330 PBOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



The length, of the crown in this specimen is considerably less than 

 in the first Darmstadt specimen above cited ; but the difference is 

 partly owing to the circumstance that it is in a more advanced 

 stage of wear, involving necessarily a reduction in length. 



I have seen no authentic specimen of an upper penultimate of the 

 Mammoth presenting more than sixteen or seventeen ridges. That 

 exceptional cases do occur, in which as many as eighteen may be 

 seen, is not improbable ; but I believe that, as holds in the existing 

 Indian species, the prevailing and normal number is sixteen. De 

 Blainville (Osteographie : " Des Elephants," p. 195) describes as a 

 penultimate upper the cast of a molar in the collection of M. Duhamel 

 de Namvilliers, of which the crown presents not more than fourteen 

 colliues ; but he adds that the tooth is unusually short, and that 

 the ridges are thick. It is therefore very questionable whether the 

 rank which he has assigned to it as a penultimate is correct, even 

 if the molar belongs to the species. Many of the specimens in the 

 Palaeontological Gallery at Paris, Avhich M. de Blainville has referred 

 to the Mammoth, have been identified by me as belonging to Elephas 

 antiquus and to E. (Loxod?) meridionaJis. 



Professor 0"n'en has given a very beautiful representation of an 

 upper molar of a Mammoth from the Essex Till in figs. 91 and 92 

 of the 'British Eossil Mammalia' (p. 237), including both crown 

 and side aspects. It is not specially described in that work ; but in 

 the "Odontography" he states (p. 666) that the fifth (or penulti- 

 mate), ranging in length of crown from eight to eleven inches, is 

 composed of from sixteen to twenty-four plates ; and he refers to 

 the figures above cited as illustrations of a penultimate upper of a 

 Mammoth showing as many as twenty-four plates. The specimen, 

 judging from the figures, is of an old molar in an advanced stage of 

 wear ; and the posterior ridges, although of less height than is usually 

 seen in the penultimate, are comparatively high for a last upper 

 molar of the Mammoth as that tooth is commonly met with ; but 

 the excessive number of the ridges is, in my view, conclusive against 

 its being a " fifth," and equally so in favour of its being a last true 

 molar deviating somewhat from the common form. De Blainville 

 has figured in the ' Oste'ographie' (tab. 8. fig. 6) a last upper molar 

 of a Mammoth, from the Canal de rOurcq, in a more advanced stage 

 of wear, which, allowing for this circumstance, does not differ much 

 in form from the tooth figured ii] the ' British Eossil Mammaha.' 



The last true molar, upper, of E. primigenius is subject to the 

 same variation in the number of ridges as the corresponding- 

 tooth of the existing Indian species. They range from twenty-two 

 to twenty-six, the prevailing number being about twenty-four. 

 These teeth difler also very remarkably in size in different indi- 

 viduals ; but the largest specimens have not necessarily the greatest 

 number of ridges, the reverse being frequently seen. The tooth in 

 outline resembles that of the Indian Elephant, being triangular, 

 very high in front and low behind, where the last ridges gradually 

 fall off into an angular termination ; while in the antepenultimate 

 and penultimate they are usually sufliciently high behind to com- 



