FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 139 



It is impossible to establish an exact comparison of the size 

 of this animal with that of the pangolin, without knowing to 

 what foot and what toe this unguical phalanx appertained. 

 But supposing it to have belonged to the second or fourth toe 

 of the hind foot, the fossil animal must have been more than 

 eight times the size of the adult pangolin ; and supposing the 

 general proportions of both to have been nearly analogous, the 

 former must have been four-and-twenty feet in length. 



It is impossible to avoid remarking here, not can it be too 

 often impressed on the mind of the reader, how scientific a 

 character fossil osteology has received under the hands of 

 Cuvier. We find, from the instance just now mentioned, 

 that a single fragment, certainly of a characteristic part, is 

 sufficient to determine the order and genus of an animal with a 

 precision amounting almost to mathematical certainty. We 

 arrive, too, by the same means, at least to a strong probability 

 regarding the dimensions of the skeleton ; — a probability suffi- 

 cient to warrant the inference of a specific distinction : for, in 

 wild animals not subject in, by any means, the same proportion 

 to those varieties which domestication induces, a considerable 

 discrepancy of size furnishes a sufficient basis for a distinction 

 of species. 



Fossil Marine Mammalia. 



We now arrive at the last order of this class, in considering 

 the fossil remains of which we will, after the example of the 

 Baron, though contrary to the order observed in the Animal 

 Kingdom, make some preliminary remarks on the 



Fossil Phoc^. 



It was natural enough, at a time when all the kinds of strata 

 were confounded together, and all considered as the produc- 

 tions of the sea, to attribute to marine animals the osseous 

 remains so abundantly found in certain formations. Accord- 

 ingly we find the describers of fossil bones continually referring 



