62 TIIK MAMMALIA. 



of tlic entire stratum containing the bones v\as 

 300 purrs in length and sixty in breadth. The 

 liiantity of bones all mixed up together, which a 

 fortunate excavation at times brought to light, 

 presented a remarkable sight. When I remind 

 my readers of the fact that I brought back with 

 me 1,900 pieces of Hipparion, more than 700 

 pieces of Ehinoceros, 500 of Tragoceras, &c., it 

 will readily be understood that I was obliged to 

 leave behind me on my last journey the remains of 

 the commoner species of animals, to collect which 

 would only have delayed my examination of the 

 rarer pieces.' 



Gaudry was able in every direction to deter- 

 mine the position of the different species which 

 had lived together on the ancient ground of 

 Pikermi, midway between the Miocene and Pliocene 

 deposits. One main result of his comparisons was 

 tin- proof that almost all belonged to that sort of 

 intermediate form of which Cuvier had so greatly 

 frit the want. 'If,' says Gaudry, 'with all the 

 eminent paleontologists of to-day, we add all the 

 other known fossils and living species to those 

 found at Pikermi, we feel convinced that the gaps 

 would disappear in the same proportion as new dis- 

 coveries are made/ Thus lie found himself obliged 



