QEOLOOY. 173 



belonging to three or four distinct genera, var3ring in size from 

 that of a mole, to that of a hedge-hog, besides the entire skele- 

 ton of a crocodile, the shell or carapace of a fresh-water tortoise, 

 and some smaller reptiles. I had the pleasure of witnessing the 

 disinterment of many of these specimens, but, as I did not feel 

 myself at liberty to make private notes at the time, I subjoin a 

 short account of them from Sir Charles Lyell's Supplement to the 

 fifth edition of his "Manual of Elemental Geology," to which I 

 refer for a more minute description. Including those obtained 

 by Mr. Brodie, "there were, besides reptilian remains, three 

 lower jaws of three mammalian species, and upon one slab was 

 seen the upper portion of a skull, consisting of the two parietal 

 bones in a good state of preservation, with the sagittal crest well 

 marked, as also the connection with the frontals and the occipital 

 crest. Enough of this cranium remains to show that it agrees 

 with the ordinary t3rpe of living warmblooded quadrupeds. 



"In the same slab with the cranium is one entire side of a lower 

 jaw of a quadruped, for which Professor Owen proposes the 

 generic name of Triconodon. It contains eight molars, a large 

 and prominent canine, and one broad and thick incisor. This 

 creature must have been nearly as large as the common hedge- 

 hog. 



" Several other jaws with similar tricusped teeth of larger di- 

 mensions, found by Mr. Beckles, indicate the existence of another 

 species of Triconodon of a more elongated form, and about one 

 third larger in size. These two species, from the cutting cha- 

 racter of their teeth, and their comparatively formidable canines, 

 together with the form of the ascending ramus, are more like 

 small ferine animals than mere insectivorous marsupials. It is 

 more probable that they fed on prey less minute than insects. 



"Among the jaws of many smaller insectivora is one allied to 

 the Stonesfield Amphiiherium, but generically distinct. 



" Besides these mammalia belonging to nine or ten species and 

 to five or six genera, all of them insectivorous or predaceous, 

 Mr. Beckles discovered the remains of another genus, related to 

 the living Kangaroo-rat, which inhabits the prairies of Australia. 

 Dr. Falconer has proposed for this fossil the generic name of 

 Plagiaulax, 



