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quarries, and the astragalus of some carnivorous animal, one- 

 third smaller. Remains of tortoises and lacertce were also 

 found here ; but, of the latter, only one or two specimens. 



Agreeable to the important remarks of Cuvier, we find 

 that, in the country in which these quarries exist, so exten- 

 sive as to reach twenty leagues from east to west, hardly 

 any bones have been found but of one family, the pachyder- 

 mata. He is hence led to remark, that the present state of 

 large islands, as New Holland in particular, may teach us 

 what may have been that of the country which was inhabited 

 by the fossil animals of these quarries. In these quarries 

 one carnivorous animal only has been found, and eight 

 species of pachyderiyiata. In New Holland five-sixths of the 

 quadrupeds also belong to one family, jtedimanes, or marsu- 

 pial quadrupeds ; whilst the countries forming the two great 

 continents are inhabited by all the families of quadrupeds, 

 according to climate, nature of soil, &c. 



In the loose soil of vallies and large plains, he observes, 

 are found the bones of eleven species, differing from the 

 known species of the order pachydermata : a rhinoceros, 

 two hippopotamuses, two tapirs, an elephant, and five 

 mastodons, the latter being of a genus distinct and unknown, 

 and the former, though belonging to known genera, differing 

 from all known species. These bones he considers as having 

 been enveloped by the last, or one of the last, catastrophes 

 of this globe ; and being frequently covered with remains 

 of marine animals, but not with regular beds of conchiferous 

 stone, he concludes this catastrophe to have been a great 

 but transient inundation of the sea. Before this catastrophe 

 these animals lived, he therefore supposes, in the climates 

 in which we now dig up their bones. 



Lophiodon. — This genus, nearly allied to the tapir, has 

 been lately added by Cuvier to his former important disco- 

 veries. Its remains are only known as fossils. It is cha- 



u u. 



