292 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



of the Mammoth, and that they most resemble those of the African 

 Elephant. 



h. Cranium. — The characters yielded by the " ridge-formula" are 

 so pronounced, and so distinctive of E. meridionalis from E. 2yi'imi- 

 genius, that the inquiry is immediately suggested, " Are they borne 

 out by a corresponding amount of difference in the form of the 

 cranium ? " The reply is in the affirmative ; but I cannot pretend 

 to establish this part of the case with the precision and metrical 

 proofs which I have endeavoured to adduce in regard to the teeth. 

 This duty should devolve upon some of the anatomists or palaeonto- 

 logists of Italy. The time and means of access at the disposal 

 of a mere traveller are unequal to the satisfactory accomplishment 

 of a laborious task of this nature. But it is to be hoped 

 that the desideratum will not continue long unfulfilled. In the 

 remarks which follow, I shaU combine the. results of my own ob- 

 servations with those of Nesti which I was enabled to verify at 

 Florence, and with the avowal that they are to be considered more 

 as a contribution " pour servir " than as an exact or complete de- 

 scription of the subject *. 



The following materials, in relation to the cranium, exist in the 

 Museum at Florence : — - 



1. A very young cranium with the lower jaw attached, contain- 

 ing the earliest milk-teeth unworn. It is complete, but crushed. 

 Nesti mentions that he had seen another foetal cranium in the pos- 

 session of Count Bardi. 



2. Another very young cranial fragment, comprising both max- 

 illaries, palate, milk-molars on either side, and the lower jaw de- 

 tached, in fine preservation. 



3. The cranium C of Nesti's descriptionf, and represented re- 



* The Grand Dukes of Tuscany long evinced the enlightened spirit of 

 patronage of science and the liberal arts which was bequeathed to them by 

 the illustrious Medici. But art-worship, and reverence of the relics of Galileo, 

 have cast some branches of inquiry into the cold shade of disregard. The 

 Grand Ducal Museum at Florence contains a collection of Mammalian remains 

 from the pliocene deposits of the Val d'Arno, unrivalled in Europe both for 

 their abundance and for the perfect condition in which they are preserved. 

 Elsewhere palasontologists are compelled to grope their way by the faint light 

 of mutilated speoimens ; there the fossil remains of the same forms are presented 

 entire. A good monograph, liberally illustrated, upon the fossil Mammalia of 

 the Val d'Arno would reflect as bright a lustre on the Italian diadem, as 

 do the chefs-d'ceuvre of the Tribune or the Galleries of the Palazzo Pitti. The 

 patronage of the Com-t has been for centuries bestowed upon the wax 

 models of the Museum, but withheld from the magnificent fossil remains that are 

 laid out under the same roof. Except a few and inadequate memoirs by Nesti, 

 nothing worthy of the subject has been brought out in Italy upon these Tuscan 

 collections diiring the last half century ; and it is not overstating the fact to say 

 that the progress of research on the extinct faunas of the Upper Tertiary forma- 

 tion in Europe has been retarded a quarter of a century in consequence. Had 

 these collections been yielded either by Siberia or by the northern jjart of the • 

 valley of the Po, the general results would have been familiar knowledge long 

 ago. At present, a journey to Florence is the only means of becoming ac- 

 quainted with them. 



t Lettere sopra alcune ossa fossili del Valdarno non per anco descritte sulla 

 nuova specie de Elefante {E. meridionalis) fossile del Valdarno. Pisa, 1825, 26. 



