GEOLOGY. 301 



especial interest as indicating a fauna more nearly allied to the existing fauna 

 of Asia and Africa than to our own. In the collection submitted to the 

 examination of Dr. Leidy, he detected the remains of twenty-nine mammals 

 and one turtle. Of these there are ten species of ruminants of the genera Cer- 

 vus, Mei-ycodus, Procamelus, Megalomeryx, Merycochccrus, and Merychyus; 

 three pachyderms of the genera Rhinoceros, Mastodon, and Elephas; of soli- 

 peds, eight species of the genera Equus, Hipparion, ProioMppus, Hypohippus, 

 Parahippus, and Merychippus ; of rodents, two species of the genera Hystrix 

 and Castor ; of carnivora, six species of the genera Canis, Fdis, and Aeluro- 

 don ; and the turtle appears to be a species of StyUmys. 



From the greeusand formation of the cretaceous period, through which 

 course the Missouri and its tributaries, the Grand, Moreau, and Cheyenne 

 rivers, with a part of White river, the remains of numerous species of mol- 

 luscs have been obtained. From this formation it was that Maximilian, 

 Prince of Neuwied, obtained the skull and vertebral column of Mososaurus 

 MissouriensiSy described by Dr. Goldfusz, and now preserved in the Museum 

 of Bonn. Teeth of sharks and remains of sphyraeuoid fishes have also been, 

 discovered in the same formation. 



ON THE DRIFT OF THE TRIASSIC EPOCH. 



The following is an abstract of a paper read before the British Association, 

 1860, by Mr. C. Moore/which attracted no little attention : 



The author stated that several years ago he suspected the existence of 

 triassic rocks in the neighborhood of Fro me (England), from accidentally 

 finding a single block of stone on a road-side heap of carboniferous lime- 

 stone, containing fish remains of a former age, but that for a long time he 

 was unable to discover it in situ. More recently, when examining some 

 carboniferous limestone quarries near the above town, he observed certain 

 fissures which had subsequently been filled up with a drift of a later age. 

 One of these was about a foot in breadth at the top, but increased to fifteen 

 feet in breadth at the base of the quarry, thirty feet below, at which point 

 teeth and bones of triassic reptiles and fishes were found. Usually these 

 infillings consisted of a material as dense as the limestone itself, and from 

 which any organic remains could only be extracted with difficulty. In an- 

 other part of the section he was fortunate enough to find a deposit consisting 

 of a coarse, friable sand, containing similar remains. In order that this 

 might receive a more careful examination than could be given to it on the 

 spot, the whole of it, consisting of about three tons weight, was carted away 

 to the residence of the author, at Bath, a distance of twenty miles, all of 

 which had passed under his observation, with the following result : The fish 

 remains, which were the most abundant, were first noticed. Some idea might 

 be formed of their numbers when he stated that 6f the genus Acrodus alone, 

 including two species, he had extracted forty-five thousand teeth from the 

 three square yards of earth under notice, and that they were even more 

 numerous than these numbers indicated, since he rejected all but the most 

 perfect examples. Teeth of the Sauricthys of several species Avere also 

 abundant ; and, next to them, teeth of the Hybodus, \vith occasional spines of 

 the latter genus. Scales of the Gyrolepsis and Lepidotus were also numerous, 

 and teetli showing the presence of several other genera of fishes. With the 

 above were found a number of curious busies, each of which was sunn>m;i:<>d 

 by a ;K'))ivs.-">!, cnainr!!;/.!, thorn-like .-pine or too'.h, in some cus.& wiui 



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