M. Lund on Fossil Mammifera discovered in Brazil, 235 



when the limpets are retained as food for their household, 

 '- the brew" is carefully laid aside for their swine, especially 

 if the animals appear at all sickly. 



From Donaghadee to the entrance of Strangford Lough, 

 limpets furnish to the humbler classes a valuable supply of 

 food, and their general use is attested by the vast quantity of 

 shells which may occasionally be seen about their dwellings. 

 In conclusion it may be remarked, that oysters [Ostrea edulis) 

 and cockles {Cardium edule) are found in such abundance in 

 some parts of the County Down shore that they cannot be 

 overlooked in any notice, however slight, of the marine tes- 

 tacea of that coast. 



Additional Note. — By Robert Ball, Esq. of Dublin, I am 

 informed that limpet shells are seen lying in prodigious heaps, 

 about the very old round houses, in the south island of Arran. 

 He does not think that limpets are consumed to the same ex- 

 tent by the present inhabitants of the island ; they are in com- 

 mon use among the very poorest people on the coasts of Water- 

 ford and Cork. 



XXVII. — Extract from a Letter o/M. Lund on the Fossil 

 Mammifera discovered by hhn in Brazil *. 



Lagoa Santa, Nov. 5, 1838. 



Ever since my arrival in Brazil, five years ago, I have continued to 

 devote my particular attention to the fossil vertebrate animals which 

 abound in the caverns. You will have some idea when I tell you 

 that I have already collected 75 distinct species of Mammifera alone, 

 belonging to 43 genera, that is to say, equaling in number of spe- 

 cies, and exceeding in genera, the animals which actually inhabit the 

 same country. The portion of Brazil which I have most carefully 

 investigated is comprised between the rivers of Rio das Velhas and 

 the Rio Paraopeba. This country forms an elevated plain 2000 feet 

 above the level of the sea, and is traversed in its centre by a chain 

 of mountains 300 — 700 feet in height, which is formed of secondary 

 limestone stratified in horizontal beds, and possessing all the charac- 

 ters of the Zechstein or Hohlen-Kalkstein of the Germans (cavern 

 limestone). It is entirely perforated with caverns and traversed in 

 all directions by fissures which are more or less filled with the red 

 earth identical with that forming the superficial stratum of the di- 



* From an extract given by Victor Audouin, to whom the letter was ad- 

 dressed, in the Comptes Rendus, No. 15, Avril 1839. 



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