ON THE FOSSIL BONES OF THE ELEPHANT. 303 



Since my first edition, I have had an opportunity of observing the 

 same characters in a fossil skull in its natural state, at Florence. It is 

 that mentioned by Mesny, which, after having belonged to the late 

 Fontana, is at present in the possession of the Count Valsamachi of 

 Cephalonia. I have given figures of it at one eighth of its natural 

 size, plate 15, tigs. 1 and 2. 



Although the entire neck and sutures are wanting, the articulations, 

 and 'their correspondence in size and position with the upper jaw, are 

 plainly discernible, and a correct estimate of their great length may be 

 formed. 



More recently still, I have found these long articulating surfaces in a 

 skull found on the banks of the Wolga, engraved by M. Tilesius, a 

 copy of which is given at plate 15, fig. 7. 



True it is that this character is not discoverable in the great skeleton 

 of Mr, Adams ; but Tilesius states in positive terms, that the inhabit- 

 ants of Tongousa had disfigured the edges of the sockets, in tearing out 

 the tusks; and that, in addition to this, Mr. Adams had levelled the 

 edges in his attempt to replace them *. 



Neither does the skull found in the Necker, near Manheim, which i 

 have before mentioned on the authority of Keissler and Merk, and 

 which I have copied, plate 15, fig. 12, afford us sufficient grounds for 

 judging of the length of the sockets, as their edges appear to have 

 been much mutilated ; but as this skull is only known through the 

 medium of a bad engraving, no available conclusion can be drawn 

 from it. 



A difference which is grounded upon specimens more numerous than 

 those of the sockets, and which likewise agree with those of the jaw, 

 is the parcllalism of the molares. — - 



M. Ja;ger has most positively assured me of this, in reference to a 

 portion of the skull belonging to the Cabinet of Stuttgart, the engra- 

 ving of which may be seen at plate 10, fig. 4. Another portion, en- 

 graved by Peter Camper, exhibits a character almost precisely simi- 

 lar f. I have caused a copy of his figure to be taken (plate 10, fig. 3), 

 and I have placed beside it (figs. 1 and 2), those of the skulls of India 

 and Africa viewed from above, in order the better to exhibit the 

 much more strongly marked convergence of the molares in front. 



The base of the skull of M. de Valsamachi, which I give, plate 15, fig. 

 2, presents an almost equal parallelism. It is true that in the skull of 

 Manheim, the molares appear to approach each other towards the front ; 

 but I have already had occasion to remark, that the figure is too inac- 

 curate to be made use of as an authority. 



We have in our Museum a portion of the occiput and temporal of a 

 fossil elephant, brought from Siberia by the astronomer, Delisle (Dau- 

 benton's Natural History, vol. xi. No. dcdlxxxviii.), which hasgivenme 

 an opportunity of comparing those parts with greater exactness than 

 the others, of which I had nothing more than drawings; but I could only 

 find a few unimportant differences in them. I have, nevertheless, given 



Memoirs of the Academy of Petersburgh, vol. v, 1815, p. 511. 

 -f- Memoirs of Haarlem, plate 23. 



