OF CREATION. 355 



of the jaw in the process of mastication was not 

 the same as in the rodents, but admitted of consider- 

 able lateral motion and great pressure, assisting in 

 the trituration of the food. There was also a power- 

 ful muscular apparatus enabling the jaws to be work- 

 ed sideways ; and it appears from the bones of the 

 face, that those muscles, by which the incisive teeth 

 and the extremities of the jaws were worked, and 

 which form the lips, were also exceedingly large and 

 strong ; these fore-teeth being probably used (like tjie 

 corresponding teeth of the hippopotamus) to divide or 

 tear up by the roots the aquatic plants growing on 

 the banks of the streams which the Toxodon may 

 have frequented. It also appears that the lips of this 

 singular animal were endowed with great sensibility, 

 large nerves having been supplied for such purpose. 

 The expanded muzzle seems even to have been fur- 

 nished with whiskers. 



The extremities of the Toxodon are not at all 

 known, nor can it be distinctly determined whether 

 they were such as to enable the animal to move about 

 on land, or whether, like the dugong and other herbi- 

 vorous cetaceans, it remained permanently in the 

 water. It is considered unlikely, however, that the 

 latter was the case, although there are not wanting 

 some curious points of structure indicative of its 

 aquatic habits. The affinities exhibited both to the 

 rodent and cetacean orders are very remarkable, this 

 pachydermatous animal, of gigantic proportions, be- 

 ing characterised by teeth which closely resemble 

 those of the gnawing tribes, while the structure of 

 some bones of the skull approaches in many respects 

 to that of the whales. 



