THEORY OF THE EARTH. 267 



V - - '* W 



have been divided into three toes, while in the 

 tapirs the fore feet have four. 



It is one of the most extensively diffused ge- 

 nera and most numerous in species that occur in 

 the deposits of this period. 



Our gypsum quarries in the neighbourhood of 

 Paris are full of them. Bones of seven distinct 

 species are found there. The first (P. magnum) 

 is as large as a horse. The three next are of the 

 size of a hog, but one of them (P. medium) has 

 narrow and long feet, another (P. crassum) has 

 the feet broader, and a third (P. latum) has them 

 still broader, and especially shorter. The fifth 

 species (P. curium), which is of the size of a 

 sheep, is much lower, and has the feet still broader 

 and shorter in proportion than the last. The 

 sixth (P. minus) is of the size of a small sheep, 

 and has long and slender feet, the lateral toes of 

 which are shorter than the rest. The seventh 

 (P, minimum), which is not larger than a hare, 

 has also the feet slender*. 



Palaeotheria have also been found in other dis- 

 tricts of France : at Puy in Valey, in strata of 

 gypseous marl, a species (P. velaunum) f, much 



* See my Researches, in the whole of vol. iii., and espe- 

 cially p. 250 ; and vol. v. part ii. p. 505, 

 t Ibid. vol. v, part ii, p. 505. 



