332 Royal Academy of Berlin. 



of bears were found mingled with sand and large water-worn pebbles 

 of the rocks already mentioned. 



One of the most interesting observations which occurred to the 

 author during his investigation was, that the stratified earthy mate- 

 rials filling the cave were not deposited horizontally, but had an evi- 

 dent dip, which he remarked was in the same direction and apparent 

 inclination as that of the limestone rock itself. The important in- 

 ference he drew from this is, that the stratified materials were de- 

 posited in the cave before the limestone received its present position ; 

 and he conjectured, that the animals whose remains are here pre- 

 served may have existed even before the last great disturbances of 

 our carboniferous system of rocks. Should similar phenomena be 

 observed in other caves, it would perhaps carry back the existence 

 of mammiferous animals to geological epochs more ancient than ge- 

 nerally supposed ; and account for the occurrence of diluvial mate- 

 rials in similar situations, without the startling supposition of exten- 

 sive degradations of solid rocks, by causes apparently inadequate to 

 produce them. Another cave exists in the same neighbourhood, in 

 which bones have also been found. It is near the village of Pont 

 Newydd. In its bottom was found a collection of hyaena bones, in 

 a mass of calc-sinter and gravel, four feet in thickness. 



The author illustrated his paper by a view of the cliffs of Cefn, 

 and by a plan and sections of the principal cave. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF BERLIN.* 



Feb. 23, 1837. — M. von Buch read a paper on the Jura in Ger- 

 many. 



The German Jura in Swabia and Franconia is an uninterrupted 

 continuation of the Swiss Jura. Its external form is that of a glacis 

 of a fortification, with a gentle descent towards the exterior, and a 

 steep fall towards the interior. Opposite to it stands the similar 

 range of the French Jura, on the right side of the Saone upwards, 

 and on the left sides of the Meurthe and Moselle downwards. The 

 steep declivities of these elevated ranges are turned towards each 

 other, and the space, which they for the most part surround, is in the 

 northern parts almost completely inclosed by older grauw r acke moun- 

 tains. The interior of this immense bason contains the greatest por- 

 tion of Burgundy and Lorraine, the whole of Alsace, Swabia, Fran- 

 conia, and Hessia, and includes no mountains of the Jura formation. 

 For this reason M. von Buch considers the chains to have been ori- 

 ginally produced in their present form, with their canal-like valleys, 



* Translated from the Bericht iiber die Verhandlungeli der konigl. Aka- 

 demie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. 



