﻿1 s 



BRITISH FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



Specimens 33,387 and 33,389, B. M., are somewhat injured, but, with the above,, 

 demonstrate the typical characters of this stage of the pre-glacial specimens, which are 

 supported by a tooth in a ramus, No. ^ of the Jermyn Street Museum Collection ; it is 

 marked from the "Forest Bed," and holds xlOx in 5*5 inches. 



In the Norwich Museum and in the Collection of Mrs. Eitch there are several very 

 characteristic instances from the same formation. The lower molar, No. 304 of the 

 Gunn Collection, from the " Iron-pan Forest Bed," labelled by Dr. Falconer as having 

 held xlOx in 4*4 inches, is a good example, although not quite entire as to length; 

 whilst a rolled specimen containing x 10 x in 4"5 inches, in Mrs. Fitch's cabinet, shows a 

 seeming disposition to a crowding of the ridges and an unusual breadth of crown, such as 

 will be shown in the sequel to characterise the broad-crowned variety of the ultimate true 

 molar. 



I have before me, along with the teeth already described from Victoria Cave, a right 

 upper, possibly an ultimate milk molar, from the same situation. It is fractured perpen- 

 dicularly in two places, and one of the three portions does not unite, so that there is 

 probably a loss of one or more ridges. The tooth had just been cutting the gum, and 

 shows broad pressure marks on the cement in front and on the top of the first ridge,, 

 where it had been impinging on the tooth in front. None of the ridges are invaded. 

 The crown is broad in front and narrow posteriorly, like lower molars. The talons are very 

 rudimentary, the anterior being inconspicuous, whilst the posterior is reduced to a small 

 splint attached to the last plate. The tooth presents an unusual small ridge formula of 

 a? 8 a? in 3'G inches, but this estimate is not to be relied on for the reason just observed. 

 Looked on, however, as a molar of E. antiquus, there is the thickness of the collines, which, 

 average each as much as - 4 inch in thickness ; the narrow crown, ribbing of the enamel, 

 height of the main ridges, all favouring a belief that it belongs to this species. At all events, 

 I have not seen a tooth of the Mammoth in any ways like it ; and, considering the evidence 

 already adduced, I think the above molar, although small, may be justly referred to 

 the last of the milk series of E. antiquus. 



Another very perfect and highly characteristic left lower molar from Raygill Cave, 

 in Lothersdale, Yorkshire, has also been kindly lent to me by Mr. Tiddeman. All the 

 ridges are in wear excepting the posterior talon. The tooth is arcuated, and holds 

 xllx in 6 inches. Accompanying the above were four posterior collines of a larger 

 molar, either the second or else the ultimate true molar. It is also marked Raygill Cave, 

 and its plates show all the characters of E. antiquus. 



Foreign specimens. — The upper molar from Maccagnone cave, Palermo, figured 

 by Mr. Busk, 1 is doubtless the specimen No. 40,798 B. M., which was presented to the 

 National Collection by Charles Falconer, F.G.S., after the death of his brother. The 

 locality and position in the dental series are recorded in Dr. Falconer's handwriting on a 



' 'Trans. Zool. Soc. London,' vol. vi, pi. liii, fig. 10, and p. 301. 



