CORYPHODOX. 357 



the writer had mistaken the fore for the back part of the jaw 

 of his Coryphodon, which, in that case, might only be the 

 known Lophiodon. In both instances the conclusions founded 

 on the less obvious characters have proved to be correct. And 

 the writer would remark that, in the course of his experience, 

 he has often found that the prominent appearances which first 

 catch the eye, and indicate a conformable conclusion, are 

 deceptive ; and that the less obtrusive phenomena which 

 require searching out, more frequently, when their full signi- 

 ficance is reasoned up to, guide to the right comprehension of 

 the whole. It is as if truth were whispered rather than out- 

 spoken by Nature. 



A fossil canine tooth,* brought up from a depth of 160 

 feet, out of the " plastic clay," during the operations of sinking 

 a well at Camberwell, near London, belongs, from its size 

 (near 3 inches in length), to a large quadruped, and, from the 

 thickness and shortness of its conical crown, not to a carnivor- 

 ous but to a hoofed Mammal, most resembling in shape, 

 though not identical with, that of the crown of the canine 

 tooth of some large extinct tapiroid Mammals, which Cuvier 

 had referred to his genus Lophiodon, but which has since 

 proved to belong to Coryphodon. 



The last lower molar of Lophiodon has three lobes ; the 

 corresponding molar of Coryphodon resembles that of the 

 tapir in the absence of a third lobe. It presents two divisions 

 in the form of transverse ridges or eminences, the front ridge 

 being the largest, and with its edge most entire. From the 

 outer end of each division a ridge is continued obliquely 

 forward, inward, and downward : the anterior one extends to 

 the antero-internal angle of the base of the crown ; the 

 posterior one terminates at the middle of the interspace be- 

 tween the two chief divisions of the crown. The trenchant 

 summit of the anterior ridge is slightly concave toward the 

 * Hist. Brit. Foss. Mamm., p. 306, fig. 105. 



