FLORISSANT; A MIOCENE POMPEII 



"3 



^ossil Cai.yx of Porana tenuis. 

 (.The genus is now Asiatic. I 



species are only partially known 

 from very incomplete fragments. 

 The paleontologist and the historian 

 not only desire to know how suc- 

 cessive events are related, but are 

 keenly alive to the necessity for de- 

 tailed information concerning the 

 contemporaneous events and objects 

 of any one period. Hence it is that 

 the uncovering of Pompeii and Her- 

 culaneum stirs the blood of the most 

 lethargic, for there is presented to 

 our gaze the actual life of nearly 

 two thousand years ago in all its 

 detail and variety. We know, per- 

 haps, that the ancients had certain 

 customs, used certain tools, enjoyed 

 particular kinds of art and litera- 

 ture; but to accurately restore their 

 daily life, even with the aid of many 

 brilliant descriptive passages left by 

 their writers, was a difficult feat for 



the imagination. To find two cities 

 buried just as they stood at the 

 beginning of the Christian era is 

 not merely to gain an incalculably 

 precious insight into the life of, that 

 period, but to obtain a landmark of 

 the utmost service for comparisons, 

 both with earlier and later times. 



For like reasons, the naturalist 

 may well look for earlier deposits 

 in which living animals and plants 

 are preserved somewhat as at Pom- 

 peii; and may feel thankful if in 

 all the world one or two such places 

 exist. 



The most famous of such locali- 

 ties is CEninoen, on the north or 

 Baden side of a narrow arm of 

 Lake Constance leading to the 

 Pihine. The products of this won- 

 derful fossil-bed — or rather, succes- 



VOT.. LXXII. — 8. 



Fossil Land Snail (Yitrea 

 fagclis). (Enlarged.) 



