389 
must have differed, not essentially in any respect but in its size, from 
that species which we know living, and whose fossil remains, we have 
just seen, have been also sometimes found. The size of this animal 
could not have exceeded half that of the ordinary species ; and it is 
evident, from the state of its teeth, and from the advanced progress 
of ossification, that its inferior size could not have proceeded from its 
being a young animal, but from its having been of a distinct species. 
In one of its large grinders, it appeared that, contrary to the hori- 
zontally worn surface of these teeth in the ordinary hippopotamus, it 
was worn obliquely on the anterior side, showing that its projections 
had shut in between the risings of the opposite tooth. 
But a more important difference was observable in the lower jaw. 
The hippopotamus is the only known animal whose jaw, at its inferior 
and posterior angle, turns backward, and forms a broad hook-formed 
process. In this small animal, this hook-formed process not only was 
also observable, but it was found to be carried much further backward. 
In the common hippopotamus, the turn which it makes describes the 
fourth of a circle ; but in this animal the turn forms a crescent, and 
is equal to half a circle. 
The tapir is one of the pachydermata, and forms a genus in which 
there is but one species ; it is an animal of South America. It is 
formed like a hog ; and although only the height of an ass, it is the 
largest animal known in those parts. Its snout is elongated into a 
trunk, which, although not long, is moveable like that of the elephant. 
The fore-feet have four equal-sized toes, and the hind feet three, all 
of which have hoofs. It has, in each jaw, six incisive teeth, and two 
canine, which are not longer than the incisors. The skin is black, 
and almost without hairs. It is a quiet and docile animal, which lives 
on the banks of rivers, and feeds on reeds, sugar-canes, &c. 
The tapir not having been known but in South America, it was 
with great pleasure that M. Cuvier ascertained the existence of the 
fossil remains, in France, of some animal of the same species, or very 
