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resembling it; since this must be most decided evidence against that 

 system which attributes an Asiatic origin to our fossils. 



This celebrated naturalist first noticed two specimens in the cabinet 

 of M. de Dree, and which had been described in a Memoir by M. Dodun, 

 being two portions of lower jaws which had been found near the last de- 

 clivities of the Black Mountain, at Issel, in Languedoc, near Castelnau- 

 dari, by M. Dodun. Finding that the resemblance which these jaws bore 

 to those of the tapir was exceedingly close, there being the same number 

 of each sort of teeth, the same form in the molar teeth, and even the 

 external incisive smaller than the others, as in the tapir, he was induced, 

 at first, to declare, that the fossil jaw did not sensibly differ from the jaw 

 of the recent animal. Subsequent examination, however, enabled him 

 to discover, that a difference existed between the first molar teeth of the 

 fossil and of the recent jaw. In the tapir of South America, all the molares 

 have their crown divided into two transverse risings, of an equal width ; 

 but in the fossil animal, the three first molares, instead of transverse 

 risings, have a kind of points or pyramids, the foremost of which is 

 larger than that which is behind it. The anterior part of the muzzle is 

 more narrow and long in the common tapir, than in the fossil animal. 

 In the tapir, also, the first molar is longer than any of the four or five fol- 

 lowing ones ; but in the fossil jaw this is the shortest. 



These, and other less differences, induced M. Cuvier to conclude, that 

 the fossils of the Black Mountain belonged to some species approaching 

 to the tapir, but which was not precisely the same. These remains of 

 an animal, the analogue of which, if living, can only exist in South 

 America, are, in his opinion, entirely subversive of the notion of those 

 who support the Asiatic origin of our fossils. M. Cuvier calls this ani- 

 mal the small fossil tapir. 



In the Journal de Physique for February, 1772, there appeared the re- 

 presentation of a milar tooth, found in the neighbourhood of Vienna, 

 and which appeared to have belonged to some large animal, at least re- 

 sembling the tapir. Another specimen was fouixd near St. Lary, in 



