Lign. 261. Fossil Molar Teeth of Hippopotamus: 2/3 nat.
Pleistocene.
| Fig. | 1.— | Grinding surface of a molar tooth, with the cusps partially worn away. Kent’s Cavern, Devonshire. |
| 2.— | Perfect molar tooth, seen laterally. Hertfordshire. |
I subjoin ([Lign. 261], fig. 1) a figure of the crown of a fossil molar tooth of a Hippopotamus, from Kent’s Cavern, Devonshire; in this specimen the summits of the cusps are worn down by use; and another, fig. 2, representing a perfect molar, with the conical cusps of the crown entire, found in Hertfordshire by W. D. Saull, Esq. The form of the worn surfaces of the molars of the Rhinoceros,[746] is shown in two different stages in the fossil teeth represented [Lign. 262]. Sir C. Lyell has given figures of the teeth of the Horse, Ox, Deer, &c. (Ly. p. 160); but teeth of the recent species are so readily obtained, and so much more instructive, that I would recommend the student to procure teeth of the domestic herbivorous, carnivorous, and rodent animals, and preserve them in his cabinet as objects for comparison with the fossil mammalian teeth he may discover (see Pict. Atlas, pl. lxxii.).
[746] See Translation of a Memoir by Giebel on the fossil remains of Rhinoceros in the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. viii. part ii. p. 9, &c.
Lign. 262. Fossil Molar Tooth of Rhinoceros: 2/3 nat.
Pleistocene.
| Fig. | 1.— | A molar tooth much worn down by use; with the fangs nearly perfect. In gravel; Petteridge Common, Surrey. |
| 2.— | Large molar, very much worn by use; the fangs broken off. |
HORSE.
Fossil Horse. [Lign. 263]; and Owen’s Brit. Foss. Mam. p. 383, et seq.—The bones and teeth of one or more species of this widely distributed genus are found in the alluvium, in osseous breccia, and in caverns in numerous localities in Europe, Asia, and America. The teeth and bones of the horse are often met with in the Elephant-bed in Brighton cliffs; they are referable to a small species, about the size of a Shetland pony. The blue alluvial clay or silt of our existing river-valleys contains abundance of the remains of a horse not distinguishable from the recent.