FALCONER —MASTODON AND ELEPHANT. 277 



species belong to the " Stenocoronine " type of Loxodon, The dis- 

 tinction from the fossil form to be next described, E. (Loxodon) 

 meridionalis, is borne out by well-marked characters, the crowns of 

 the molars in the latter being constantly very broad, the digitations 

 thick and distinct, and the disks of wear free from mesial rhomboidal 

 expansion. If E. (Loxod.) jjriscus could be reconciled with any 

 other fossil species, it would be with E. (EuelepJias) antiquus, in 

 which the disks of the worn ridges exhibit a certain amount of ex- 

 pansion. But in this species the ridges are very numerous, elevated, 

 and attenuated, their number, as in the existing Indian Elephant, 

 ranging as high in the last lower molar as from twenty-four to 

 twenty-seven, while in E. prisms they do not exceed twelve or 

 thirteen. These points will be brought out more in detail in the 

 sequel, when treating of these species. 



Elephas (Lox'odon) priscus occurs in Italy in the Subapennine 

 pliocene strata of the Romagnano ; in England, in the fluviatile de- 

 posits of the valley of the Thames, and in undetermined strata on 

 the coast of Norfolk, but believed to be below the " Boulder-clay." 

 I have not observed it among the exposed specimens in the public 

 collections in Paris, nor in any museum in France that I have 

 visited. The name is enumerated by Pomel in his ' Catalogue of 

 the Fossil Remains of the Loire and the Alliere,' as having been found 

 in the Plain of Salieve, Collection of Laizer. He describes it briefly 

 as Elephas pnscus (Goldf.) : " Espece ayant les lames de ses mo- 

 laires disposees comme dans I'Elephant d'Afrique." Whether this 

 means the ancient race of the existing species attributed to the 

 valley of the Rhine, or the distinct fossil form, with crescentic disks 

 of wear, I am unable to determine. 



5. E. (Loxodon) meridionalis, Nesti. — Of this species, the materials 

 in European collections, more especially in Italy and England, are 

 fortunately so abundant and perfect, as to place its specific distinct- 

 ness beyond question. But this conclusion has been so long op- 

 posed by the highest palseontological authority, namely, by Cuvier, 

 De Blainville, and Owen, and the geological inferences involved in 

 it are of such importance that I consider no apology necessary for 

 entering fully upon the evidence bearing on the subject. 



The " Val d'Anio Superiore " has, from remote ages, been cele- 

 brated for the vast abundance of fossil remains found there. Huge 

 bones and teeth of Elephants were especially numerous. A larg© 

 collection of these was formed by Targioni Toretti, which ultimately 

 found its way into the Grand Ducal Museum at Florence ; and 

 numerous additions were made by Nesti, who, in 1808, soon after 

 the publication of Cuvier's ' Memoir of the Mammoth ' ( Annales du 

 Museum, tom. viii.), examined the Tuscan Elephantine remains, and 

 was so satisfied of their difference from those of the Mammoth, that 

 he proposed for them two specific designations, namely, Elephas me- 

 ridionalis and E. minutus. Influenced by the fact that Cuvier had 

 laid so much stress upon the peculiar form of the lower jaw, and 

 beak of the symphysis, as distinctive marks of E. primigenius, Nesti 

 (not a professed anatomist) was naturally led to direct his attention, 



