174 THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. II. 



consists in a pair of curved tusks, which are fixed in the 

 lower jaw, and directed downwards. From the structure 

 of the anterior portion of the cranium, and the disposition 

 of the nasal fossae, it is supposed that the creature had a 

 proboscis ; it possessed no incisor teeth with which to seize 

 its food, and the jaws could not even close together in front ; 

 the lower jaw is four feet in length. The tusks resemble 



Lign. 27. — Restored figure of the dixotherium. 



those of the Walrus, and were probably weapons of defence. 

 This drawing, (Lign. 27,) from a restoration by M. Kaup, 

 an eminent German naturalist, to whose researches we are 

 indebted for the important discoveries at Eppelsheim, 

 represents the supposed form of the original creature. It 

 has been assumed that the Dinotherium was nearly related 

 to the hippopotamus, and formed a link between the cetacea 

 and pachyderms ; but it seems more probable that it was 

 an herbivorous cetacean related to the Lamantins. 



36. Fossil carnivora in caverns. — We have now 

 briefly reviewed the extinct population of a remote period 

 of our globe, — those enormous terrestrial mammalia, the 

 mastodons, mammoths, &c, that lie buried in the alluvial 

 and superficial strata. We pass to the consideration of 



