366  H.von Meyer on the Archzopteryx lithographica, 
forms, of which 22 species were figured. These investigations 
were published, in 1854, in the ‘ Mikrogeologie.”? According to 
this, St. Paul’s and Kerguelen’s Land have 23 forms in com- 
mon, namely, 14 Polygastria, 8 Phytolitharia, and 1 Anguillula. 
In Kerguelen’s Land there was one new genus, Disiphonia, of 
which the same species has recently occurred again on Mont 
Blane (1859, Monatsber. 779), and a second species in New 
Zealand (1861, Monatsber. 887). In St. Paul’s 5 peculiar ge- 
nera have been discovered ; and it may be worthy of notice that 
the Difflugia seminulum, registered by me from Monte Rosa and 
the Himalayas, has been brought from St. Paul’s in great abun- 
dance, together with 9 or 10 other species, some of which are 
new. 
According to the existing indications of its substance as far as 
they could be tested, the Island of St. Paul does not belong to 
the lands which were above the water before the last great geo- 
logical catastrophe ; it appears to be a volcanic elevation of a 
more modern, although prehistoric period. All the new genera. 
of microscopic independent beings belong to mineral waters and 
salt water, and not to the land. The Lithosemata are silicious 
particles of grasses, one of which has been formerly described 
and figured by me as Lithostylidium comtum of the trade-wind 
dust, and another as Lithustylidium ornatum. Traces of quite 
unknown and peculiar types of organic life, such as are exhibited 
by New Holland, New Zealand, and Madagascar, are wanting in 
St. Paul’s, even amongst microscopic organisins. 
From all the specimens examined, however, it appears that in 
St. Paul’s an abundant, earth-forming, invisibly powerful organic 
life is gomg on. Whoever is inclined to regard the invisible as 
unimportant will leave it unnoticed. For my part, 1 cannot but 
regard this newly opened isolated focus of powerfully active 
minute life with deep interest, and wish much that many tra- 
vellers may be incited to assist as much as lies in their power 
in the further elucidation of the great invisible rock- and earth- 
forming life of Nature. Perhaps the present communication 
may serve to bring to light certain points of view which may be 
capable of awakening interest In many ways. 
XL.—On the Archeopteryx lithographica, from the Lithographic 
Slate of Solenhofen. By Hermann von Meyer*, 
Featuers, or indeed any remains of birds, have hitherto been 
known in no rock older than the Tertiary period. Reports of 
greater antiquity have not been confirmed. Either the speci- 
* Translated from Palzontographia, vol. x. p. 53, by W. S. Dallas, F.L.S_ 
