560 UNGULATES 



the total number of teeth being thirty-four. Both feet resembled the fore-feet of the 

 coryphodons in general structure, and the bones of the limbs approximate to those 

 of the elephants. The brain was marvellously small in proportion to the size of 

 the skull and body, indicating that these animals must have been of a stupid and 

 sluggish nature. The uintatheres are evidently a specialised development of the 

 coryphodon stock, which died out with the appearance of the former. 



Professor Cope, who considered that the hind-feet of the coryphodon were of 

 the same tj^pe as the front pair, remarks that the movements of this animal 

 " doubtless resembled those of the elephant in its shuffling and ambling gait, and 

 may have been even more awkward from the inflexibility of the ankle. But in 

 compensation for the probable lack of speed, these animals were most formidably 

 armed with tusks. These weapons, particularly those of the upper jaw, were more 

 formidable than those of the Carnivora, and generally more robust." In length, 

 one of the American species was probably about 6 feet. 



the left UPPER cheek-teeth OP THE UINTATHERE (f nat. size). (From Marsh 



Although the uintatheres have only been known to science for rather more 

 than twenty years, their skulls and bones long ago attracted the attention of the 

 wandering Indians, and such squatters and trappers whose business led them into 

 the district known as the "Bad Lands." On returning to civilisation, tlie.se 

 pioneers brought news of the skeletons of marvellous monsters staring at them 

 from the rockbound canons; and at length these attracted the attention of the 

 late Professor Leidy, to whom belongs the honour of having made known these 

 strange creatures to a wondering world. Describing the region where these 

 remains occur, Professor Marsh writes that bare, treeless wastes of naked stone 

 rise here and there into terraced ledges and strange tower-like prominences, or 

 sink into hollows where the water gathers in salt or bitter pools. Under the 

 cloudless sky, and in the clear, dry atmosphere, the extraordinary colouring of the 

 rocks forms, perhaps, the most striking feature of the weird landscape. 



The Macrauchenia and its Allies. 



Suborder Litopterna. 



South America was the home of numerous extinct Ungulates, quite unlike 

 those found in any other part of the world, and which, while allied in some respects 

 to the Odd-toed group, appear to represent three distinct suborders. Among these, 



