326 FAMILY TAPIRID^E ; PALJiOTHERlUM, RHINOCEROS. 



seeing, when I discovered one character, how all the conse- 

 quences which I predicted from it were successively confirmed. 

 The feet accorded with the chara' ters announced by the teeth ; 

 the teeth were in harmony with those previously indicated by 

 the feet. The bones of the legs and thighs, and every connect- 

 ing portion of the extremities, were found to be joined together, 

 precisely as I had arranged them before my conjectures were 

 verified by the discovery of the parts entire. Each species was, 

 in fact, reconstructed from a single unit of its component 

 elements." The deposits in which the remains of the Palseothe- 

 rium are found, are evidently of considerably older date than 

 those in which the bones and teeth of the Elephants and Masto- 

 dons are buried; and the other fossil remains of terrestrial 

 animals, that are found with them, are for the most part very 

 dissimilar to those which now inhabit our globe. These deposits, 

 however, were formed by the agency of fresh water ; and there 

 can be little doubt that the bones of Palaeotheria which they 

 contain, are the relics of animals which, like the Tapir and 

 Rhinoceros of the present day, frequented the borders of lakes 

 and large rivers, by whose waters they were occasionally 

 ingulphed in seasons of flood. Another fossil genus allied to the 

 Tapirs is that of Lophiodon, which differs from Palseotherium in 

 having only six molars on either side of each jaw, but in other 

 respects closely resembles it. No less than fifteen species of this 

 genus have been distinguished ; their remains are commonly 

 found associated with those of the Palasotherium. 



293. Returning to the animals now inhabiting our globe, we 

 have next to notice the Rhinoceros, a large and ungainly-looking 

 animal, which inhabits the hotter regions of the Old World. 

 This genus (which contains six living species, as well as several 

 extinct ones, whose remains occur in the same strata with those 

 of the Elephant) is characterised by the possession of three toes 

 on each foot, and by the presence (in most of the species at least) 

 of seven molars on each side above and below, with only four 

 incisors, and no canine teeth. Its most distinguishing mark, 

 however, is the possession of a solid horn, which is supported 

 upon a very strong arch, formed by the nasal bones. The horn 



