THE MAGAZINE 



OF 



NATURAL HISTORY 



JANUARY, 1840. 



Art. I. — View of the Fauna of Brazil, previous to the last Geolo- 

 gical Revolution.^ By Dr. Lund.* 



Dr. Lund commences his account by explaining the circum- 

 stances under which the fossil remains he is about to describe 

 are found. " They are all found, " he says, " in the caves 

 which occur in the calcareous rocks that traverse, in various 

 directions the interior Highlands of Brazil. A mountain 

 chain composed of this rock diverges from the principal chain 

 of the central plateau (Serra do Espinha^o) in the neighbour- 

 hood of the capital of the Province Minas, and extends to- 

 wards the north west, dividing the waters of the rivers Rio 

 das Velhas and Paraopeba. It is this chain which has hi- 

 therto formed the richest field of my researches ; and indeed 

 it is to the caves on its eastern declivity that I am indebted for 

 all the relics of the inhabitants of a former world which I yet 

 possess. Its western side presents fewer caves, and I have 

 not been so fortunate as to find any trace of animal remains 

 in them, any more than in the numerous caverns contained in 

 the other small limestone chains connected \^dth the above 

 principal range. 



The rock of which these chains is composed is a dark grey, 

 fine-grained, crystalline, transition limestone, disposed in ho- 

 rizontal strata, which not unfrequently exhibit a very gentle 



1 This is a nearly literal translation of Dr. Lund's own title, but it is by 

 no means descriptive of this first paper, at least, which is merely introduc- 

 tory, and might be better entitled, — "An Account of the Limestone Caves 

 in the Interior Highlands of Brazil ; with a description of the Mammalia 

 now occurring in that district." His second paper is entitled — "A Survey 

 or Sketch of the extinct species of Mammalia which inhabited the High- 

 lands of Tropical Brazil, previously to the last Geological Revolution." — 

 Translator. 



2 In a communication addressed to the Society of Sciences at Copenha- 

 gen, and printed there in 1838. Translated from the Danish, and com- 

 municated to the Mag. Nat, Hist., by the Rev. W. Bilton. 



Vol. IV.— No. 37, n. s. b 



