Page:Natural History (1848).djvu/139

Rh of the Dinotherium may also have been applied with mechanical advantage to hook on the head of the animal to the bank with the nostrils sustained above the water, so as to breathe securely during sleep, whilst the body remained floating at perfect ease beneath the surface: the animal might thus repose, moored to the margin of a lake or river without the slightest muscular exertion, the weight of the head and body tending to fix and keep the tusks fast anchored in the

SKULL OF DINOTHERIUM.

substance of the bank; as the weight of the body of a sleeping bird keeps the claws clasped firmly around its perch. These tusks might have been further used, like those in the upper jaw of the Walrus, to assist in dragging the body out of the water; and also as formidable instruments of de-