46 
Records of the Geological Surrey of Lidia , 
[vol. ix. 
of S. insignis. The nasals form a downward prolongation of tho mesial frontal ridge; they 
are of great thickness, being composed of a mass of finely cancellated bony tissue, project 
i'ar over the nasal fossa, and have a somewhat quadrate free termination. The lower border 
of the frontals, forming the upper boundary of the nasal fossa, sweeps upwards in a bold 
arch on either side of the nasals: in Colonel Baker’s cranium this line of tho frontals is 
much straighter and is scarcely interrupted by the small nasals. The lower border of the 
nasal fossa slopes away evenly from either side to the median line ; at this line a deep trian¬ 
gular notch, on either side of which are the posterior processes of the premaxillro, connects 
the nasal and incisive fossie; below this notch the incisive fossa becomes suddenly very deep; 
in Colonel Baker’s cranium the inter-premaxillary notch is much shallower, and the processes 
blunter: in S. insignis the notch is almost absent, and the incisive fossa becomes gradually, 
not suddenly, deep. 
The incisive fossa is of great size and depth, its outer walls are nearly perpendicular to 
the base, and parallel to each other ; in Colonel Baker's cranium the inner walls of the 
incisive sheaths are curved, the concavity looking inwards : in S. insignis the incisive sheaths 
are very slender and diverge rapidly outwards, in a manner very different from either of the 
above. 
In a side view of the cranium, the upper boundary of the large temporal fossa is of an 
elongated ear-shape, just as in Colonel Baker’s specimen ; the cranial wall of this fossa runs 
in a plane nearly at right angles to the roof of the cranium, as far down as a line connect¬ 
ing the post-orbital pi'oeess of the frontal with the lower border of the posterior zygomatic 
root; along the line of the nervous foramina, there is an abrupt fall inwards from this 
vertical plane, to join the plane of the molar alveolus. In Colonel Baker’s specimen the 
wall of the temporal fossa begins to curve inwards very rapidly, which curve is continued 
without any break at the nervous foramina, to join the plane of the molar alveolus. In 
Stegodon insignis the temporal fossa is curved autero-posteriorlv, as well as from above down¬ 
wards, differing very markedly from either of the above forms. 
The walls of the temporal fossa, in this and in all other specimens of Stegodon ganesa 
that I have seen, are straight antero-posteriorly, and are placed nearly at right angles to 
the plane of the face; there is never any wedge-shaped indentation of the fossa towards 
the median line in the middle of the frontals, which renders the greater part of the walls 
of the fossa visible from the front of the skull, as always occurs iu the crania of Stegodon 
insignis, and which gives it its characteristic form. 
In the crania of all other elephants that I have seen, the course of the optic nerve, 
after emerging from its foramen, is continued outwards across the orbit, in a deep channel, 
which grooves the inferior surface of the post-orbital process of the frontal; in the present 
specimen this channel is absent, the surface of the bone being perfectly smooth; this feature 
is probably only an individual variety. 
In a front view of tile cranium, as stated above, only a very small portion of the tem¬ 
poral fossa of either side comes into the field of view; the external outline of the lower 
portion of the cranium differs in several respects from Colonel Baker’s specimen, probably 
owing to the smaller size of the tusks. The anterior zygomatic root stands out from the 
outer border of tlie incisive sheath almost at a right angle, throwing the infra-orbital fora¬ 
men entirely out of the line of the incisive fossa, while the forameu itself looks nearly 
directly forwards. In Colonel Baker’s specimen the anterior zygomatic root slopes away very 
gradually from the outer wall of the incisive sheath at an obtuse angle of nearly 120°, the 
infra-orbital foramen occupies a notch in the outer border of the incisive sheath, and looks 
considerably outwards as well as forwards. The position and form of the anterior zygo¬ 
matic root and foramen in the present specimen resemble the position of the corresponding 
