THE ELEPHANT. 357 



in these newly found are fashioned like the teeth 

 of a carnivorous animal ; not flat and ribbed 

 transversely on their surface like those of the 

 modern elephant, but furnished with a double 

 row of high and conic processes, as if intended to 

 masticate, not to grind their food. A third dif- 

 ference is in the thigh-bone, which is of a great 

 disproportionate thickness to that of the ele- 

 phant, and has also some other anatomical varia- 

 tions. These fossil bones have been also found 

 in Peru and the Brasils ; and when cut and po- 

 lished by the workers in ivory, appear in every 

 respect similar. It is the opinion of Dr Hunter 

 that they must have belonged to a larger animal 

 than the elephant, and differing from it in being 

 carnivorous. But as yet this formidable creature 

 has evaded our search ; and if, indeed, such an 

 animal exists, it is happy for man that it keeps at 

 a distance ; since what ravage might not be ex- 

 pected from a creature endued with more than 

 the strength of the elephant, and all the rapacity 

 of the tiger ! 



CHAPTER XL 



OF THE RHINOCEROS. 



NEXT to the elephant, the Rhinoceros is the most 

 powerful of animals. It is usually found twelve 

 feet long from the tip of the nose to the insertion 



