200 



just as the sheep and cattle do at the present time. The Hyaenodon 

 of the Miocene had, probably, the same cave-hunting tastes as his 

 descendant, the living hyaena, and the marsupials of the mesozoic age 

 might be expected to be preserved in caves, like the fossil marsupials 

 of Australia. 



The chances of preservation of the remains when once cemented 

 into a fine breccia, or sealed down with a crystalline covering of sta- 

 lagmite, are very nearly the same as those under which the Pleistocene 

 animals have been handed down to us. The only reasonable explan- 

 ation of the non-discovery of such remains seems to be, that the an- 

 cient suites of caves and fissures containing them, and for the most 

 part near the then surface of the rock, have been completely swept away 

 by denudation, while the present caverns were either not then excavated or 

 inaccessible. 



Such an hypothesis will explain the fact that the non-ossiferous 

 caverns are older than the Pleistocene age, not merely in Europe but 

 in North and South America, Australia and New Zealand. The efl'ect 

 of denudation in rendering the geological record imperfect, may be 

 gathered from the estimate, which Mr. Prestwick has formed, of the 

 amount of rock removed from the crests of the Mendlps and the Ar- 

 dennes, which is in the one case a thickness " of two miles and more," 

 and in the other as much as " three or four miles." Under these con- 

 ditions we could not expect to find a series of bone caves reaching 

 far back into the remote, geological past, since the caves and their 

 contents would inevitably be destroyed." 



See also a quotation from the address by Mr. Prestwick before the 

 Geological Society, on p. 69 of Mr. Dawkins' work, in which the sur- 

 face denudation by the action of atmospheric water is discussed. 



REGULAR MEETING, MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1874. 



MEETING this evening at 7.30 o'clock. The PRESIDENT 

 in the chair. Records of preceding meeting read. 



The SECRETARY announced the following correspon- 

 dence : 



From N. Cleaveland, Westport, Conn., Dec. 2; S. G. Drake, Boston, Dec. 3; G. 

 L. Goodale, Cambridge, Nov. 25; S. G. Gould, Manchester, N. H., Nov. 19, Dec. 1, 

 Waldo Higginson, Boston, Nov. 27; E. H. Hitchcock, Amherst, Nov. 14; Charles 

 J. Hoadly, Hartford, Conn., Dec. 2; M. F. Jacob, South Hingham, Nov. 27, Dec. 

 2; Charles Phillips, Philadelphia, Nov. 26; Dec. 2; Willard P. Phillips, Dec. 5; R.^ 





