210 
BRITISH FOSSIL ELEPHANTS. 
6. The incisive alveoli are nearly parallel; whilst, they diverge considerably in the 
Mammoth and Asiatic, as seen in Woodcuts, figs. 1, 2, and 3, pages 130 and 131. 
7. The lachrymal tubercle is pointed in E. meridionalis, and more prominent than in 
the Mammoth. 
8. The zygoma is much below the level of the condyles in the Meridional, as obtains 
in the African and in the short-crowned fossil Elephants of Northern India, to wit, E. 
Namadicus, E. planifrons, &c.; moreover, it inclines to the molars at an angle of 35°, 
whilst it is nearly parallel to them in the Mammoth and Asiatic Elephant. 
In fine, taken with all these and other, but minor, particulars, the skull of the 
Meridional is broadly distinct from that of the Mammoth and Asiatic Elephant. It is 
allied to the African, but more so to the other short-crowned species of the Sewalik 
deposits, with which careful comparisons may establish still closer relationships. To what 
extent these well-marked distinctions would compare with the skull of E. antiquus I am 
unable to state. 
2. CERVICAL VERTEBRAL 
Atlas. 
Numerous entire specimens of this bone are preserved in the British Museum and 
Norwich Collections. 
No. 36,436, B. M., an anterior view of which is shown in Plate XVII, fig. 3, was 
dredged off the coast of Essex, opposite Clacton. The transverse processes are injured. 
Here the odontoid cavity, as formerly pointed out, is much higher than broad as com¬ 
pared with the same in E. primigenius and E. antiquus, and the upper surface of the arch 
is curved instead of being flat in them (figs. 1 and 2). It is evidently, however, subject to 
individual differences, as shown by Davies in the case of the latter species. 1 The above 
atlas is rivalled by another colossal specimen, also from the Norfolk coast, in the 
possession of R. Johnson, Esq., of Palling, Norfolk. The dimensions, as compared with 
the huge bone of E. meridionalis from Tuscany, figured by Cuvier in the ‘ Ossemen. 
Eossil./ pi. xvii, figs. 3 and 4, 3 are as follows: 
Maximum breadth, 18'5, against the Tuscan, which is 19 - 2 inches. 
„ height, 10 - 5 ditto 9'3 „ 
Vertebral and odontoid canals, 5x4, against the Tuscan, which is 3'6x4'5 inches. 
The anterior condyloid articulations in Mr. Johnson’s specimen are each 6x4'5 
inches by tape along their curves. The foramen for the first cervical nerve is very large, 
and exposed in all, being 1'8 X 1'3 inches in breadth. 
1 ‘ Cat. Brady Collection,’ p, 16. 
2 This atlas is also figured by De Blainville, ‘ Osteographie,’ pi. iv. 
