84 NATURAL SCIENCE. Aug., 



silt and soil in the water, and the accumulation rapidly advances. 

 Gradually the level of the soil thus formed rises above high tide, and 

 then the mangroves, which require a constant supply of brackish 

 water, die off, and the whole grove advances seaward, leaving behind 

 it a mass of rich vegetable alluvial mud, better suited for rice than 

 probably any other soil in existence. Tobacco, sugar, and cotton 

 would, doubtless, also do well. The part bordering the sea is adapted 

 for the oil palm, and, presumably, also the coco-nut. 



The rest of the country consists chiefly of low rolling hills or 

 downs, covered by almost impenetrably thick bush 20 to 30 feet high, 

 or tall grasses from 8 to 10 or even 15 feet. The upland plateaux, 

 above 2,000 feet, would probably form excellent grazing ground. 



Mr. Elliot concludes that, from a botanical point of view, the 

 country is more suited to most valuable tropical plants than either 

 Jamaica or Mauritius, but the climate is in most parts dangerous for 

 Europeans, and neither energy nor physique can be kept up sufifi- 

 ciently to make proper use of its natural advantages. 



Discovery of an American Type of Extinct Mammal 

 IN the Balkans. 



As our palaeontological readers are probably aware, those re- 

 markable gigantic extinct Perissodactyle mammals known as the 

 Titanotheriidae (together with the Uintatheriidae) have hitherto been 

 regarded as confined to the Tertiaries of North America. Herr 

 Vacek had, however, suggested, as far back as 1877, that a species 

 from the Lower Tertiary of Transylvania, described under the neat 

 and concise name of Brachydiastematheriiim transilvanicum, which has 

 been generally regarded as a member of the Chalicotheriidae, might 

 really belong to the American family. 



In a recently -published paper {Sit zb. A k ad. Wien, 1892, pp. 608-615) 

 Dr. F. Toula describes two mammalian teeth from Miocene beds at 

 Kalina, near Sofia, in the Balkan Peninsula, which seem to leave no 

 doubt that the family in question was really represented in the 

 Tertiaries of Europe. The specimens consist of two very large 

 lower molar teeth, which pertained, as shown by their different 

 degrees of attrition, to as many individuals ; one being the last and 

 the other the penultimate of the series. That they belong to Perisso- 

 dactyles there can be no question ; and the last tooth differs from the 

 corresponding molar of all the large Perissodactyles of Europe in 

 possessing a third lobe, whereby it is at once distinguished from 

 Chalicotherium. Dr. Toula refers the specimens provisionally to the 

 American genus Menodus, under the name M. nimelicus, — a reference 

 which we believe to be perfectly correct, save that the name ought to 

 be Titanothcvium vnmelicum. He also supports the view that Brachydia- 

 stematheriiiin is likewise a member of the same family. 



