66 
BRITISH FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 
larger, and is usually broadly distinctive as compared with the recent species. Unfor¬ 
tunately I have been unable to compare it with the same tooth of E. Namadicus. It is 
sufficiently variable, and shows considerable diversity both in the ridge formula and 
sculpturing of the disk. 
The last of the milk series being usually subject to considerable discrepancies in all 
known recent and extinct species of Elephants seems equally if not more various in its 
ridge formula and dimensions in Elephas antiquus than in any other form. Compared 
with the same tooth in the larger Maltese form and E. Namadicus , there is the closest 
affinities, and the thick-plated, narrow, and broad crowns which characterise the varieties 
of the molars of E. antiquus generally are pronounced in specimens of the ultimate milk 
tooth. 
The first true molar is equally if not more variable than the last, and it is seemingly 
subject to unusual discrepancies in Elephas antiquus both as regards dimensions and the 
number of ridges. Like the ultimate milk, it has its closest ally in the same tooth of 
the E. Namadicus and Elephas Mnaidriensis; the latter, however, is considerably 
smaller. 
The second true molar generally maintains a more equable ridge formula and more 
constant dimensions than any of the other members of the series, and this is the case to 
a certain extent in Elephas antiquus. 
In all respects it is indistinguishable from the same tooth in E. Namadicus, and 
agrees in general features with the second true molar of the E. Mnaidriensis, which 
has a smaller ridge formula, as far as I have been enabled to determine, and is, of 
course, relatively a much smaller tooth ; but the crown patterns of the two are indistin¬ 
guishable, and it may be likely that second molars of E. Mnaidriensis will be found 
with a numerical expression of the colliculi equal to E. antiquus, although I have not 
met with an instance. 
The last true molar, of all others, establishes the dental characteristics of the form 
of Elephant under consideration far better than any other member of its series. The 
long narrow crown tapering to a narrow heel posteriorly, with the unusual great 
height and the well-known worn disk, has been the general accepted molar of E. 
antiquus, and, as far as these peculiarities extend, they are very characteristic; but on 
viewing a vast number of teeth, and on becoming habituated to a manipulation of 
them, one will soon perceive the divergencies before referred to, which are traceable in 
every member of the dental series. Confining my observations to collections from the 
Norfolk Forest Bed and the fluviatile deposits of the Thames Valley between Grays 
Thurrock and Oxford, I find a broad crown with closely packed ridges, faintly crimped, 
and not displaying the central expansion and angulation to the extent observed in the 
long narrow crown. This type represents the usual molar of E. Namadicus, and is seen 
in the Maltese forms, which, strange to say, present the same three varieties of crown in 
very much smaller teeth. The broad-crowned variety can be traced gradually merging into 
