proboscidean form of a very peculiar character 

 (Elephas 3Ielitensis). To this form also appear to belong a pelvic 

 portion containing the acetabulum, a dorsal, and a lumbar vertebra, 

 besides the body of a vertebra, denuded of the processes. Belonging to 

 E. Melitensis there is also the shaft of a very small humerus, without 

 epiphyses, evidently of a young animal. 



' Of Elephantine remains there is also a fragment of the anterior 

 portion of the lower jaw, comprising simply the symphysial por- 



1 This fossil was not obtained from 

 the caves. It was purchased for Capt. 

 Spratt from a collector, and was pro- 



bably obtained from the Miocene de- 

 posits of Malta. — [Ed.] 



