Miscellaneous. 48 '3 



wise foreign to deposits of marine origin ; and all those which we 

 know, have been found buried in lacustrine formations, at whatever 

 epoch of the Tertiary period they may have lived. It is under 

 these conditions that we meet with them at Aix in Provence, at the 

 Puy en Velay, in the Limagne d'Auvergne, and in the gypseous 

 deposits of the neighbourhood of Paris. — Comptes Rendus, August 31 , 

 1874, tome lxxix. p. 557. 



On Fossil Evidences of a Sirenian Mammal (Eotherium segyptiacum, 

 Ow.) from the Nummulitic Eocene of the Mokattam Clijfs, near 

 Cairo. By Prof. Owen, F.R.S., F.G.S., &c. 



The specimens described in this paper were obtained by Dr. Grant, 

 of Cairo, in a block of the white limestone of the Cerithian Nummu- 

 litic zone, quarried extensively for building-purposes in the Mokattam 

 Cliffs. They consisted of a few fragments of the base of the cranium . 

 and a cast of the entire brain with the commencement of the myelon. 

 The author discussed the characters presented by these remains, 

 which he regarded as having belonged to an extinct sirenian, pro- 

 bably allied to Halitherium, which he proposed to name Eotheriion 

 cegyptiacum. The characters of the brain, as deducible from the 

 cast, were detailed, and shown to be sirenian. By comparison with 

 the brains of other Sirenia, the author was led to trace a progress 

 in the cerebral characters of the animals of this type, from its first 

 known appearance in the Nummulitic formation of Egypt to the 

 present day. He also inferred, from its presence in the Nummulitic 

 limestone, that this rock had been deposited not far from a shore. — 

 Proc. Geol. Soc. Nov. 18, 1874. 



Coal of the Carboniferous Era not made of Bark. 



The suggestion has been made, in view of the many Sigillaria- 

 stumps hollowed out by decay, and flattened stems of other trees, 

 found in the coal-measures, tilled with shale or sandstone, that the 

 vegetable debris from which the coal has proceeded was largely bark, 

 or material of that general nature. But the occurrence of such 

 stumps and stems outside of the coal-beds, while proof that the 

 interior wood of the plants was loose in texture and very easily 

 decayed, is no evidence that these trees contributed only cortical 

 portions to the beds of vegetable debris. Moreover the cortical part 

 of Lepidodendrids (under which group the Sigillarids are included 

 by the best authorities), and of Ferns also, is made of the bases of 

 the fallen leaves, and is not like ordinary bark in constitution ; and 

 Equiseta have nothing that even looks like bark. This cortical 

 part was the firmest part of the wood ; and for this reason it could 

 continue to stand, after the interior had decayed away, — an event 

 hardly possible in the case of a bark-covered Conifer, however 

 decomposable the wood might be. Further, trunks of Conifers are 

 often found in the later geological formations, changed, throughout 

 the interior, completely to brown coal or lignite. — Dana's Manual of 

 Geologu, New Edition, p. 362. 



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