176 SCIENTIFIC LABORS OF EDWARD LARTET. 



Tlie composition of the teeth is also uot the same. Cortical or cement 

 was wanting in those of tbe ruminants of Sansan, although found in 

 the teeth of the fossil ruminants of Auvergne, most of which are more 

 recent. 



These ingenious researches of M. Lartet formed the germ of a work 

 which appeared in 18G8, in which he laid stiU more stress upon the dif- 

 ferences between the fossils of the same genus of successive geological 

 periods in regard to the structure of the teeth and the size of the 

 braiu. 



In 1839 M. Lartet published his first summary of the discoveries in 

 geology and paleontology in the department of Gers, with an appendix, 

 in which were described forty-four species of fossil vertebrates. Another 

 article, published in 1851, under the title, " Bescrijyfion of the Hill of 

 >S'«?iS««," was exclusively devoted to the paleontologicjil examination of 

 this locality, and of the other fossiliferous deposits of Gers. The author, in 

 order to explain the richness of the fauna, and the profusion of bones 

 found, supposes that a lake existed at Sansan in which the lacustrine mol- 

 luscs lived, and into which the vertebrates were thrown after their death. 

 He shows that great difference exists between the fossil and the living 

 fauna of Sausan, and will not admit that the existing animals descended 

 directly from the miocene animals reconstructed by himself. Finally, 

 he gives a complete list of all the vertebrates he collected, with tbe ad- 

 dition of a catalogue of the terrestrial and lacustrine moUuscs described 

 by Saint Ange of Boissy, Noulet, and the Abbe Dupuy. 



This list, after its imblication, was modified to suit the changes in 

 nomenclature, and then confided to M. D'Archiac, to be inserted in his 

 report on the Paleontology of France, (1868, x>. 360.) Tbe fauna of 

 Sansan comprises seventy-one mammals, representing thirty-nine gen- 

 era, eighteen birds belonging to twelve genera, twenty-eight or thirty 

 reptiles, a few fishes, and forty molluscs of twelve genera, the largest 

 collection of vertebrates in our country ; and very few localities in the 

 world could show a similar accumulation of animals in as limited a space. 

 - In 1845 M. Lartet sent a synopsis of his recent discoveries at Sansan to 

 the Institute. "About 8,000 or 10,000 remains have been collected, 

 among them the bones of a large fossil edentate or Macrotherium, and 

 enough parts of a dinotherium to convince natiu^alists that this ani- 

 mal is not cetaceous, but rather a terrestrial quadruped. There is 

 not a single species identical with existing forms. This special point 

 on the earth's surface known as Sansan, has, it seems, given birth to a 

 variety of mammals much greater than that now existing. Every de- 

 gTee in the animal scale has been here represented, including the 

 monkey. A still higher type — that of man — it is true, has not been 

 found; but because he is wanting in these ancient formations we need 

 not conclude that he did not exist." 



These ideas in regard to the fossil man were singularly" in advance of 

 the age in 1845. It almost seems as if M. Lartet had a presentiment of 



