399 



of some species, such as the Isatis, chacal du Cap, had been examined. 

 An astragalus was also found of some carnivorous animal, and which 

 was a third smaller than it should be, to accord with the jaw just men- 

 tioned. Remains of tortoises, lacertae, and of other animals, have also 

 been found in these quarries. 



It is a most important remark of M. Cuvier, that in a country so ex- 

 tensive as that in which the quarries exist, and which reach more than 

 twenty leagues from East to West, hardly any bones have been found 

 but of one family, the pachydermata ; and that the small number of 

 species not of this family should be there so extremely rare. 



Looking at the actual state of the globe, we find, as M. Cuvier ob- 

 serves, that the countries which constitute the two great continents, 

 taking, for example, the different countries of Europe and America, are 

 inhabited by all the families of quadrupeds, according to the latitude and 

 the nature of the soil, &c. 



But it is not so in the large islands ; and New Holland, in particular, 

 may, by its actual state, teach us what may have been the state of the 

 country which was inhabited by the fossil animals of these quarries. Five 

 sixths of the quadrupeds of New Holland belong to one family only, Pe- 

 dimanes, or marsupial quadrupeds. This extensive, but insulated region, 

 shows us therefore, in the proportion of the several families of quadru- 

 peds which inhabit it, something very similar to what existed formerly 

 in the countries which were inhabited by the animals of these quarries. 

 In New Holland, besides the marsupial animals, a wild dog, two species 

 of rats, and some bats only, have been found ; and in these quarries one 

 carnivorous animal only has been found, and eight pachydermata. 



The following recapitulation, by M. Cuvier, of the history of fossil 

 bones of pachydermata, found in alluvial soil, is, I conceive, suffi- 

 ciently interesting, to authorize my placing it before you without abridge- 

 ment. 



"The loose soil which fills the bottom of valleys, and which covers the 

 surface of large plains, has furnished us, in the order of Pachydermata, 



