45 



Of the skull the texture of the bones is dense ; the occipital portion 

 much flattened, with the hinder part inclined from before backward* ; 

 the nasal aperture large, and placed high up ; the nasal bones short 

 and salient ; and the occipital condyles in the same line of direction, 

 with the longitudinal axis of the skull. 



Such features are in themselves highly expressire of an aquatic 

 existence, but they bear an additional value, not only confirmatory of 

 th« mode of life, but as suggestive of the structure of the body, from 

 the marked resemblance presented by these several distinctive qualities 

 to the similar ones seen m the skulls of the strictly aquatic animals, 

 the Manatee and the Dugong ; setting aside from the comparison the 

 huge tusks and the lengthened sockets, to which singularities, although 

 perfectly unique in their entirety, the Dugong affords a faint approach 

 in the downward curve of the deflected symphysis of the mandible. 



The natural inference, therefore, to be drawn from the cranial linea- 

 ments, by the absence of the canines, and by the form of the molar 

 teeth, exhibited by this relic, would be — that the living Deinotherium 

 giganteum partook the herbivorous habits of, and greatly resembled in 

 general form, the memberg of the existing Sirenoid family. 



Should this surmise, which I believe originated with de Blainville, 

 be correct, this huge animal would possess a large, full, fleshy, trunk- 

 less muzzle, adapted for browsing in shallow waters over beds of 

 fluviatile or marine vegetation ; nostrils advantageously placed at the 

 end of the muzzle ; and pinnated Umbs, principally or wholly suited 

 for progression in water. 



The large massive skull, and the great weight of the incisors pro- 

 truding from its extremity, are commonly urged as qualities materially 

 affecting the probable terrestrial existence of the owner ; but I think 

 that such an argument is of but little value to come to any correct 

 conclusiori as to the economy of this extinct animal ; for it is obvious 

 that a frame-work fully equal to its requirements, and yet of no 

 unusually stupendous dimensions, would render these apparent obstacles 

 no more " cumbersome " or "inconvenient" to the quadruped on dry 

 land, than the huge and weighty tusks^ of the extinct Mammoth, which 

 are supported with ease, or the vast expanding horns^ of the fossil Elk 

 of Ireland, borne with such graceful dignity. 



Neither can I contemplate with the least satisfaction the form of the 

 gigantic Deinotherium, as originally restored by M. Kaup ; that is, an 

 animal bearing an external resemblance to the tapir-like great Palaso- 

 therium, but with the lengthened proboscis of an elephant, the limbs of 

 a rhinoceros, and feet terminated by the long hoof-hke claws of a pan- 

 golia : truly a hetereogeneous compound, at variance with the signi- 

 ficant characters displayed by the skull, and with the harmonious 



1 Each tusk 9 feet long, and weight of both 360 lbs. 

 ' From tip to tip 12 feet. 



