450 
fifth, or that of the little toe, was a third shorter than that of the next 
toe, precisely as in the sarigue. Thus the question was fully decided, 
and it was proved, that there exists in the quarries of plaster-stone the 
hones of an animal , the genus to which it belongs being at present 
proper to America. 
The eager inquiries of this illustrious naturalist did not rest here : 
he next endeavoured to discover if these remains agreed with any 
living species. But as the history of all the species is not known, this 
task was not expected to be satisfactorily accomplished. He, however, 
discovered, that it did not exactly agree with that of any of the known 
species ; but that the Didelphis murina was the only one to which 
the fossil nearly approached in its size. It could not, however, be a 
skeleton of an animal of this species, since there are essential dif- 
ferences in their proportions, some parts being smaller, and others 
larger, in the one than in the other. 
A jaw was found in the plaster quarries, which at first sight appeared 
to resemble the jaw of a dog or of a fox. From its elevated condyloid 
apophysis, the notch in its posterior edge forming the arc of a circle, 
its posterior angle being hooked, and from the cutting, triangular, den- 
telated molar teeth, M. Cuvier had no hesitation in classing the animal 
to which it belonged with the carnivorous ; and, from the number of 
the molar teeth, he ascertained that it must also have belonged to the 
genus Canis. But after much careful examination, he was unable to 
discover any species of the genus Canis, with whose jaw the fossil 
species agreed in every respect : he, therefore, thinks it very probable 
that this carnivorous animal, like the herbivorous of these same quar- 
ries, belonged to some species at present unknown. He also found 
the astragalus of another carnivorous animal, much smaller than would 
have been the astragalus of the animal to which this jaw belonged. 
He afterwards found, in the great quarry of Montmartre, a frag- 
ment of a lower jaw, very different from that of the dog. In this piece 
there only remained a complete tooth and the fragment of another ; 
