ELEPHAS MERIDIONALIS.— AXIS. 211 



The general outlines of the condyloid cups will be seen to vary in the three species. 

 They are oval in the Mammoth (fig. 1), more rounded in E. antiquus (fig. 2) externally, 

 and less circular in E. meridionalis (fig. 3) ; but the excessive height, as compared with 

 the width, so pronounced in the latter specimen, is not the case in the huge atlas from 

 Tuscany, which assimilates best in the relative dimensions of the canal and the condyloid 

 surfaces to the same parts in fig. 2 of E. antiquus ; the upper surface of the arch, however, 

 is not so flat as in the latter, and assimilates to the Clacton bone in that particular. 



Axis. 



The vertebral canal in the two recent Elephants differs somewhat. In the Asiatic the 

 opening is larger in the vertical, as compared with the transverse diameter, than in the 

 African. In these respects the Mammoth (PI. XVII, fig. G) agrees with the former, whilst 

 that of E. meridionalis (fig. 4) is decidedly like that of the latter. Unfortunately the axis 

 of E. antiquus (fig. 5) has lost the greater portion of the arch, but it seems to have been 

 very broad, like that of the two last-named species ; its anterior articular surfaces are 

 subtriangular, and outer margins projecting with the odontoid process excentral and 

 close to the dorsal border of the centrum. 



The huge axis, No. 27,872, B. M. (fig. 4), like the atlas (fig. 3), was dredged off 

 Clacton, Essex, and, as far as the articulating surfaces are concerned, might have 

 belonged to the same individual. 1 



Several of the other cervical vertebrae in the Norwich Museum, and in Mr. R. Johnson's 

 Collection from the Norfolk coast, indicate the enormous dimensions of the animals. 

 They show, however, no diagnostic characters as compared with other species. 



An enormous and nearly entire bone, possibly the third cervical, in Mr. R. Johnson's 

 Collection, affords the following measurements : 



Entire height 8 inches. 



Height of centrum 55 X 85 inches. 



Breadth of circular neural canal 5' inches. 



Thickness of the centrum 4" inches. 



Another, possibly also a third cervical, has a centrum 7'5x8*5 inches in breadth, 

 and is 3*4 inches in thickness. 



3. DORSO-LUMBAR VERTEBRA. 



As far as the other bones of the spinal column are concerned, there is not much to 

 observe of importance beyond size. 



1 Nesti, ' Nuov. Giorn. de Liter.,' No. 24, p. 194, gives the dimensions of an axis from the 

 Val d'Arno as follows: — Height 0325; breadth of centrum 0'268 ; anterior articular facet 0162 x 

 0-107 metre. 



