138 



BRITISH FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



usually two good-sized internal foramina, which, however, may be wanting. These are 

 also present in the Asiatic, but are usually smaller and more numerous, whereas in many 

 mandibles of the African Elephant I have examined not a trace of these canals is seen. 

 They seem to be present in both E. antiquus and E. meridionalis. 



The length of the symphysis being dependent on the prominence or otherwise of the 

 chin, it will usually be longer in the long-beaked species than ordinarily in the Mammoth 

 and Asiatic Elephant. But the great width of the gutter, although very general, is not 

 an invariable character. It is well shown by the Woodcuts at p. 135, an exceptional 

 instance being seen in the jaw (fig. 6) dredged in Holyhead Harbour, as compared with 

 fig. 7 and other mandibles. 



The diasteme is nearly vertical in the majority of mandibles of the adult Mammoth 

 that have come under ray notice, but there is no uniformity in this character, and its 

 height increases from youth to mature age. It is high in E. antiquus, E. Namadicus, and 

 E. Asiaticus, and more depressed in E. Africanus, E. planifrons, and E. meridionalis} 

 In the last named " it slips gradually into the beak, making a longer symphysis and 

 spout."" The diasteme appears, therefore, like the rostrum, to be subject to variation in 

 the degree of inclination in the adult Mammoth, but upon the whole it is more erect in it 

 than in either of the recent, and in any jaws of extinct species hitherto recorded. The 

 following woodcuts represent this character in various specimens and species. 



Fig, 19. 



Fig. 20. 



Fig. 21. 



E. pi-imigenius, Arctic. (British 

 Museum Collection, No. 61 a.) 



E. primigenius. Harbour Holy- 

 head. (British Museum Col- 

 lection, No. 38,.')67.) 



E. primigenius, Dogger Batik. 



(British Museum Collection, 



No. 46,215.) 



^ The dip of the diasteme in this species, although low as compared with the Mammoth, is not always 

 so, as Woodcut fig. 28 shows, while a still higher angle is displayed in the ramus from the Forest Bed 

 lately mentioned, to which further reference will be made in my Monograph on E. meridionalis. 



" 'Pal. Mem.,' vol. ii, p. 127. 



