FOSSIL SKULL OF TOXODOJf. Ill 



were adapted for aquatic locomotion, and perhaps the 

 posterior pair were wanting, or formed the elements of 

 a terminal paddle. Its diet was undoubtedly vegetable, 

 as in the dugong; and we may conceive it tearing up 

 the strong-fibred vegetables from their subaquatic bed by 

 means of its tusks, which might serve also as weapons of 

 otfence, or as anchors for the purpose of mooring itself 

 to the banks of the lake or river, or of dragging its 

 unwieldy body partially out of the water. (Fig. 69.) 



Dr. Buckland informs us that bones of the dino- 

 therium have lately been found in tertiary fresh-water 

 limestone near Orthes, at the foot of the Pyrenees, and 

 with them remains of a new genus allied to rhinoceros, 

 of several unknown species of deer, and of a dog or wolf 

 equalling a lion in size. 



Cuvier and Kaup calculate the length of the dino- 

 therium at about eighteen feet ; the massive lower jaw 

 measures nearly four feet, exclusive of the tusks. 



Fossil Skull ofToxodon (Toxodon Platensis, Owen). 



We are inclined to refer the toxodon, of which an 

 imperfect skull and fragments of a lower jaw, and some 

 teeth, are our only guides, to the aquatic Pachyderms; 

 and, as in the instance of the dinotherium, we draw our 

 deductions from the weight of the skull, from the form 

 and position of the nasal aperture, the slope of the occi- 

 put, and the position of the occipital condyles. 



The skull in question was brought by Mr. Darwin 

 from South America. It appears that during his sojourn 

 in Banda Oriental he heard of some giant's bones at a 

 farm-house on the Sarandis, a small stream entering the 

 Rio Negro, about 120 miles north-west of Monte Video. 

 Accordingly there he rode, and for the sum of eighteen- 

 pence purchased the cranium now in the museum of the 

 Royal College of Surgeons, London. Mr. Darwin was 

 informed by the people at the farm-house that the relics 

 were exposed in consequence of a flood having washed 

 down part of the bank of earth. When first found the 

 skull was perfect; but unfortunately the boys of the 



