MAMMALIAN REMAINS AT EPERNAY. 187 



perfect, you should, if possible, have the following' alterations made in the 

 engraving : — two shorter rays should be added to the first D. fin, and the 

 second D. entirely altered ; this and the anal should be made to touch upon 

 the base of C. fin ; the whole body should be scaled over ; the frontal spine 

 too should originate in a line with the posterior margin of the eye. These 

 alterations made, the figure would be about perfect." 



The engraving being on wood, unfortunately does not allow of the in- 

 troduction of the proposed corrections; but the characters of the genus are 

 so strongly marked, that no material ambiguity can result from the error 

 ou the part of the artist.— Ed.] 



Art. VII. — On the occurrence of Mammalian Remains in the 

 Lower Eocene deposits of Epernay, Marne. By Jos. Prest- 

 wiCH, Juii., Esq., F.G.S. &c. 



In a paper read before the Geological Society of Paris, De- 

 cember, 1837,^ I gav^e a short account of some peculiar or- 

 ganic remains, which I had found in a coarse arenaceous 

 stratum of the plastic clay series, forming the summit of 

 Mont Bernon, near Epernay. 



As I have since added to the list of fossils which I then 

 was able to enumerate, you may, perhaps, think the substance 

 of the communication, along with a reference to a memoir 

 upon a nearly equivalent deposit in the neighbourhood of 

 Paris, by M. Chas. D'Orbigny, of sufficient interest for inser- 

 tion in your journal. 



Epernay is situated upon the eastern margin of the basin 

 of Paris. The tertiary strata merely cap the hills, the bases 

 of which, with the valleys, consist of chalk. The small 

 streams flowing off" from the high table land, frequently ex- 

 pose, in their course down the steep declivities, excellent 

 sections of the several deposits. 



Numerous small sections are also made in excavating the 

 bitumino-carbonaceous clays (cendres), common in the plastic 

 clay of this country, and used as manure for the vines. Se- 

 veral pits of this nature are worked on Mont Bemon, afford- 

 ing good opportunities of studying its structure ; but the 

 superposition of the beds is in some places rendered rather 

 obscure by numerous small faults, which range about 10° Fi. 

 of S., and 10° W. of N. Connecting, however, the various 

 sections, the following is, as well as I could ascertain, the 

 order of superposition, commencing from the summit. 



' Bulletin Soc. Geol. dc France, vol. ix. p. 84. 



