8 
BRITISH FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 
African and Maltese forms, 1 it was tipped with enamel or not remains to be shown. 
Indeed, the permanent tusk has yet to be identified, and this is the more remarkable 
considering the quantities of its grinders which are constantly discovered in British and 
European deposits. Professor Boyd Dawkins 2 and Mr. Davies 3 are disposed to believe 
that it was nearly straight; the latter describes a long tusk four feet two inches in length 
from Ilford, and I have seen a similar straight or nearly straight tusk from Walton in 
Essex, in the University Museum, Oxford; but considering how plentiful are the incisors 
of the Mammoth and the enormous quantities dredged up or exposed by the sea on our 
eastern coasts, it appears strange withal that only one description of tusk should turn 
up, that is, supposing the defensor of the Elcphas antiquus differed very much in contour 
from that of the E. primigenius. The degree of curvature evidently varied in the latter, 
and no doubt as occasionally happens in the recent species, now and then an abnormality in 
the degree of curvature took place which would include probably the instances above men¬ 
tioned. Moreover, the dimensions of full-grown incisors seem to vary considerably in 
what appear undoubted tusks of the Mammoth, ancl occasionally there are instances of much 
arcuation in defensors of the recent Elephants. There is a pair of tusks, No. 2753, in the 
Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England of the Asiatic Elephant, 
fully as much curved as the usual tusk of the Mammoth, and I have seen similar examples 
of the African Elephant’s incisor, whilst perfectly straight specimens are also not rare. 
The enormous tusk from the pre-glacial deposits of the Norfolk coast in the Gunn 
Collection, Norwich Museum, has been considered by Falconer on account of its size and 
slight curvature to have belonged to E. meridionalis, the defensor of which, judging from 
the entire specimens in place in a skull at Florence, did not differ as regards contour 
from the generality in living elephants. 
Dr. Falconer also refers to a tusk of E. antiquus eight feet in length from Bracklesham 
Bay, along with other remains of the same animal in the Chichester Museum. I find, 
however, that the latter specimen is broken in three places and otherwise considerably 
injured, so that its original contour cannot be determined with accuracy; but, judging from 
the fragments, I am informed by the curator Mr. Hayden that the degree of curvature 
does not appear to exceed that of the living species. Dr. Falconer also alludes to a tusk 
“ seven feet long and rounded in section ” in the museum at Syracuse, 4 but gives no 
further details with reference to its configuration. 
In the Maltese fossil Elephants generally and in the largest form Elcphas Mnaidriensis, 
with which and E. antiquus there is a very close dental and osteological assimilation, the 
permanent incisor partook of the configuration of the recent species. 5 
1 Author, ‘Transactions of the Zoological Society, London,’ vol. ix, p. 8; and Falconer, idem, vol. vi, 
p. 284. 
2 Vol. xviii, Palaeontographical Society, issued for the year 1864, ‘Pleistocene Mammalia,’ p. 35 
(Introduction). 
3 ‘ Catalogue of the Pleistocene Vertebrata from Ilford,’ p. 28. 
4 ‘Pal. Mem.,’vol. ii, p. 188. 5 ‘Trans. Zool. Society of London,’ vol. ix, p. 9. 
