274 M. Schintz on the Fossil Remaiiis af Mammalia^ t^c: 



taining a considerable quantity of quartz, united by a calcareous 

 base. The bed of coal is from eight to twelve feet thick, 

 and the coal is often impregnated with bitumen. The carbonized 

 bones occur near this bitumen, and are fragile. The large teeth 

 have always three rows of tubercles, the small two. There have 

 also been found the jaw of a rhinoceros, which belongs to the 

 Rhinoceros clausus of Cuvier, and two long teeth of a singular 

 form, which are certainly the foreteeth of an animal resembling 

 the hogs and tapirs. These fragments were also presented. 



Near Seelmatten, on the frontiers of the Canton of Thurgau, 

 a bed of coal has been discovered, at a height of 600 feet above 

 the valley ; and since it has begun to be worked, there have been 

 found a tooth of the small species of palaeotherium, and 

 another entirely unknown, without doubt the fore tooth of a pa- 

 chydermatous animal. The two teeth were presented, but none 

 of the members present knew the latter. The presence of the 

 palaeotherium proves, in Cuvier's opinion, that this coal forma- 

 tion is older than has hitherto been supposed ; for he considers 

 the palaeotheriums as animals of very ancient creations. 



There were also presented a jaw and some bones of an unde- 

 termined species of mastodon, taken from a colliery near Buch- 

 berg, and a small unknown bone from the Spreitenbach mines, 

 near Dietikon, on the frontiers of the Canton of Argau. 



It follows from the preceding details, that in all the collieries 

 of the Canton of Zurich, there are found remains of antediluvian 

 animals, much more rarely remains of vegetables. Trunks of 

 large trees are distinctly seen only at Buchberg. At Kopfnach 

 there is nothing but circular leaves^ and at Elgg some indistinct 

 fibres of roots. The state of carbonization, however, may be the 

 cause that the vegetable substances are less distinct, since even 

 the hardest bones are so easily broken. 



