THE TERTIARY SYSTEM. 



745 



of the globe. The Palceotherium magnum the former term signifying an ancient wild 

 beast, and the latter denoting the species to be of the largest class resembled the tapirs 

 in the form of the head and short proboscis or trunk, but approached to the rhinoceros in 

 the character of the molar teeth. Unlike the tapirs also, the feet of the animal had only 

 three toes instead of four. It was about the size of the horse, but much more clumsy ; 

 the head massive, the legs short and thick, and is supposed to have inhabited marshy 

 ground, feeding on the roots and stems of juicy vegetables. " Probably," says Cuvier, " it 

 was a timid animal, with large moveable ears like those of the deer, which could apprise 

 it of the least danger. Doubtless its skin was covered with short hair ; and we only want 



to know its colour in order to paint 

 it as it formerly lived in the country 

 where, after so many ages, its bones 

 have been dug up." Eleven species 

 have been determined, of which 

 one, the Palceotherium minus, was 

 considerably less than the pre 

 ceding, had somewhat of the light 

 and agile figure of the antelope, 

 resembled it in size, and is sup 

 posed to have browsed on aromatic 

 plants, or the buds of young trees. 

 Cuvier remarks, that could this 

 animal be re-animated as easily 

 as its bones have been collected, 

 we should behold a tapir smaller 

 than the roebuck, with slender limbs, for such undoubtedly was its figure. An 

 other species, Palceotherium minimum, was considerably less ; not larger than the 

 hare, with very small and slight feet. The Anoplotherium commune, or unarmed wild 

 beast, having no defensive teeth, appears to have been about the height of the wild boar ; 

 but much more elongated in form. In addition to the above, the remains of several genera 

 of closely related animals occur, as the lophiodon, crested-tooth, of which twelve species 

 have been determined ; and the anthracotherium, a genus approximating to the size and 

 character of the hog, and so named from having been first discovered in a tertiary bed of 

 anthracite or lignite. In England no entire skeleton of any of these remarkable animals 

 has been found, so abundant in the tertiaries of France of a corresponding era, and no 

 remains whatever had been discovered until a few years ago, when some portions of two 

 species of anoplotherium, and of four species of paljeotherium, were met with at Sea- 

 tield, and near Ryde, in the Isle of Wight. 



Towards the centre of France, south of the confluence of the Allier and the Loire, 

 some detached tracks of tertiary strata occur referable to the eocene era, all of fresh 

 water origin, evidently the sites of a series of lakes, whose waters have been drained off 

 and their beds elevated, in the course of those physical revolutions which the terrestrial 

 superficies has undergone. The largest of these tracks occupies a considerable part of 

 the valley plain of the Allier, and contains, besides vegetable remains, land and fresh 

 water shells, with bones of the palaeotherium, anoplotherium, and the other quadrupeds 

 of the Paris basin. The most remarkable deposit is an indusial limestone, so called from 

 the Latin indusium, a case, because essentially composed of the cases of a species of 

 insect in its larva state, encrusted with travertin, and cemented into a rock. The reader 

 has no doubt often observed, when by the side of a clear and shallow pool of water, little 

 oblong masses moving along the bottom, resembling pieces of straw, wood, or even 



ANIMALS OF THE PAKIS BASIN. 



a, Palaeotherium magnum ; b. Palasothprium minus ; c, Anoplotherium 

 commune ; rf. Crocodile. 



