258 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



consistinST of various alluvial formations, and an ancient allnvinm 

 j-ielding obsidian implements. The post-pliocene deposits are 

 divided into upper and lower, the former comprising the loess as its 

 upper member, without fossils or human remains, but probably be- 

 longing to the reindeer period ; and, as its lower member, various 

 deposits known as the diluvium, containing remains of Bos primi- 

 genius and B. trocJioceros^ with stone knives. The lower post- 

 pliocene strata are divided into an upper portion, consisting of 

 ferruginous conglomerate, etc., without human remains, but 

 otherwise containing similar fossils to the underl3ing deposit. 

 The lower portion consists of lacustrine clays of great thickness, 

 with layers of peat toward its upper margin, containing bones of 

 Elephas primigenius, Cervus euryceros. Bison priscus, and a species 

 (probably new) of E quits ; it has also yielded stone implements, 

 and a human cranium, the latter from the plain of the Aretino. At 

 last, a fossil cranium has been discovered associated with remains 

 of extinct animals in a true stratified deposit; and, whether this 

 deposit be termed lower post-pliocene, or anything else, there 

 seems little room for doubt that the cranium was imbedded 

 contemporaneously with the remains of Elephas primigenius, etc.» 

 and that man lived in Italy contemporaneously with those animals. 

 The fossil skull of Calaveras County, Cal., is alleged to have 

 been found in a shaft sunk in the auriferous gravel of Bald Moun- 

 tain, in September, 1866, at a depth of about 130 feet, and beneath 

 several beds of volcanic matter interstratified with auriferous 

 gravel. The shaft was soon after filled with water, and so it now 

 remains. In the calcareous tufa surrounding the skull were found 

 two human metatarsal bones, the lower end of a fibula, part of 

 the ulna and sternum ; also a fragment of a human tibia, too 

 small for the same individual, and a shell of Helix mormonensis 

 (now living in the locality). It evidently belonged to an old per- 

 son. The geological horizon in which it is said to have been found 

 is pliocene or post-pliocene. 



ANCIENT FAUNA OF FRANCE. 



From an examination of the ancient moraines of the valley of 

 Argelez, in the Pyrenees, MM. Martins and Colomb have come 

 to the conclusion, that, during the quarternary period an immense 

 glacier filled this great valley, extending even into the plain ; that its 

 length was 53 kilometers, the average slope of its surface O™, 138, 

 and its terminal moraine was arrested at an altitude of about 400 

 metres. The climate, and consequently the fauna, was of neces- 

 sity very different from the present one ; and M. Lartet gives the 

 following list of the principal mammals and birds, extinct, exist- 

 ing elsewhere, or still found in the region, which lived in the 

 south-west of France during the quarternary period ; it will be 

 seen that it is the fauna of a cold country, zoology confirming the 

 data of geology. 



Extinct animals : Elephas antiquus ^n([ primigenius; Bhinoceros 

 Merkii -dWiX tichorliinus ; Bos jvimigenius ; Cervus megaccros ; Ursus 



