ELEPHAS PRIMIGENIUS.—SPINAL AXIS. 
149 
Dorso-lumbar Vertebra. 
The first dorsal vertebra (PI. XVII, fig. 7) was dredged off Lowestoft, Suffolk, and 
is in the possession of J. J. Colman, Esq., M.P., of Corton, who has kindly furnished me 
with an excellent photograph of this entire specimen. It would be difficult to say with 
accuracy to which of the three species it belonged; the probability is, however, in favour 
of its being a first dorsal of the Mammoth, seing that in characters and size it agrees 
with similar authenticated specimens from British and Arctic deposits. The total 
height is 20 inches. IPeight of spine and neural canal 14 inches ; spine, from neural 
canal to apex, 11*5 inches; total breadth 13*5 inches. Height of centrum 6 inches; 
breadth of centrum 6'5 inches; thickness 3 inches. Neural canal 3 X 4'8 inches in 
width. 
A first dorsal vertebra, presumably belonging to the same individual as the axis just 
described from Shandon Cave, is 13 inches in height by ll - 5 in its greatest breadth. 
The vertebral canal is 2 - 4 inches in height by 3 - 5 inches in width. These two speci¬ 
mens pretty well indicate the dimensions of the bone in the Mammoth. As regards the 
Asiatic and African Elephants, the contour of the neural canal approaches closer to the 
former. I have no data wherewith to compare the above with the same part in the other 
two extinct Elephants, seeing that in them the arches are rarely sufficiently preserved to 
admit of comparison. 
A third dorsal vertebra of the Mammoth, in the British Museum, from Admiral 
Kellet’s Collection, made in Eschscholtz Bay, Arctic America, is nearly entire, excepting 
the loss of the neural apophysis, which had not been anchylosed to the spine, and there¬ 
fore belonged to an adolescent individual. 
The height is 20 inches ; maximum breadth 10 inches. Centrum, 4'5 X 4 - 4 inches 
in the transverse diameter. 
The neural canal is similar to that of fig. 7. 
A posterior dorsal in the same Museum, from Kotzebue Sound, Arctic America, 
had belonged to a youthful individual, as the anterior and posterior surfaces of the 
centrum are without the epiphyses, and the neural spine is wanting. 
The entire length is 18 inches; maximum breadth 10 inches. Centrum 4 X 4'4 
inches. The canal is L9 X 2'4 inches; thickness 2'1 inches. 
There are centra and portions of other dorso-lumbar vertebrae in the British Museum 
and elsewhere, but none seem worthy of particular notice, as they present no diagnostic 
characters of importance, only that they are small as compared with Forest-Bed speci¬ 
mens referable to E. meridionalis and E. antiquus , as will appear in the sequel. 
The ribs and sternum are represented by fragments in the British Museum, none of 
which, however, are sufficiently entire to be useful for diagnostic purposes. 
