FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 107 



on each foot, the middle one the largest, the two others nearly 

 equal ; tail of a moderate length. 



The palaeotheria in the environs of Paris, says the Baron, 

 do not differ either in teeth or number of toes. It is almost 

 impossible to characterize them otherwise than by size. But 

 among those which have been found elsewhere there are general 

 characters of conformation sufficient for distinction. 



The Parisian species are seven in number. 



The Great Palceotherium (Pal. Magnum.) —This animal was 

 of the size of the horse. The head and feet have been restored, 

 but the trunk is in a great measure wanting. Of this species, of 

 which the Baron has given a figure with the external forms 

 he attributes to it, it is easy to form a conception. We need 

 only imagine a tapir of the size of a horse, with some dif. 

 ferences in the teeth, and a toe less on the fore-feet. Arguing 

 from analogy, the hair should have been close and smooth, or, 

 perhaps, in no greater quantity than it is on the elephant or 

 tapir. It was more than four feet and a half in height to the 

 wither, just the height of the rhinoceros of Java. It was more 

 squat in its proportions and general figure than the horse. 

 The head was more massive, and the extremities thicker and 

 shorter. 



The middle-sized V alccotherium (Pal. Medium), was almost 

 the size of a hog. The feet were rather long and slender ; 

 the bones of the nose were shorter, from which the Baron 

 conjectures that the proboscis was more long and mobile than 

 in the following species. It resembled a tapir with slender 

 limbs, and might have been, in its own genus, something 

 analogous to what the babyroussa is among the swine. The 

 height to the wither might have been thirty-one or thirty-two 

 inches. In addition to the remains of the head were found 

 the cubitus, the radius, the fore-foot, the tibia, and the hind- 

 foot. 



The thick-footed PalcBolherium, (Pal. crassum,) — This spe- 

 cies, of the same size with the last, had the feet shorter and 



