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BRITISH FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



African and Maltese forms, 1 it was tipped with enamel or not remains to be shown^ 

 Indeed, the permanent tusk has yet to be identified, and this is the more remarkable 

 considering the quantities of its grinders which are constantly discovered in British and 

 European deposits. Professor Boyd Dawkins 2 and Mr. Davies 3 are disposed to believe 

 that it was nearly straight ; the latter describes a long tusk four feet two inches in length 

 from Ilford, and I have seen a similar straight or nearly straight tusk from Walton in 

 Essex, in the University Museum, Oxford ; but considering how plentiful are the incisors- 

 of the Mammoth and the enormous quantities dredged up or exposed by the sea on our 

 eastern coasts, it appears strange withal that only one description of tusk should turn 

 up, that is, supposing the defensor of the Elephas antiquus differed very much in contour 

 from that of the E. primigenius. The degree of curvature evidently varied in the latter, 

 and no doubt as occasionally happens in the recent species, now and then an abnormality in 

 the degree of curvature took place which would include probably the instances above men- 

 tioned. Moreover, the dimensions of full-grown incisors seem to vary considerably in 

 what appear undoubted tusks of the Mammoth, and occasionally there are instances of much 

 arcuation in defensors of the recent Elephants. There is a pair of tusks, No. 2753, in the 

 Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England of the Asiatic Elephant, 

 fully as much curved as the usual tusk of the Mammoth, and I have seen similar examples 

 of the African Elephant's incisor, whilst perfectly straight specimens are also not rare. 



The enormous tusk from the pre-glacial deposits of the Norfolk coast in the Gunn 

 Collection, Norwich Museum, has been considered by Ealconcr on account of its size and 

 slight curvature to have belonged to E. meridionalis, the defensor of which, judging from 

 the entire specimens in place in a skull at Florence, did not differ as regards contour 

 from the generality in living elephants. 



Dr. Falconer also refers to a tusk of E. antiquus eight feet in length from Bracklesham 

 Bay, along with other remains of the same animal in the Chichester Museum. I find, 

 however, that the latter specimen is broken in three places and otherwise considerably 

 injured, so that its original contour cannot be determined with accuracy ; but, judging from 

 the fragments, I am informed by the curator Mr. Hayden that the degree of curvature 

 does not appear to exceed that of the living species. Dr. Falconer also alludes to a tusk 

 " seven feet long and rounded in section " in the museum at Syracuse, 4 but gives no 

 further details with reference to its configuration. 



In the Maltese fossil Elephants generally and in the largest form Elephas Mnaidricnsis, 

 with which and E. antiquus there is a very close dental and osteological assimilation, the 

 permanent incisor partook of the configuration of the recent species. 5 



1 Author, ' Transactions of the Zoological Society, London,' vol. ix, p. 8 ; and Falconer, idem, vol. vi, 

 p. 284. 



2 Vol. xviii, Palaeontographical Society, issued for the year 1864, 'Pleistocene Mammalia,' p. 35 

 (Introduction). 



3 ' Catalogue of the Pleistocene Vertebrata from Ilford,' p. 28. 



4 'Pal. Mem.,' vol. ii, p. 188. 5 'Trans. Zool. Society of London,' vol. ix, p. 9. 



