French National hiftitute* q\ 



Such bones are difcovered not only in the moft modern ftrata, 

 bat even in the middle of rocks. The foflil bones of fome of 

 the mammalia are found in the neighbourhood of Paris in 

 prodigious banks 6f gypftim, which are covered with hanks of 

 petrified fea- (hells, &c. It is an important obfervation, that 

 the older the mountainous ftrata in which fuch remains of 

 mammalia are found, the more different are the animals from 

 thole of the prefent world. I think 1 mav almoft with cer- 

 tainty affirm, that all the real foflil bones which I have had 

 an opportunity of examining with accuracy, belonged to none 

 of thofe kinds of animals how exifting on the globe. It is 

 only in regard to the teeth of ruminating animals that this 

 affertion cannot be made with certainty. Bv attentive exa- 

 mination, and the afliflancc of my friends and predeceffors, 

 I have been able to determine from their remains twentv- 

 three fpecies of animals which, in all probability, do not 

 at prefent ex id. 



i ft, The foflil bones which approach near to thofe of the 

 Indian elephant, but which arc, however, different from 

 them •: 2d, The elephant of the Ohio: 3d, The rhinoceros 

 with a lengthened head : 4th, The megatherium, of the clafs 

 of the floth, found in Paraguay: 5th, The bear of theGailen- 

 reuther cavern : 6th, A fecond fpecies of bear, fometimes fimi- 

 lar to the former: j\h, A kind of animal from the fame ca- 

 vern, forming a middle fpecies between the wolf and the hy- 

 aena : 8th, The foflil bones of the great elk : 9th, Several 

 kinds of large foflil tortoifes : 10th, Tl)e fo called crocodile of 

 JMaeftricht: 11th, The fingular flying amphibium, of which 

 Collini has given a figure: 12th, Another amphibium, or 

 kind of whale, mentioned by Collini, Befides the above 

 twelve kinds of animals, defcribed by others, i was the firft 

 who determined eleven other kinds; viz. 13th, The animal 

 of'Simore, in Languedoc, approaching near to the elephant 

 of the Ohio: 14th, A kind of tapir different from that now 

 exifting : 15th, A gigantic tapir : 16th, A kind of river horfe 

 of the fize only of a fwine: 17th — 2'id, Six varieties of a 

 fpecies which, in conformation, ftands between the rhino- 

 ceros and the tapir; of thefe, one kind was as large as the 

 horfe, while the reft were merely of the fize of the rabbit ; 

 all thefe were found in the gypfum of Paris. 23d, In the 

 laft place, I found lately, near Honfleur, the bones of a fpe- 

 cies approaching near to the crocodile. I do not include 

 here three claffes of uncertain bones. The. firft clafs are 

 fimilar to thofe of animals now exifting; fuch as the tiger, 

 hyaena, and the deer. The fecond clafs are like the bones 

 of ruminating animal*, whales, Sec. from Verona, Gibraltar, 



Orleans, 



