68 Geological Society. 



For these discoveries we are indebted to the exertions of M. Cristol, 

 a young naturalist of Montpelier, whose observations on the geology 

 of that district the author found to be in perfect accordance with 

 his own. 



With respect to the bones of Camels said to have been discovered 

 in this cavern, Dr, Buckiand found on comparing rigidly the only 

 bone which was supposed to be of this animal with the proportions 

 given in Cuvier, that it certainly does not belong to the Camel. In 

 some few parts of the diluvial mud there occur the bones of Rabbits 

 and Rats ; and M. Cristol has also discovered the leg of a Domestic 

 Cock. All these Dr. B. found on examination to be of recent origin 

 (not adhering to the tongue when dry, as do the antediluvian bones). 

 The Rats and Rabbits are supposed to have entered the cave spon- 

 taneously, and died in the holes which they had burrowed in the 

 soft diluvial mud, and the Cock's bone to have been introduced by 

 a Fox through a small hole in the side of the cavern, which had been 

 long known as a retreat of Foxes, in the bottom of an ancient 

 quarry. 



Land shells, similar to those which hybernate in the soil, or fis- 

 sures of the neighbouring rocks, are also found in the mud that filled 

 the cave. The author considers that these may either be the shells 

 of animals that in modern times have entered some small crevices 

 in the side of the cavern to hybernate there, and have buried them- 

 selves in the mud; or that they entered in more ancient times, and 

 died whilst the cave was inhabited by hyaenas, and lay mixed with 

 the bones before the introduction of the mud and pebbles, or that 

 they were washed in by the same diluvial water which imported 

 there the diluvial detritus in which they are now imbedded. 



Dr. Buckiand draws a strong line of distinction between the mud 

 and gravel of the caves and fissures, which he considers to be part 

 of the general diluvium so widely spread over the adjacent country, 

 and the local freshwater formations occurring also in the same 

 neighbourhood of Montpelier ; and which differ as decidedly from 

 them, and bear to them the same relation that the gravel on the 

 summit of Headen Hill in the Isle of Wight, bears to the strata of 

 freshwater limestone that lie beneath it. 



The author next proceeds to consider the epoch of the deposi- 

 tion of the remains of quadrupeds that have been found in some 

 extensive quarries of stone and sand in the Fauxbourg St. Domi- 

 nique at Montpelier, imbedded in a very recent marine formation 

 which has been described by M. Marcel de Serres, in the 'ith 

 volume of the Linn. Trans, of Paris, 



In the central beds of this deposit, the remains of the Elephant, 

 Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, Mastodon, Ox and Stag, are found 

 intermingled with those of Cetacea, Dugong, or Lamantin ; they are 

 more or less rolled, and are occasionally covered with marine shells. 

 Beds of oysters also (the Ostrea crassissima of Lamarck,) and 

 barmcles, occur in horizontal and nearly parallel strata amid the 

 marine sand, and show this deposition to have taken place gradually 

 and at successive though perhaps short intervals, rather than to 

 have resulted from a sudden marine irruption. The period of this 



deposition 



