564 THE UNIVERSE. 



were the Palseotheria and Anoplotheria, curious pachy- 

 derms, which belong solely to this epoch, and vanish utterly 

 with it. 



The Palseotheria, with their heavy forms and small trunk, 

 resembled our tapirs. According to Cuvier, they lived, like 

 them, on the banks of rivers and lakes, as is shown by the 

 remains of lacustrine and fluviatile animals scattered amid 

 their calcareous winding-sheets. These mammals, remark- 

 able for having three toes on each foot, were sometimes as 

 big as a horse, as was the case with the great Palseothe- 

 rium ; others scarcely reached that of a hare. 



The Anoplotheria were of more slender make, and had 

 long, powerful tails. According to Cuvier, the Anoplothe- 

 rium commune had some analogy with the otter, but was of 

 larger size. This naturalist thought that it dived with ease, 

 in order to seek for the roots and succulent stems which 

 composed its food. 



The remains of the Palseotheria and Anoplotheria abound 

 in the gypsum of the quarries near Paris, and there are 

 some in which they lie so thick that every blow of the pick- 

 axe exhumes some of their remains from these antediluvian 

 charnel-houses. This fact evidently proves that these mam- 

 mals lived in dense herds near the banks of the ancient 

 fresh waters of the Paris basin. 



It is in this tertiary epoch that we also discover the bulk- 

 iest terrestrial mammals, the Dinotheria, in shape analo- 

 gous to the elephant, but much larger. 



An animal which has been an object of interest to every 

 one, the great Mastodon, belongs to the same period. It 

 was at first called the elephant of Ohio, on account of its 



