41 8 CHffiROPOTAMUS. 



The tooth anterior to the grinders, and which from its 

 shape Cuvier regarded as a canine, is situated closer to the 

 symphysis of the jaw than in any of the existing Suida ; 

 but the Peccari, in this respect also, comes nearest to the 

 CJiosropotamus. On the outer surface of the jaw, near its 

 anterior extremity, the vascular foramina are as numerous 

 as in the jaws of the Hog tribe. 



Nothing as yet is known of the incisors of the CJiosropo- 

 tamus ; the rest of the dentition closely resembles that of 

 the Peccari, but the premolars are more simple and the 

 canines by their size, shape, and direction, and the lower 

 jaw by the backward prolongation of its angle, alike mani- 

 fest a marked approximation to the Ferine type. The 

 occasional carnivorous propensities of the common Hog are 

 well known, and they correspond with the minor degree or 

 resemblance, which this existing Pachyderm presents to 

 the same type. The extinct Choeropotamus, still better 

 adapted by its dentition for predaceous habits, presents an 

 interesting example of one of those links, completing the 

 chain of affinities, which the revolutions of the earth's 

 surface have interrupted, as it were, and for a time con- 

 cealed from our view. 



It is interesting, also, to perceive that the living sub- 

 genus of the Hog tribe which most resembles the Choeropo- 

 tamus should be confined to the South American continent, 

 where the Llama and Tapir, the nearest living analogues of 

 the Anoplotherian and Palseotherian associates of the Chos- 

 ropotamus, now exist, and which was formerly inhabited 

 by a genus Macrauchenia, which connects the Llama 

 with the Palseothere. 



