424 Scientific Inteliigence — Palceontology, 



was such at that moment, that it was difficult to stand upright in them, 

 and the cracking of the walls and beams warned the inhabitants, who 

 rushed into the streets. The women threw themselves on their knees, 

 imploring the aid of the Madonna de Montenon, patroness of the town, 

 and the men devoutly crossed themselves. During the night, different 

 other shocks were felt. The earth seemed to be in a state of convul- 

 sion ; the sky was cloudless, but there was a thick haze, which did not 

 fail to make a sinister impression. In the country, the effects were 

 more disastrous, principally in the Maremme, where ancient traces 

 of volcanic eruptions are numerous. Whole villages were destroyed 

 in the districts of Taulia, Laurenzana, Corciana, and Casciano. At 

 Voltena, a state-prison fell in, burying some of the prisoners in the 

 ruins. The number of lives lost is estimated at 38, and 140 wounded, 

 some dangerously. Various natural phenomena occurred ; near Lo- 

 renzuna, and at Treiona, muddy and boiling water issued from the 

 earth; a lake was formed in a hollow. All the villas on the hills 

 near Pisa have suffered considerably. For the last four days the ground 

 has not ceased to shake at intervals. In the present shaken state of 

 the houses, another powerful shock would be the ruin of Leghorn. 

 Part of the population has left the town, others live in tents, or have 

 sought refuge in boats." — Daily News, August 25, 1846. 



PALiEONTOLOGY. 



4. Discovery of New Species of Fossil Frog in the Tertiary 

 Formations of the neighbourhood of Osnabruck. — M. Duuker has 

 found small bones of frogs in the shelly and coraline gravels of Hel- 

 lern, not far from Osnabruck, which belong to the tertiary epoch. 

 M. H. de Meyer, who has examined them, has detected at least three 

 new species, which may be distinguished from each other by the 

 forms of the humerus. This same bone had already enabled this 

 skilful palseontologist to establish twenty-four species of frogs found 

 at Weisenau. None of the humeri discovered at Hellern are like 

 those belonging to these twenty-four species. The other bones, 

 such as those of the sacrum, the fore-arm, and pelvis, appear to in- 

 dicate more analogy between the species of these two localities. — 

 Leonh. and Bronn, N. Jahr 6. 1845, p. 798. 



5. Two New Species of Fossil Bat in the Tertiary Formations 

 of Weisenau. — The Cheiroptera have rarely been found in a fossil 

 state in tertiary formations. "We know of none belonging to this fa- 

 mily, in deposits anterior to the diluvian epoch, except the Vesper- 

 tilio Parisiensis of the Montmartre schists, of which only one indi- 

 vidual is preserved in the museum at Paris ; and two small teeth 

 found in the eocene sand of Kyson, and referred, by Mr Owen, with 

 doubt, to the genus Vespertilio. 



The species mentioned by Karg, at (Eningen, appears very uncer- 

 tain, and the original specimen has been lost. M. Hermann de 



