; § 40. PAL^OTHERIA AND ANOPLOTHERIA. 257 



was eight feet long, and of the height of a wild boar, but of 

 a more elongated shape ; it had a long and thick tail, which 

 must have enabled it to swim with facility, like the Otter ; 

 the structure of the teeth indicates that it browsed on 

 grass like the horse. The A. gracile (Lign. 45, jig. 1), so 

 named from its elegant proportions, was of the size and 

 form of the Gazelle, and must have lived after the manner 

 of the deer and antelopes. 



The Palceotheria resembled the Tapirs in the form of 

 the head, and in having a short proboscis, but their molar 

 teeth were more like those of the Rhinoceros ; their fore- 

 feet had bat three toes, instead of four as in the Tapirs. 

 Upwards of eleven species, varying from the size of the 

 Rhinoceros to that of the Hog, have been discovered in the 

 tertiary strata of France. The P. magnum (Lign. 45, fig. 2), 

 was of the magnitude of a horse four or five feet high, with a 

 massive head and proboscis, and short extremities. The 

 P. medium was one-sixth smaller than the American 

 Tapir, but had longer and slighter legs and feet. The 

 P. minus {f,g. 3) was an elegant creature as large as the 

 Roebuck, with light and slender limbs. 



Numerous other genera of extinct mammalia have been 

 discovered in the eocene strata, and their characters deter- 

 mined by Baron Cuvier. Some are related to the animals 

 we have just described ; as the Anthracotherium, (so 

 named from the discovery of its remains in the anthracite, 

 or lignite of Cadibona,) which held an intermediate place 

 between the hog and hippopotamus. Six or seven species 

 of carnivora, an opossum, a squirrel, dormouse, &c. have 

 also been found in the Paris basin. In England, remains 

 of several species of Palaeotheria, Anoplotheria, and other 

 characteristic genera, have been discovered.* 



In the miocene strata of Touraine and of Darmstadt, 



* See Prof. Owen's British Fossil Mammalia ; and my Geology of the 

 Isle of Wight, p. 115. 



s 



