YERTEBEATA. 
restrial mammalia that ever inliabitecl the earth ; but they must give place to the D mother ium^ 
described by Cuvier as a gigantic tapir, but more recently by Professor Kaup, a distinguished Ger- 
man naturalist, as a new genus betwe^in the tapir and the mastodon ; and adapted to that lacus- 
trine condition of the earth which seems to have been so common during the deposition of the 
tertiary strata. Its remains have been found in tertiary strata in the south of France, in Austria, 
Bavaria, and especially in Hesse Darmstadt. Its length must have been as much as eighteen feet. 
One of its most remarkable peculiarities consisted in two enormous tusks at the interior extremity 
of the lower jaw, which curved downward, like those of the walrus. Its general structure seems to 
have been adapted to digging in the grou: d ; and for this purpose its feet as well as tusks — pro- 
jecting a foot or two beyond the jaws, Avliich were four feet long — were intended. It lived prin- 
cipally in the water, like the hippopotamus ; and it probably used its tusks for tearing up the 
roots of aquatic vegetables, which, as is shown by its teeth, constituted its food. Dr. Buckland 
suggests also that these tusks might have been useful as an anchor fastened into the bank of a 
river, while the body of the animal floated in the water and slept. They might have been useful 
also to aid in dragging the body out of the water and for defense. 
THE COMMON DOMESTIC SWINE. 
THE SUIDaE OK SWmE. 
In this family, of which the comn:ion hog may be taken as the type, the nose has considerable 
power of motion, but it is not produced into a proboscis, as in the elephant or even the tapir, 
nor is it swelled into a blunt rounded mass as in the hippopotamus, but runs into a tapering 
cylindrical form to the extremity, where it is suddenly truncated. The tip is of a fine cartilag- 
inous nature, and is principally employed in turning uj) the earth in search of roots and other 
articles of food. The skull is of a pyramidal form, but the nasal bones are- not elevated as in the 
tapirs; yet the facial bones arc very large in comparison with the cranium. The jaws are fur- 
nished with the three kinds of teeth while the animals are young, but the incisors- are always 
small, and in some cases fall out with increase of age. The canines, on the contrary, are always 
of large size, especially in the males, in which they project from the sides of the mouth ; those of 
the lower jaw, from constantly rubbing against their fellows in the upper, are usually sharpened 
to a most acute edge, and constitute formidable weapons. The molar teeth vary from three to 
seven on each side in both jaws. The feet consist of four toes, of which the two middle ones are 
considerably longer and stouter than their fellows, formipg a cloven hoof, upon which the animals 
walk ; the two lateral toes are also furnished with hoofs, but they are placed at the back of the 
foot at some little elevation from the ground. One of these hinder toes is wanting in some cases, 
while monstrosities have occurred with five toes, and others with a single hoof. The eyes are 
