THE CRANIUM. 15 



The last portion is separated by a ridge from the swell of the premaxillary, 

 by which ridge the buccal boundary is distinguished. The palatine fossa 

 is remarkably narrow in the elephantine family. 



The excavation of this fossa is generally very slight, not so great as 

 in man or the elephant. It has three pairs of orifices for vessels and 

 nerves. 



On the inner and outer sides of the teeth are the alveolar ridges, sharp 

 at their termination, soon becoming thick and strong. On the outside 

 of the alveoli is a depression in the superior maxillary bone, bounded 

 superiorly by the great infra-orbitar foramen. In front of the teeth are 

 the rounded anterior extremities of the sockets of the tusks, which are much 

 thinner here than at the superior part of the tusk-cavity. The anterior 

 opening of this cavity is eight inches in diameter. This opening is formed 

 entirely by the premaxillary bone. 



A particular description of the tusks of the upper and lower jaws will 

 be found in a separate section. 



Posterior Face (Plate XIX.). — The posterior face of the cranium is Posterior 



Face. 



nearly vertical, and composed by the occipital bone. It has generally a 

 flattened form, rendered irregular by various eminences. These are, 1st, 

 a vertical crest, eight inches long by three and a quarter high, perforated 

 at its base by a number of irregular holes; 2d, the projections of the 

 occipital condyles ; M, many irregularities, which occupy the whole surface 

 of the bone, but are particularly distinct below the superior ridge, some of 

 them even being prolonged into remarkable processes, destined, no doubt, 

 to give a stronger attachment to the muscles. There is also, on each side 

 of this vertical crest, a deep depression, about eight inches long by three 

 wide, for an attachment to the great ligament which supports the head. 



