From its kind of life, and its frugal regimen, this Pachyderm scarcely merited the formidable name of Dinotherium which has been bestowed on it by naturalists (from δεινος, _terrible_, θηριον, _animal_). Its size was, no doubt, frightful enough, but its habits seem to have been peaceful. It is supposed to have inhabited fresh-water lakes, or the mouths of great rivers and the marshes bordering their banks by preference. Herbivorous, like the Elephant, it employed its proboscis probably in seizing the plants which hung suspended over the waters, or floated on their surface. We know that the elephants are very partial to the roots of herbaceous plants which grow in flooded plains. The Dinotherium appears to have been organised to satisfy the same tastes. With the powerful natural mattock which Nature had supplied him for penetrating the soil, he would be able to tear from the bed of the river, or lake, feculent roots like those of the Nymphæa, or even much harder ones, for which the mode of articulation of the jaws, and the powerful muscles intended to move them, as well as the large surface of the teeth, so well calculated for grinding, were evidently intended (Fig. 160). * * * * * The _Mastodon_ was, to all appearance, very nearly of the size and form of our Elephant--his body, however, being somewhat longer, while his limbs, on the contrary, were a little thicker. He had tusks, and very probably a trunk, and is chiefly distinguished from the existing Elephant by the form of his molar teeth, which form the most distinctive character in his organisation. These teeth are nearly rectangular, and present on the surface of their crown great conical tuberosities, with rounded points disposed in pairs to the number of four or five, according to the species. Their form is very distinct, and may be easily recognised. They do not bear any resemblance to those of the carnivora, but are like those of herbivorous animals, and particularly those of the Hippopotamus. The molar teeth are at first sharp and pointed, but when the conical points are ground down by mastication, they assume the appearance presented in Fig. 161. When, from continued grinding, the conical teat-like points are more deeply worn, they begin to assume the appearance shown in Fig. 160. In Fig. 162 we represent the head and lower jaw of the Miocene Mastodon; from which it will appear that the animal had two projecting tusks in the lower jaw, corresponding with two of much larger dimensions which projected from the upper jaw. [Illustration: Fig. 161.--Molar teeth of Mastodon, worn.]