172 Foreign Literature and Science 



Flora, has just published r catalogue raisonnect mcthoJique 

 of his collection of fossils, the most compIt:te perhaps in 

 existence. Among other ohjects, be describes lheA?ithro- 

 polites, or fossil bones belonging to the human species, which 

 have been discovered in the environs (if Kostriz, near Gera, 



in the county of Recuss, in Upper Saxony. The rock on 

 which the whole secondary stratum rests, is a transition ar- 

 gillaceous schist^ of a reddish grey colour. It covers a 

 hard firm grained grau-icdckcy which occasionally makes 

 its appearance in the beds of the streams. Immediately 

 above this schist is old secondary limestone, in nearly hor- 

 izontal strata. Old secondary gypsum is in some places in- 

 serted in the limestone, and is subordinate to it. An alluv- 

 ium, composing a dryer soil, and occasionally sandy, covers 

 all these secondary rocks- This soil which richly rewards 

 the industrious cultivator, occupies an extent of many 

 square miles. The secondary limestone is in many places 

 cavernous, the cavities often containing numerous stalac- 

 tites. Large openings, or cavities are also filled with the 

 superincumbent clay. It is in one of the largest cavities of 

 the limestone, and at the depth of twenty feet, and in the 

 residue of the clay which fills the cavity, that the bones of 

 large animals have been found* Among these bones are 

 various fragments of the Hhinoceros antiquitaiis^ the jaws 

 and teeth of a species of antediluvian horse, principally 

 distinguished by the extraordinary length of its teeth. Ver- 

 tebrae and tibiae of cattle, and slags of very extraordinary 

 size. The lower jaw, and teeth of a large antediUivIan 

 hyena^ (canis crocutaformis major, of Cuvier) fragments of 

 the ho dihiviamis* All these bones are, more or less, 

 changed, and penetrated with calcareous matter ; but as 

 bones are found at much greater depths in clay, in some 

 other places, and much less changed in their substance, it is 

 admitted that a greater or less alteration of the substance of 

 those fossil bones, cannot in any wise, serve as an indication 

 cf the difference that may exist in their relative ages ; nor 

 that the species to which they have belonged, have perished 

 at different epochs. 



The gypsum, which is subordinate to this cavernous lime- 

 stone, presents itself in large uniform masses, or short thick 

 beds inserted in the limestone. In these beds of gypsum, 

 cavities, and fissures also exist, which extend themselves in 



