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species. But as the history of all the species is not known, this task wa* 

 not expected to be satisfactorily accomplished. He however discovered, 

 that it did not exactly agree with that of any of the known species ; but 

 that the Didelphus murina was the only one to which the fossil nearly 

 approached in its size. It could not, however, be a skeleton of an animal 

 of this species, since there are essential differences in their proportions, 

 some parts being smaller, and others larger, in the one than in the other. 



A jaw was found in the plaster quarries, which at first sight appeared 

 to resemble the jaw of a dog or of a fox. From its elevated condyloid 

 apophysis, the notch in its posterior edge forming the arc of a circle, 

 its posterior angle being hooked, and from the cutting, triangular, den- 

 telated molar teeth, M. Cuvier had no hesitation in classing the animal 

 to which it belonged with the carnivorous ; and, from the number of 

 the molar teeth, he ascertained that it must also have belonged to the 

 genus Canis. But after much careful examination, he was unable to 

 discover any species of the genus Canis, with whose jaw the fossil species 

 agreed in every respect : he therefore thinks it very probable that this 

 carnivorous animal, like the herbivorous of these same quarries, belonged 

 to some species at present unknown. He also found the astragalus of 

 another carnivorous animal, much smaller than would have been the 

 astragalus of the animal to which this jaw belonged. 



He afterwards found, in the great quarry of Montmartre, a fragment 

 of a lower jaw, very different from that of the dog. Jn this piece there 

 only remained a complete tooth and the fragment of another ; but, by 

 a most careful and nice examination and comparison, he was enabled to 

 ascertain that it belonged to some species of the genus Canis, the skeleton 

 of which is unknown ; or to some carnivorous animal between the genus 

 Canis and Viverra genctta and ichneumon. 



The lower head of an os humeri was obtained from the same quarry, 

 and appeared to have belonged to a species of martin about the size of a 

 common cat. If it belonged to the same animal to which the preceding 



