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BRITISH FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 



A humerus, No. 23,151 in the British Museum, purchased from the late Mr. Ball, is 

 from Grays. The great tuberosity has been somewhat ingeniously replaced by affixing 

 a portion of an inner condyle of another specimen ; nevertheless, with the exception of 

 loss of substance at the distal extremity its entire length is seemingly preserved, and is 

 41 inches. The scapular articulation is 13*5 inches in the antero-posterior diameter 

 by 10 - 5 inches transversely; the girth mid-shaft is 22*5 inches. 



Seeing that E. meridionalis has not been identified from the beds at Grays, where 

 molars of E. antiquus are abundant, and in consideration of this bone being altogether 

 more robust than that of the Mammoth, I am much inclined, with Mr. Davies, who 

 brought the above-named specimen to my notice, to consider it to be the humerus 

 of Elephas antiquus. 



The three stupendous arm-bones referred by Falconer to Elephas meridionalis 1 

 deserve a few remarks ; two are from the Pre-glacial Deposits of Norfolk, and the other 

 is in the museum of Florence. I am indebted to Mr. Gunn for the following measure- 

 ments of the two former, one of which belongs to his own collection, whilst the other, 

 from Cromer, was presented to the Norwich Museum by Miss A. Gurney. Professor 

 Owen refers to the latter, 3 and also other large humeri from the bottom of the German 

 Ocean. The length of the larger of the two from the Mundesley Pre-glacial beds is 

 51 inches, whilst that from Cromer is an inch less. The middle girth, however, of the 

 shaft in the latter exceeds that of the other by three inches, and there is a difference of 

 as much as four and a half inches at the least circumference or termination of the 

 deltoid ridge in favour of the Cromer humerus, which is altogether stouter in proportion 

 and may have belonged to Elephas antiquus, whilst that from Mundesley may have 

 appertained to the Elephas meridionalis. This, however, is mere conjecture, inasmuch 

 as there appears to be loss of substance of the external layers of the shafts in both cases. 



The entire humerus referred to E. Naniadicus gives a length of 47 inches. 3 The 

 proximal fragment, No. 3G,700, B. M., shows an open bicipital grove which is 3 inches 

 in breadth. The scapular head is 15 X 9 inches, and the entire girth of the proximal 

 extremity is 45 inches. 4 



An enormous left humerus was discovered in 1866 in a gravel pit at Montreuil, near 

 Paris. 5 The supinator ridge and portion of the proximal extremity are wanting, but the 

 length is preserved and gives the enormous dimension of 1*35 m., or about 53 inches ! 

 A cast of this arm-bone is in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. 



I will refer to the third metacarpal found in the same situation with the above. 

 The humerus in question exceeds any of the foregoing, and, considering that molars of 

 E. antiquus were found in the same pit, the probability is that it belonged to this 

 species. 



1 'Pal. Mem.,' vol. ii, p. 143. 4 ' F. A. S.,' pi. xlviii, fig. 1. 



2 ' British Fossil Mammals,' p. 251. 5 Belgrand, 'Basin de Paris,' p. 176, pi. xiv. 



3 ' Pal. Mem.,' vol. i, pp. 480 and 496. 



