312 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



of the rhinoceros ; he had named it Atlantochelys. Boston Natural 

 History Society. 



NEW FOSSILS IN THE POSSESSION OF DR. MANTELL. 



A LETTER from Mr. Mantel!, of London, published in Silliman's 

 Journal, for January, 1851, states that he has received a letter from a 

 friend, in New Zealand, in which the writer says, that, having heard 

 of caves containing birds' bones, he visited one of them, and was re- 

 warded by obtaining several skulls and mandibles. " The beak is not 

 like the Keivi {Apteryx), but resembles that of the ostrich or casso- 

 wary. The cave is on the west side of the North Island, in the lime- 

 stone formation which extends along the coast." There are many 

 similar caves said to contain birds' bones. The natives believe that 

 the country was once set on fire by the eruption of a volcano, and that 

 all the Moas fled to a cave for refuge and there perished. This tra- 

 dition Dr. Man tell considers as confirmed by various evidence, at least 

 as far as relates to the Middle Island. 



Among the fossil shells received from Mr. Walter Mantell are spe- 

 cies of Cucultaa collected in the North Island, apparently identical 

 with Cucultdca decussata of England. 



Dr. Mantell writes that he has himself obtained from the Wealden 

 some highly interesting and novel remains of the colossal reptiles that 

 were contemporaries of the Iguanodon. He has also discovered an 

 abundance of fossil cones, the fruit or seed-vessels of the fir-trees 

 composing the forests of the Wealden. He has besides a beautiful 

 fossil palm-leaf from the tertiary strata of the Isle of Wight, being the 

 first species of this kind found in England. 



FOSSILS IN FRANCE. 



IN the Comptes Rendus, for May 13, M. Paul Gervais notices some 

 fossils obtained from a rich bed in the environs of Apt (Vaucluse). 

 Among them are two mammals which differ generically from any 

 hitherto known. They are very imperfect, but the animals to which 

 the bones belonged were Pachydermata, ranking, the one among the 

 Lophiadons and Tapirs, the other among the Pachydermata nearest al- 

 lied to ruminants. They are called, respectively, Tapirulus hyracinus, 

 and Acotherulum saturninum. The fossils of this bed resemble very 

 closely those of the limestones of Paris. 



MASTODON ANGUSTIDENS AND NORTHERN FOSSIL ELEPHAS. 



several years past, it has been a matter of considerable doubt 

 whether the remains of the Mastodon angustidens have ever been 

 found in the United States. The species of mastodon common in 

 Northern America was the M. giganteus, while the M. angustidens 

 appears to have been confined to the Old World, and according to Dar- 

 win to some parts of South America. Dr. John C. Warren of Bos- 

 ton, who, by his researches, has identified his name with that of the 



