128 BRITISH FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



Cranial contour. — Conjointly these foregoing characters are fairly distinctive of the 

 Mammoth (PI. VI, figs. 1 and 1 «), and broadly so as compared with the short-crowned 

 Elephants, such as the African species, and seemingly E. meridionalis, an entire skull of 

 MepJias antiquus not being known ; but the crania of certain Sewalik Proboscidea, to wit, 

 E. planifrons (African -like ?), E. insignis, E. bovibifrons, as far as their fossil remains permit 

 one to judge, were very different from the long-crowned Mammoth and Asiatic Elephant, 

 to which E. Ilysudricus^ with its distorted {? deformed) forehead, might be added. 

 Consequent on these short and long cranial vaults the length from the vertex to the 

 extremities of the premaxillaries, as compared with the breadth of the forehead at the 

 post-orbital processes, varies considerably, Cuvier estimated the measurements in the two 

 recent species as 5 to 3 in the Asiatic, and 3 to 2 in the African, and these appear to me 

 from various measurements to be pretty general. The skull of the Mammoth agrees 

 with the former, whilst according to Falconer and Nesti, that of E. meridionalis seems to 

 come closer to the latter. No skull of E. antiquus being, as far as I know, yet described, 

 we can only make comparisons with its very close Eastern representative, E. Namadicus. 

 Supposing the extraordinary frontal rim of its calvarium in the British Museum^ was 

 absolutely of the character and extent shown in the specimen, and not the result of 

 pressure or injuries after death, there never would be nmch likelihood of confounding it 

 with the above, or in fact any other known proboscidean. 



The configuration of the vertex and degrees of depression, flatness, and convexity of 

 the forehead seem to differ widely in different species of Elephant. 



The vertex in the Mammoth rises high, like that of the Asiatic Elephant, but it is 

 decidedly narrower, and the pronounced depression in the recent species is not apparently 

 so deep in the Mammoth. This is well seen in PI. VII, figs. 1 and 1 a, and also in a cast 

 of a nearly entire cranium from Brussels, in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, 

 London." In E. meridionalis, according to Nesti, and as stated by Falconer, the posterior 

 border of the vertex is transverse, the occipital fossa, of which the depression is the upper 

 termination, being over-reached by a produced fold of the vertex.^ The so-called " bonnet- 

 shaped summit " of the cranium of E. Namadicus just noticed is still more peculiar, whilst 

 the broad circular crown of the African distinguishes it from any of the foregoing, and 

 assimilates its characters rather with E. planifrons and E. bombifrons. 



Frontal depression. — The Mammoth's skull presents a shght depression or concavity 

 of the forehead, with a small prominence above it. This is very evident in the Brussels 

 skull, and although the part is somewhat injured in that from Ilford (PI. VII, fig. 1) it 



1 ' Fauna Antiqua Sival.,' pis. 12 b and 24 a. 



2 A well-preserved cranium of the Mammoth is very rare considering the enormous quantities of its 

 teeth and bones discovered throughout Europe. Dr. Falconer (18G5) knew of only one entire specimen 

 out of Russia. Besides that, two nearly entire skeletons in the Iloyal Museum of Brussels, a skull of which 

 is here referred to, and the Ilford cranium, pis. VI and VII, are the only instances known to me. 



3 ' Pal. Mem.,' vol. ii, p. 122. 



