130 



BRITISH FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



supports are a good deal in the way of seeing it in the Tlford specimen, the same 

 appears to me to be slightly indicated in the latter also (PI. VI) .^ In neither, however, 

 does it appear so pronounced as to produce a decided inflection of the premaxillaries. 

 Nothing, however, of the kind seems present in numerous skulls of the two recent 

 species examined by me. In E. meridionalis, Falconer states that the alveoli " are pro- 

 duced in the same plane, or with a little obliquity ;"' and E. Namadicus maintains to 

 all appearances the same character. 



The parallelism of the massive alveoli in the Mammoth is dwelt upon by Falconer as 

 characteristic, in comparison with E. meridionalis, where, instead of being parallel, " they 

 diverge from the sub-orbitary foramina on to their extremity, where the divergence 

 becomes sudden and as marked as in the African Elephant."^ Now, although the 

 divergence of the alveoli is not so pronounced as in either of the two living species, nor 

 apparently as in E. meridionalis, it is clear that the alveoli are also not parallel 

 in the Mammoth, but tend in opposite directions gradually from their commencement 

 towards the extremities of the premaxillaries, where they diverge rapidly. This disposi- 

 tion to divergence in the alveoli of the Mammoth is further seen in the accompanying 

 Woodcut, fig. 1 (i^th natural size), from Ilford. It represents the third milk stage of 

 dentition, as proven by its three molars preserved with the specimen in the Museum of 

 Practical Geology, to which I have referred at page 94. 



Fig. 1. 



Prom Ilford : Museum of Practical Geology. 



The same is seen in Plates VI and VII of the skull from the same locality. Here the 

 right alveolus has been considerably injured, but has been restored carefully by the artist 

 from the left side, which is entire. The cast of the skull from Brussels, in the Museum 



1 Compare also the Siberian cranium of the Mammoth, ' Ossemens Fossiles,' pi. xiv, fig. 2/, with that 

 of ^. meridionalis, pi. xv, fig. 1. 

 " Op. cit.,vol. ii, 125. 

 ^ Op. cit., vol. ii, p. 124. 



