176 ON THE FOSSIL BONES OF PACHYDERMATOUS QUADRUPEDS. 



strictly called alluvia. Composed almost entirely of red sand, they 

 contain only bones of animals belonging to the country. 



But among all the bones contained in these strata, we had still 

 particular motives for commencing with those of the Pachydermata. 



They are those which are most generally collected, because most of 

 the species belonging to this family are very large ; and they being all 

 foreign to our climates, their exuvise must strike the curious more by 

 their singularity. Thus, we had materials in greater abundance for 

 them than for the others. 



Their osteological examination was also more easy, because the 

 order of the Pachydermata comprises but a small number of genera ; 

 because these genera are very distinct from each other, and because it 

 is therefore more eas}'^ to ascertain their several parts, 'inhere is not 

 one of their teeth, nor of their bones either of the head or extremities, 

 which are not of themselves sufficient to furnish distinct characters ; 

 which cannot be said of the ruminantia for example, inasmuch as they 

 bear too strong a resemblance to each ether. 



In fine, the state of the science will furnish me with another order of 

 motives. I had occasion for all the series of my demonstrations, and 

 particularly for determining the extraordinary animals of our plaster- 

 stones, which form the object of my second part, and which I consider 

 as my principal discoveries in this genus ; I had occasion, I say, for the 

 osteology of several animals of this family, whose skeletons have not 

 been yet described. Neither the skeletons of the rhinoceros, of the 

 hippopotamus, nor of the tapir were known ; that of the elephant itself 

 was imperfectly known. I had then to describe them ; and the most 

 natural place for doing so was where I was to speak of the Fossil Bones 

 of the same genera. 



Accordingly it was with these Fossils I must commence my work. 

 When I shall have concluded their history, I shall proceed, in my 

 second part, to that of the animals of our plaster-stones, which also are 

 nearly all of the family of the pachydermata, but of genera wholly un- 

 known ; then coming back to the Fossils of the alluvial strata, I shall 

 treat succesively, in my third part, ot" the carnivora, and of the other un- 

 guiculated Fossils, as also of the ruminantia, that is to say, of animals 

 with hoofs not pachydermatous. 



Lastly, I shall speak of the cetacea and of reptiles. The order then 

 which I shall follow will be neither strictly geological nor strictly 

 zoological ; but it - will be that best calculated to conduct the reader 

 through so many difficult researches, and to enable him to seize the 

 thread, and feel the force of the proofs, by disclosing to him the true 

 course followed in the discoveries. 



This family of the pachydermata, so natural, and one entirely mis- 

 taken by Linnaeus, and still more by his predecessors, was rightly un- 

 derstood only by Storr*. 



He had defined it mammiferous animals with hoofs, with more than 

 iioo toes. 



But as I discovered in the course of my researches on Fossils, a 



• Prodromus Method! MammaJium, Tubing. 1780. 



