82 BRITISH POSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



in quantity in much-worn last true molars, occupying often, as in the mandible (PI. VIII, 

 fig. 3), a considerable space between the enamelled ridges and socket, so as to keep 

 the tooth steady, as it has no successor and must carry on the mastication to the death 

 of the animal. 



1. INCISORS. 



There is no record, as far as I know, of the discovery of the Milk Incisor of the 

 Mammoth. It may, as occasionally obtains in the recent species, have been diminutive 

 and often deformed, and was shed very early to make room for the ponderous per- 

 manent tusk. 



The slight divergence in the alveoli, from the root to the margins of the pre-maxillary, 

 will be noticed with the cranium. 



The direction of the tusk on leaving the jaw is, as in the Asiatic and African Ele- 

 phants, downwards, outwards, and finally upwards, with the tips directed inwards, 

 presenting a strange contrast to that of U. ganesa, where the tusks may be said to con- 

 verge in their sockets, then become parallel to near the tips which curve oidiuards} 

 The tips, therefore, of the tusks of the Mammoth curve inwards like in the recent species, 

 as demonstrated by Mr. Davies, in the Ilford cranium, Plate VI, fig. la ; indeed, to his 

 careful manipulation at the exhumation is owing the preservation of this precious relic, 

 which is the only cranium of the Mammoth anyways entire, hitherto recovered from 

 the Pleistocene deposits of the British Isles.^ 



The direction of the tusk, although generally spiral, especially in old males, appears 

 to have constantly assumed various degrees of curvature, from almost a perfect straight 

 defensor to nearly a complete circle. Sometimes it was remarkably slender. It was 

 doubtless present in both sexes, the smaller and more attenuated being likely that of the 

 female. 



The contrast between the incisor and the cranium, as represented in PL VI, fig. 1 a, 

 is remarkable, and shows their disproportionate dimensions. Although the generality 

 of tusks from the Arctic Regions exceed in size the majority met with in the 

 British Isles and Europe, at the same time, comparisons between the former and the 

 latter, as presented by the collection in the British Museum and elsewhere, show 

 instances from British strata of the tusk attaining to as large a size as any from Siberia, 

 or Boreal North America. This is well shown by a colossal specimen in the last-named 

 collection, found with the huge last molar, PI. IX, fig. 2, at Penny Stratford near 

 SrALDiNG in Lincolnshire, and which will be referred to in the sequel. 



The measurements of tusks are unimportant ; besides, few specimens are perfectly 

 entire. The disposition towards a spiral direction is decidedly more evident in the 



1 See 'Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis,' pi. xxiii. This magnificent specimen is placed behind the 

 Ilford cranium of the Mammoth in the British Museum to show their cranial contrasts, 



2 ' Geol. Mag.,' vol. ii, p. 239, and Mr. Woodward's description, vol. i, p. 244, and vol. v, p. 540. 



