FALCONER MASTODON AND ELEPHANT. 295 



In it the incisive sheaths are long, and, if not parallel, they are but 

 slightly divergent, although more dilated than in the Mammoth. 



a. Lateral aspect. — When the head is rested on the plane of the 

 molars, and regarded sidewise, the following points are observable :— 



1. The short extent and concave arc of the surface between the 

 vertex and the point of the nasal bones. In E.primigenius the brow 

 is also concave ;. but the curve is gentle and distributed over a long 

 surface, whereas in E. meridionalis it is shorter and more pronounced. 

 The conca^-ity is much greater than is represented in fig. 19 of 

 pi. 44, copied from Nesti's side-view of cranium no. 3 of the list, 

 and it is still more pronounced in cranium no. 4, in which it ap- 

 proaches the concave arc presented by E. (Euelephas) Hysudrkus 

 (fig. 20 A of pi. 45). The upper occipital plane, as defined by the 

 outHne of the occipital bosses, meets the frontal plane nearly at a 

 right angle, while the lower occipital plane joins on with the former 

 at an open angle, somewhat resembling the profile-view of the skull 

 of E. Africanus (fig. 17, pi. 44), 



2. According to Nesti, the plane of the zygomatic arch is inclined 

 to that of the molars at an angle of about 35°, while the two planes 

 are nearly parallel in E. primigenius. In E. meridionalis they are 

 also more elongated. 



3. The antero-posterior extent of the temporal fossa, in relation 

 to its vertical height, increases progressively from E. primigenius 

 through E. Indimis to E. Africanus, being round in the latter and 

 oval in the Indian Elephant. In E. meridionalis the temporal fossa 

 has a large antero-posterior expanse. According to Nesti, the pro- 

 portions of length to height are in the Indian Elephant as 37 : 44, 

 while in E. meridionalis they are as 16 : 17. The difference is stiU 

 greater when the latter is compared with E. primigenius. 



4. Corresponding with these proportions, the distance from the 

 auditory meatus to the nasal border is greater, and from the same 

 point to the vertex less, in E. meridionalis than in the Mammoth. 



5. The incisive alveoli form elongated massive cylinders corre- 

 sponding with the huge diameters of the tusks, but instead of form- 

 ing an angle with the frontal plane, as in E. primigenius, they are 

 produced in the same plane, or with a little outward obliquity, in E. 

 lyieridionalis. 



fi. Occipital aspect. — The occipital face is chiefly remarkable for two 

 enormous bosses stretching from a little way above the condyles up 

 to the vertex, and leaving between them a long and deep depression 

 for the attachment of the ligamentum nuchas and muscles of the neck. 

 These bosses are continued on either side into the protuberant arches 

 of the parietals, that bound the temporal fossce towards the vertex. 

 Nesti describes them as " grassi tetraedri," with parallel faces where 

 separated by the fossa, and as pointed towards the condyles. He 

 regarded the spacious deep fossa as a distinctive mark from E. pri- 

 migenius. But Breyne, in his excellent description of Mcsser Schmidt's 

 craniiim of the Mammoth*, expressly states that there is "a peculiar 

 and very remarkable sinus of the occipital bone, deeper than an 

 * Phil. Trans, vol. xliv. for 1737-38, p. 133. 



