334 Mr Owen on the Dicynodon. 



and they have also been brought from the country far to the 

 north beyond the Orange River. Ammonites have been found 

 at the summit of the Compass-berg, 150 miles NW. of the 

 Winterberg. 



The author does not venture to decide on the geological age 

 of the formations he thus describes, but proceeds in conclusion 

 to allude to some overlying deposits found near the southern 

 coast of Albany, one of which is a red sandstone conglomerate, 

 entirely without fossils, and resting unconformably on the sup- 

 posed carboniferous sandstone ; others are distinctly tertiary, 

 and abound in shells resembling those of animals still living 

 on the South African coast. A thick diluvial deposit is found 

 near Fort Beaufort, and from the plains far to the northward 

 beyond the Orange River, the fossil skull of a kind of buffalo 

 has been obtained. 



Description of certain Fossil Crania, discovered by A. G. Bain, 

 Esq., in Sandstone Bocks at the South-eastern Extremity of 

 Africa, referable to different Species of an extinct Genus of 

 Heptilia (Dicynodon), atid indicative of a new Tribe or 

 Sub-order of Sauria. By RiCHARD OWEN, Esq., F.R.S., 

 F.G.S., &c. 



The most remarkable character in these fossils, is the pre- 

 sence of two long curved and sharp-pointed tusks, which, like 

 those of the Walrus, descend one from each superior maxillary 

 bone, and pass on the outside of the fore part of the lower jaw, 

 a character rare even in Mammals, and hitherto only met with 

 in that class ; but in these specimens combined with a struc- 

 ture of the cranium, proving that the animals belonged to the 

 class Reptilia, but were members neither of the Crocodilian 

 nor Chelonian orders. The Lacertine Sauria offer characters 

 for comparison, but the minor deviations from the ordinary 

 Lacertian structure are so numerous, the mode in which Cro- 

 codilian and Chelonian characters are interwoven upon an 

 essentially Lacertian base is so interesting, and the individual 

 and distinctive characters of the Dicynodons so striking and 



