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MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



GEOLOGY. 

 Fossil Human Bones, 1.— M. de Christol, Secretary of the Natural History 

 Society of Montpellier, in a communication to M. Cordier, relating to two 

 newly-discovered caves containing' bones, in the department of the Garde, 

 observes, that after examining them with the greatest care, as well as the 

 specimens obtained by digging, he is convinced that they present the proof 

 of an incontestable mixture of human bones, with bones of mammifera 

 belonging to extinct species. The remains of animals mixed with those of 

 the human species, belong, according to the author, to the hyama, the 

 badger, the bear, the stag, the aurochs^ the ox, the horse, the wild boar, and 

 the rhinoceros. Some of the bones bear evident marks of the teeth of 

 x hyaenas. Excrement of these animals are also found in the cares. — Edin- 

 burgh New Philosophical Journal, October, 1829. 



Fossil Bones in Brabant.— Mr. Charles Morrens has just published a 

 pamphlet, entitled ReviieSystematiqve des Nourcllcs Decourertcs (VOssemens 

 Fossiles faitcs flans le Brabant Meridional, with lithographic plates. This 

 pamphlet contains facts and observations highly interesting to tne history of 

 geology. The researches and discoveries made by the author, prove that 

 there formerly existed in this country not only animals like those of the 

 equinoctial regions, but also other species such as still exist near the pole. 

 The fossil bones discovered in several places belong to animals of the fol- 

 lowing species : the badger, the elephant, hippopotamus, the whale, 

 sparrows, water-fowl, reptiles of various kinds, tortoises, lizards, toads, and 

 various fishes. The. quarries of St. Gilles, Milsbroek, Suventhem, Woluwe, 

 and in the environs of Brussels, have furnished the greater part of those 

 bones, which appear to be antediluvian. (Bull. ( 7 nir.) 



Diliwian Deposits.— Along the Erie canal, from Little Fall, a diluvian 

 basin extends for 160 miles, having, it should appear, been filled with 

 three preceding deposits ; the last having been dismantled by torrents 

 coming from Little Fall, and running towards the west, and the valleys 

 thence formed have been filled with gravel, sand, clay, trees, fresh-water 

 shells, &c. This diluvium is about 108 feet in thickness. The wood, which 

 is Canadian pine, is buried at a great depth. The chief shells are Helices, 

 Uniones, and Limneae. All the plains, elevated and crowned with virgin 

 forests, exhibit, under the vegetable stratum, a bed of fine earth. The 

 antediluvian animal remains are scanty, and consist of Paehydermata. 

 (Silimaii's Journal, vol. xii. p. 117.) 



Footsteps before the Flood. — Distinct impression of the feet of four different 

 species of animals, have been discovered by Mr. Grierson, in a red sandstone 

 quarry, about two miles to the north of the town of Lochmaben, in the 

 county of Dumfries. Professor Buckland, upon receiving casts thereof, and 

 a fragment of the sandstone, expressed his opinion, that the rock, while in 

 a soft state, had been traversed by living quadrupeds. "The great number 

 of impressions in uninterrupted continuity, the regular alternations of the 

 right and left footsteps, their equi-distaiicc from each other, the outward 

 direction of the toes, the grazing of the foot along the surface before it was 

 firmly planted, the deeper impression made by "the toe than by the heel, 

 and, in one instance, the sharp and well defined marks of the three claws of 

 the animal's foot, are— circumstances which immediately arrest the attention 

 of the observer, and force him to acknowledge that they admit of only one 

 explanation. The impressions of one of these tracts, Dr. Buckland thinks, 

 has In en produced by the feet of a tortoise or a crocodile. One of the 

 d< ' pest and most distinct impressions, was found at the base of the stratum, 

 in the lower part of the quarry, perhaps sixty or seventy feet beneath tli> 

 -urfate of the earth.'" 



