THE PROBOSCIDEA. 36ib 



3aiit long hair, and an undercoat of wool, in at least one 

 extinct Proboscidean, the Mammoth {Elephas primigenms), 

 which ranged over Northern Europe and Asia during the gla- 

 cial epoch. The pinna of the ear is large and flat. The testes 

 of the male remain in the abdomen, and the mammse of the 

 female are placed between the fore-limbs. 



The dorso-lumbar vertebras amount to as many as twenty- 

 three, and not more than three of these are lumbar, so that the 

 dorsal region is, proportionally, exceedingly long. There are 

 four sacral vertebra, followed by a comparatively short tail. The 

 centra of the vertebrae are far more flattened, from before 

 backward, than those of any other terrestrial mammal, and 

 this is particularly the case in the cervical region, whence it 

 follows that the neck is extremely short. 



The skull is enormous, even in proportion to the body, its 

 size arising, in great measure, from the development of air cav- 

 ities in the diploe. The interspace between the inner and the 

 outer tables of the skull is often, in an old elephant, consider- 

 ably greater than the diameter of the cerebral cavity itself. 

 The cranial cavity is elongated and subcylindrical. The supra- 

 occipital rises far upon the roof of the skull, so that the pari- 

 etals are much narrower at the sagittal suture than elsewhere. 

 The premaxillae are very large, and the nasal bones short, the 

 nasal passages being nearl}' vertical. The jugal bone forms 

 only the middle part of the jugal arcade. The rami of the 

 mandible have a high perpendicular portion, and they are 

 largely anchylosed at the symphysis, which is produced into a 

 sort of spout. 



The acromion of the scapula has a recurved process, such 

 as is frequently found in the Rodents, to which order the Pro- 

 boscidea present many curious approximations. There are 

 no clavicles. In the antebrachium, the radius is permanently 

 fixed (though not anchylosed) in the prone position, crossing 

 the ulna obliquely. The carpal and metacarpal bones, and 

 the phalanges, are remarkable for their short and thick form, 

 and the manus is larger than the pes. 



The ilia are immensely expanded transversely. The femur, 

 which is not connected by any round ligament to the acetabu- 

 lum, is relatively long and slender ; and, when the animal is 

 at rest, is directed perpendicularly to the axis of the trunk, 

 not bent up, so as to form an acute angle with that axis, as it 

 is in ordinary quadrupeds. The ham consequently occupies 

 the middle of the length of the hiiid-leg ; the flexion of which, 

 at this point, when the animal walks, gives an elephant a gait 



