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268 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY OF 
septa, and has found that there is no connexion between the form of these — 
septa and the generic characters. On the contrary, he has arrived at this 
unexpected fact that the septa have undergone what might be called a sort 
of geological evolution. Their form is a character not of the species, but of the 
epoch in which the cephalopod was alive. M. Pictet recognizes the two follow- 
ing laws: 1. All the neocomian species have the superior lateral lobe divided 
into unequal parts; 2. The proportions of the inferior lateral lobe vary with 
the geologic age. M. Pictet further informed us that near Montiers, in Switzer- 
land, occurs a site analogous to that of Mauremont, formed, that is to say, by 
the fauna of the basin of Paris, in superficial rents or fissures. Below, in the 
jurassic formation, bones of the Megalosaurus have been discovered ; a fact of 
interest, because that reptile constituted, with the Iguanodon and the Ieosaurus, 
the only great terrestrial reptiles of the jurassic period. At Mauremont have 
been found a jaw-bone of the Rhagatherium and a tooth of the horse and ox, 
respectively—teeth, which have evidently proceeded from an intermixture later 
than the eocene fauna, which, till now, has been found in Switzerland free from 
all accessions. 
We owe to the same colleague an analysis of a memoir by M. Desor, relative 
to the question of the fossil man. The author combats the opinion pronounced 
by M. Pictet, that there has been no appearance of new species since the com- 
mencement of the quaternary epoch, but only extinction of species. To prove 
that during the quaternary period new species have appeared, M. Desor remarks 
that certain fishes, particularly the Cyprinus idus, are found only in the lakes 
of the north of Italy, and these lakes having been filled with ice during the 
glacier period, the creation of the fish must have been subsequent. M. Pictet 
refutes this remark by observing that when two identical fishes are found in two 
basins without communication, we have recourse, in order to explain this fact, 
to any other hypothesis rather than that of a special creation for each basin. 
On this occasion M. de Candolle called attention to the great difficulty which 
exists, in some cases, of comprehending how certain aquatic plants could have 
reappeared on our lakes after the glacier period; though M. Wartmann was of 
opinion that their seeds might during the interval preserve their germinative 
faculty. 
M. de Saussure exhibited the skull of a stag, found in a canal at Longmalle 
(Geneva,) and presenting’ a striking peculiarity; it bears the mark of blows 
given with cutting implements, and the antlers have been separated by a stroke 
of a hatchet. It is probable that this skull was buried in the sands on the bor- 
der of the lake in the same manner with the bones which are taken from the 
lacustrian sites. Our colleague also submitted to the Society some observations 
made in the pass of Bernardino in Oregon. Here are to be seen vast extents 
of rocks smoothed as if by glaciers, though without strie ; the smoothness being 
attributable to the action of the sand which, in those regions, the wind trans- 
ports in great quantities, while all the edges of the rocks exhibit channellings 
in the direction of the prevailing wind. 
M. de Loriol, then a free associate, presented a memoir on the fossils of the 
middle neocomian of Saleve. This neocomian has a peculiar faczes, character- 
ized by the Ammonites radiatws, which might be named the jurassic facies, 
because all the deposits of the Jura pertain to it. The neocomian of’ the Voi- 
rons and of Mole pertains to the alpine facies, with the deposits of the Alps, 
which possess characteristic fossils. These two facies often meet side by side 
in the south of France. For four years MM. Pictet and Loriol have been col: 
lecting numerous specimens of the fossils of Salave. The latter has distin- 
guished 138 species of invertebrata pertaining to Molluses, Annelida, Echinide 
and Spongiaria. Thus far he has met with no Polyps. In general the pre- 
servation of these fossils is imperfect, specimens invested with their shells being 
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