82 
BRITISH FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 
in quantity in much-worn last true molars, occupying often, as in the mandible (PI. VIII, 
fig. 3), a considerable space between the enamelled ridges and socket, so as to keep 
the tooth steady, as it has no successor and must carry on the mastication to the death 
of the animal. 
1. INCISORS. 
There is no record, as far as I know, of the discovery of the Milk Incisor of the 
Mammoth. It may, as occasionally obtains in the recent species, have been diminutive 
and often deformed, and was shed very early to make room for the ponderous per¬ 
manent tusk. 
The slight divergence in the alveoli, from the root to the margins of the pre-maxillary, 
will be noticed with the cranium. 
The direction of the tusk on leaving the jaw is, as in the Asiatic and African Ele¬ 
phants, downwards, outwards, and finally upwards, with the tips directed inwards , 
presenting a strange contrast to that of K ganesa, where the tusks may be said to con¬ 
verge in their sockets, then become parallel to near the tips which curve outwards } 
The tips, therefore, of the tusks of the Mammoth curve inwards like in the recent species, 
as demonstrated by Mr. Davies, in the Ilford cranium, Plate VI, fig. la ; indeed, to his 
careful manipulation at the exhumation is owing the preservation of this precious relic, 
which is the only cranium of the Mammoth anyways entire, hitherto recovered from 
the Pleistocene deposits of the British Isles. 2 
The direction of the tusk, although generally spiral, especially in old males, appears 
to have constantly assumed various degrees of curvature, from almost a perfect straight 
defensor to nearly a complete circle. Sometimes it was remarkably slender. It was 
doubtless present in both sexes, the smaller and more attenuated being likely that of the 
female. 
The contrast between the incisor and the cranium, as represented in PI. VI, fig. 1 a , 
is remarkable, and shows their disproportionate dimensions. Although the generality 
of tusks from the Arctic Regions exceed in size the majority met with in the 
British Isles and Europe, at the same time, comparisons between the former and the 
latter, as presented by the collection in the British Museum and elsewhere, show 
instances from British strata of the tusk attaining to as large a size as any from Siberia, 
or Boreal North America. This is well shown by a colossal specimen in the last-named 
collection, found with the huge last molar, PI. IX, fig. 2, at Fenny Stratford near 
SrALDiNG in Lincolnshire, and which will be referred to in the sequel. 
The measurements of tusks are unimportant; besides, few specimens are perfectly 
entire. The disposition towards a spiral direction is decidedly more evident in the 
1 See ‘ Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis,’ pi. xxiii. This magnificent specimen is placed behind the 
Ilford cranium of the Mammoth in the British Museum to show their cranial contrasts. 
2 ‘ Geol. Mag.,’ vol. ii, p. 239, and Mr. Woodward’s description, vol. i, p. 244, and vol. v, p. 540. 
