MAMMALIA OF EOCENE PERIOD. 8 
o 
quarries of the neighbourhood of Paris. It 
affords, to persons unacquainted with the mo- 
dern method of conducting physical researches, 
an example of the kind of evidence on which 
we found our conclusions, as to the form, cha- 
racter, and habits of extinct creatures, that are 
known only through the medium of their fossil 
remains. After stating by what slow degrees the 
cabinets of Paris had been filled with innume- 
rable fragments of bones of unknown animals, 
from the gypsum quarries of Mont Martre, 
Cuvier thus records the manner in which he 
applied himself to the task of reconstructing 
their skeletons. Having gradually ascertained 
that there were numerous species, belonging 
to many genera, '^ I at length found myself," 
says he, " as if placed in a charnel house, sur- 
rounded by mutilated fragments of many hun- 
dred skeletons, of more than twenty kinds of 
animals, piled confusedly around me : the task 
assigned me was, to restore them all to their 
original position. At the voice of comparative 
anatomy, every bone, and fragment of a bone, 
resumed its place. I cannot find words to 
express the pleasure I experienced in seeing, 
as I discovered one character, how all the 
consequences, which I predicted from it, were 
successively confirmed ; the feet were found in 
accordance with the characters announced by 
the teeth ; the teeth in harmony with those 
indicated beforehand by the feet ; the bones 
