310 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



Interesting Geological Discovery. Another alteration in our geolog- 

 ical charts seems likely to take place. Prof. Salter and others of Kng- 

 land have discovered, during the past year, in the so called " Lingula 

 Flags," (a series of rocks which lie at the base of the British Silurian 

 System,) two new genera of trilobites and a new genus of sponge : which by 

 reason of their specific differences from ail the Silurian genera, would 

 seem to indicate that the Lingular flags must henceforth be regarded as 

 members of a separate formation. 



Fossil Elephant of MaMa. Some exceedingly curious remains of a 

 new species of fossil elephant, have recently been found by Dr. Leith 

 Adams in the Island of Malta, in certain cave deposits and breccias. 

 One of the chief points with reference to this elephant is the small size 

 of its teeth, which, coupled with other characteristics, leaves no doubt 

 that it was not only distinct from any living or extinct species, but that 

 it was, as regards dimensions, a pigmy compared with them. It is sup- 

 posed to have been no larger than a lion. Such specimens, together 

 with the bones and teeth of hippopotami, which of late years have been 

 met with in great abundance in different parts of Malta and Gozo, tend to 

 show that these islands are but fragments of what may have been at one 

 time an extensive continent, in all probability connected with either 

 Europe or Africa, or both. 



Great Crocodile of the Oolite. M. A. Valenciennes recently exhib- 

 ited to the French Academy a fossil crocodile tooth found in the Oolite, 

 near Poitiers. From its size he estimated the animal to have been 

 100 feet long. This creature must not be confounded with the meg- 

 alosnurus. 



Curious Facts in Geology. At the last meeting of the British 

 Association, Mr. C. Moore, in some remarks on the " Geology of the 

 southwest of England," stated, in respect to a variety of clay found 

 in the vicinity of the town of Frouie, that out of a cartload of it he 

 had been enabled to obtain more than a million organisms, in addition 

 to 20 types of mammalia and various kinds of reptilia. He had dis- 

 covered in these beds many genera that had never been previously 

 recognized. In these beds he had obtained over 70,000 teeth of one 

 kind of fo;-sil alone. 



Mr. Moore produced some interesting specimens of stones which 

 he had found in the neighborhood of Bath. These stones were about 

 five inches in diameter, and about six or seven long, and each of them 

 contained a specimen of some kind of fish. Indeed, he could tell by 

 the appears ice of the stone what it contained, and he would break 

 open severr.l to show this. He did so, and in every ease the fish Mr. 

 Moore had previously indicated was discovered; but the most inter- 

 esting speci:nen was the ova which contained the cuttle-fish. When 

 Mr. Moore broke open the stone, not only was the cuttle-fish discov- 

 ered, but t'le inky fluid the sepia was discovered as in a fish of 

 the same kind that might be taken out of the sea at the present day. 

 There was as much of it as would fill an ordinary sized ink-bottle, 

 and Mr. Moore took a portion of it and smeared it over a piece of 

 white paper, making it literally as black as ink. He then produced 

 some specimens of the Ichthyosauri found in the neighborhood of 

 Jiath, and ;i specimen of a ii.'-h, about the >i/r <>\' a salmon, of six or 

 seven pounds weight. It was so perfect in its form and appearance 



