12 DESCRIPTION OF THE SKELETON. 



line, form a bridge at its inferior anterior part ; thus giving strength to that 

 part of the cavity which receives and supports the internal extremities of 

 the tusks. The floor of the nasal orifice on each side of the median line 

 forms the roof of that portion of the alveolus which lodges the base of the 

 tusk. Hence the tusks, if driven through their sockets, would apparently 

 pass into the cavity of the nostrils. Below this premaxillary bridge is a 

 fossa two inches deep, which is the beginning of the great premaxillary 

 fossa. This, commencing at the lower edge of the cavity just described, 

 expands till it becomes thirteen inches wide at its middle ; and, then nar- 

 rowing, is, at its termination at the anterior edge of the mouth, nine inches. 

 The outside of the premaxillary bone is rounded to correspond with the 

 cavity for the tusks. Its anterior edge, which terminates the superior face 

 of the head, is very thick and rough, and is divided in the median line 

 by a fissure or gap between the anterior extremities of the premaxillary 

 bones. 



The sutures of the superior region are not visible on the cranium, but 

 are seen on the face ; especially the premaxillary, and those between the 

 maxillary and premaxillary bones. The length of the superior face, from 

 the vertex to the anterior edge of the premaxillary bones, is forty-eight 

 inches; and the width across from one superior orbitar process to the 

 other, twenty-eight inches. 

 inferior Inferior Face (Plate XVIII.). — It is bounded posteriorly by the 



occipital foramen, occipital condyles, and a ridge extending from the con- 

 dyles to the external auditory foramen. These form a strongly marked 

 boundary between the posterior and the inferior face, as the occipital ridge 

 does between the posterior and the superior. Anteriorly, the inferior face 

 is bounded by the maxillary and premaxillary bones. At the posterior 



Face. 



