of Dodos' Remains in Mauritius. 145 



century. Bones of Deer, Pigs, and Monkeys * were also dis- 

 covered. The Deer's bones only were found in juxtaposition, 

 so as to render it probable that the animal had died on the spot 

 in which they were found. 



All the Dodos' beaks wanted the horny tip which clothed 

 them in their original state. Several of them were larger than 

 that represented in the plate in Strickland's work. 



Not a single bone of the phalanges has been found, although 

 very diligent search has been made for them. It is possible that, 

 if the uuirsh in which the bones were discovered could be laid 

 altogether dry, they might be found; but it would be a very 

 tedious and costly work to drain off the water, even in the dry 

 season, as springs rise in it. 



The Mare aux Songes comprises an area of four or five acres. 

 It is about a quarter of a mile from the sea, from which it is se- 

 parated by low sandhills and basaltic rocks. It was originally a 

 ravine, the bottom of which consisted, like that of most ravines 

 in this countiy, of masses of basalt varying in weight from a 

 few pounds to several tons. It receives the drainage of about 

 two hundred acres, inclining towards it by a gentle slope. In 

 the course of ages the interstices between these masses of basalt 

 have been filled up by alluvium. A luxuriant growth of fern, 

 sedge, and flags has spread from the borders over the deeper parts 

 of the marsh, forming a mass sufficiently compact to allow of a 

 person's walking across it. This covering, by preserving any- 

 thing beneath it from the action of the atmosphere, is probably 

 a principal cause of the perfect state of preservation in which 

 the bones under it were found. 



The Mare aux Songes and the lands around it were covered 

 with thick forests at the beginning of the present century : now 

 not a tree remains. From its sheltered position and the peren- 

 nial springs which flow in it, it must have afi'orded a suitable 



* [In a "Bi'ief Notice of tlie Fauna of Mauritius" prefixed to ' The 

 Mauritius Register' for 1859 (p. xliv), it is stated that these Monkeys 

 were '' introduced by the Portuguese from Ceylon ;" but a specimen sent 

 home in 1861, by Mr, E. Newton, was identified by Mr. Sclater with 

 Macacus radiatus of India, a species which is replaced in Ceylon by M. 

 pilcatus. — Ed.] 



N.S. VOL. II. L 



